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Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

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Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#471

Post by pontifier »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #248
interdrift wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly looking into his issues, seems like he's getting dealt some bad cards after investing into a city that is letting him down.

Honestly, it looks like he isn't going about trying to work with the city very well. He also has videos on there of him lecturing public officials about how slow they are. At the same time, he is trying to build a fusion generator, a science museum, an industrial space, and a few internet businesses that seem to need a secure facility. The planning commission probably has no idea what to do with him, and it doesn't s…

How can I run a serious business if I can't use the warehouse I bought?

Why can't I use it? Because the city won't let me.

I'm not the only one. This guy, Garland Trice, had his building demolished by the city because he failed to repair it. Why did he fail to repair it? Because the city would not give him permits.

It's SO RIDICULOUS here!

They've closed down the movie theater because they wanted to bring in their own theater. They drove a crypto mining facility away. They ran a tire recycler out of town...

If I hired 50 people, what would they do with no place to work?

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#472

Post by iluvcommunism »

hunterb123 wrote: post #413
UncleMeat wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not talking about him protecting his property. I'm talking about the bensforbars thing.

I see, but I don't find a problem with that either though. Seems no different than crime stoppers, it's usually just a reward for information leading to an arrest, it's not an actual bounty. It's not excluding that, but he's most likely hoping someone who knows the person who stole it will rat for the money. And I think you'll have to provide examples of the "terrible outcomes caused by private vigilanteism".

This is why I stopped commenting here. HN commenters have schizophrenia it seems like.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#473

Post by codemonkey-zeta »

locallost wrote: post #168
pontifier wrote: post #39

My method sure hasn't worked very well... or has it? I was looking for cheap warehouse space to start a business in, and did a nation-wide search for the largest, cheapest building in the entire continental US. I found one that seemed too good to be true. a 220,000 sqft metal warehouse and office complex on 17 acres. I thought the price was a typo at $375k.The agent assured me that the price was correct, and I flew o…

Pivot to a new twist on escape rooms. Instead of escaping from the warehouse, you have to defend it for one night. A lot of fun, except it's all real.

You just described the life of a a security guard.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#474

Post by davidw »

novia wrote: post #155
rswerve wrote: post #4

College towns. Pick some states, and go visit towns with colleges in them. They'll have restaurants and groceries, and those faculty kids have to go to school somewhere. Internet should be passable, too. They won't be the cheapest small town option, but houses should come in well below a million bucks. The one town you mention, Lancaster, PA, is a model of the type.

please don't price students out of college towns...

College towns could - crazy thought - build more housing for everyone who wants to live there. We even have the technology to stack dwelling units vertically to take advantage of scarce land!

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#475

Post by ogou »

avisser wrote: post #445
ogou wrote: post #392

I spent a month driving around the country last year. Be warned that entire counties have been decimated by meth and fentanyl. Low income doesn't always translate to violent crime and theft, but meth absolutely does. When looking at crime maps, always filter by overdose response and not posession arrests. https://money.cnn.com/interactive/news/meth-lab-map/ Absolutely stay away from Tulsa, OK. Greenville, SC is very…

I've read in multiple places how most meth in the USA today is Mexican cartel meth. The bans on pseudoephedrine have succeeded in stopping home-brew meth. So not sure how valid that map is anymore.

Based on my "anecdata" of driving through many of those areas, I would say the problem is much worse than the map shows. Also, it is one of the few maps that showed meth activity by county, in a national context. Recent DEA and CDC reports are all PDFs filled with statistics and not mapped out as well. But, the numbers are only climbing and these areas are still centers of the consumption.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#476

Post by herbst »

magneticnorth wrote: post #397
herbst wrote: post #178

I don't know about the culture for this in the US but I live far from any actual shop in the swiss Alps and there are many fridges around that sell all the necessaries for everyday life (milk, cheese, ..). Everything else I order from a farmer shop/supermarket online. There are restaurants and bars sure, I would ask myself if you actually need 'shopping' Personally I highly prefer to buy only HQ products which I can…

I think this is culturally very different in the US, and now I'm curious about your non-urban swiss life. Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "there are many fridges around that sell..."? I'm having a hard time imagining what you mean.

Literally fridges next to a farming house with a QR code to pay (or cash) that sell some local cheese, milk and usually also some stuff related to the fridge owner. Also cold drinks and ice cream. Most my neighbors are small farmers and there are plenty of wandering tourists around so it makes sense I guess.

