On the East Coast, there are maybe two months out of the year when the weather doesn't strongly disincentivize going outside. And those months aren't in contiguous blocks - there's usually a week in January where it's nice out, and then it's crap until one afternoon in February and a randomly selected third of the days in March, and so on. I bet that has something to do with it - especially since you need cities for this stuff, and cities have to care about the weather more than suburbs, since people aren't just driving everywhere.
And, having lived in both regions, the only difference between the Northeast and the South is that the Northeast rolls fewer of these days (it still gets way too hot in the summer in Massachusetts) - but the Northeast is where most of the cities are, because a few hundred years ago, colder overall weather meant 1) you couldn't develop a primarily agricultural economy the way the cotton and tobacco belt did, but 2) you had fewer parasites and disease carriers to worry about. (It's a little harder to build major economic centers when half your population has hookworm, malaria, or both, which was true of the South until the mid-20th century.)
Lee Kuan Yew called the air conditioner the most important invention of the 20th century.
Having lived in Bethesda for a few years, I am convinced that a non-negligible fraction of our governmental dysfunction comes from the collision of formal work attire and 100% humidity swamp. Not even joking.
I developed a mildly negative opinion of Singapore and HK when I saw their brightest minds enter the finance industry and wear three piece suits in sweltering weather every single day of the year.
Never again have I seen so many successful people so determined to be uncomfortable for a majority of their workday.
And, having lived in both regions, the only difference between the Northeast and the South is that the Northeast rolls fewer of these days (it still gets way too hot in the summer in Massachusetts) - but the Northeast is where most of the cities are, because a few hundred years ago, colder overall weather meant 1) you couldn't develop a primarily agricultural economy the way the cotton and tobacco belt did, but 2) you had fewer parasites and disease carriers to worry about. (It's a little harder to build major economic centers when half your population has hookworm, malaria, or both, which was true of the South until the mid-20th century.)
Lee Kuan Yew called the air conditioner the most important invention of the 20th century.