From what I know similar concepts are getting more usual in surrounding countries as well. It's honestly my favourite way to shop, I just take my pony mofa and drive to 2-3 fridges.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#477

Post by KennyBlanken »

closeparen wrote: post #82
pontifier wrote: post #39

My method sure hasn't worked very well... or has it? I was looking for cheap warehouse space to start a business in, and did a nation-wide search for the largest, cheapest building in the entire continental US. I found one that seemed too good to be true. a 220,000 sqft metal warehouse and office complex on 17 acres. I thought the price was a typo at $375k.The agent assured me that the price was correct, and I flew o…

I would expect big money coming into a small town to face serious static from local authorities unless and until you're cozied up to its political scene.

The town has asked him for plans on how he will be using the building so they can apply the applicable building code. He's refused, citing the cost ($10k by his estimate) but he's since gone and bought 75 properties in town.

If you're going to refurb a giant warehouse to be a fireworks storage facility, that's different from building a daycare, which is different from "run an internet company and makerspace", etc.

Given his history includes free-energy crap (his own fusion reactor design) and running for Mayor of Provo, UT on a platform of disincorporating the city, I would guess the problem is that this guy is a libertarian and thus thinks rules don't apply to him.

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#478

Post by ryanmercer »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #463
pclmulqdq wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, it looks like he isn't going about trying to work with the city very well. He also has videos on there of him lecturing public officials about how slow they are. At the same time, he is trying to build a fusion generator, a science museum, an industrial space, and a few internet businesses that seem to need a secure facility. The planning commission probably has no idea what to do with him, and it doesn't s…

The "benforbars" site has all the hallmarks of a free-energy nutjob complete with comic sans font and MSpaint images. Between that and the tweet whining about how hard email is to set up (!) this dude isn't qualified to run a Subway franchise, certainly not multiple internet companies.

I went through 6 months of his tweets and, yeah, he either doesn't have a grip on reality, has some sort of mental health issue, or is just constantly trying to run some angle.

- Yup, the free energy fonts and conspiratorial claims about video of his fusion reactor being suppressed

- It looks like he bought a bunch of people's property for pennies on the dollar, then raised funds from those same people to return their goods to them, then had them trucked across the country in shipping containers to be dropped at this derelict 'warehouse'.

- He claims to be solo creating a viable fusion reactor, which appears to be one of the umpteen intended uses of this warehouse

- Wonders why the town council isn't trying to help him, when in one of his own tweets admits that he didn't even bother to attend the meeting that was going to hear his issue.

- Thinks snipers are stealing from him.

- Apparently held a man at gunpoint

- Alleges, openly on the internet, that he's storing all sorts of valuable equipment and music media at this warehouse while admitting he isn't even in the state a good chunk of the time

- Tried to run for mayor of Provo, UT (population 117k) so he could "disincorporate the city"

- the whole benforbars thing

- Complaining about the inability to install minecraft on anything other than a linux machine (?)

- Various email/server complaints

Yeahhhh

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#479

Post by letouj »

scythe wrote: post #379
sharno wrote: post #362

I have a feeling that many towns in Rhode Island might fit your criteria here. The state's culture is generally about things being close to each other as any driving more than 30 min will get you out of the state anyway. Having BOS airport an hour drive away is a blessing too. It's cold in winter though. But I'd say you kinda get used to it.

But beware the parking at BOS is upwards of $34/day! Usually it's cheaper to fly out of PVD even if the tickets are a little more expensive, in my experience.

You can also get from Providence to South Station in Boston via MBTA commuter rail or Amtrak (and from there, continue to Logan on the Silver Line).

Re: Ask HN: How to find a small town to relocate for remote work?

#480

Post by [deleted] »

braingenious wrote: post #140
pontifier wrote: post #39

My method sure hasn't worked very well... or has it? I was looking for cheap warehouse space to start a business in, and did a nation-wide search for the largest, cheapest building in the entire continental US. I found one that seemed too good to be true. a 220,000 sqft metal warehouse and office complex on 17 acres. I thought the price was a typo at $375k.The agent assured me that the price was correct, and I flew o…

Do you share a username between HN and Twitter? Because somebody with your username on Twitter has been publicly talking about holding somebody at gunpoint in Pine Bluff, Arkansas earlier today(1), and has in the past advertised (2) a website with the tagline of “Matching vigilantes with victims for justice and profit “ (3) 1. https://twitter.com/pontifier/status/1559001472746098693?s=2... 2. https://twitter.com/oriw…

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