Reaching you through VDSL from a runny village next to the Alps in Provence, France.
Country side is a mess in term of professional networking and social activities.
I regret it deeply so far
Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
51–60 of 64 posts
Re: Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
#52I live in a village of about ~1300 in West Sweden (couple hours outside of Gothenburg), surrounded by lakes and forests.
There are two art/craft/design schools in town, one of which has been here for nearly a century, resulting in a regular influx of young people with creativity and energy (of which a handful stay in the area) as well as a populace that’s become accustomed to new ideas and new ways of doing things through generations.
I’m a member of a non-profit association (consisting primarily of former students who stayed) that operates a co-working space, which is where I work most days. Working alongside primarily non-tech folks is wonderful—no need to talk tech during lunch or breaks.
It’s not all roses. It’s a poor region with declining population (and therefore worsening quality of municipal services). I think remote work could play an important role in revitalizing the area, but I’m naturally a bit biased about that.
Re: Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
#53I moved off-grid from SF bay warehouse living love it. Started a small wireless company to feed me and those around me better internet. Connected with zayo direct to San Jose.
Re: Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
#54Town shy of 30K residents. I can go anywhere by foot, if I take the car it's because I have to leave the city or go to the supermarket. 10 minutes from my home I can find an amazing network of trails to ride with my MTB or to hike by foot. I would never live in a city. We recently received FTTH which is amazing, coming from a less than ideal 10Mbit/1Mbit DSL.
Re: Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
#55Moved to NH not long ago from the bay. It's more of a small town vibe here but lots of rural areas, farm stands, with most action off a main street or highway. I'm contemplating chickens and people sell them freely. If I ever want to change careers I could definitely find someone to apprentice with. I'm not living on a farm rural but there's plenty and life is good.
Re: Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> that's where the majority of industry happens to be. The majority of certain kinds of industry. Finance, software, fashion, marketing, sure. I grew up surrounded by people working at chemical plants, rotating shifts at off-site drilling platforms, dock workers, etc. The other side of town, ranchers. Another side of town, sugar processing and sugar farms. Other than the dock workers and offside drillers (on their of…
I think you might be reading stricter definitions into some words than I intended. If Everett, WA; Renton, WA; and North Charleston, SC, are not urbanized areas, what are they? If a factory with a ZIP code in San Antonio, TX, isn't in a city, where is it? Going closer to home for me: is Red Bud, IL, not a city? Hecker? Freeburg? Mascoutah? Belleville? That city job I wrote about was not in St. Louis.
I can see our miscommunication here. I feel we need more resolution between the binary of urban and rural.
Where I grew up we'd have the neighbors cows wander into our yard and eat our plants when they got out. The Census defined it as urban.
So when I see Renton, WA and you ask if it's "urban", well yeah I'd agree it's urban by the census and limited binary choices. Is it "urban" like San Francisco or Manhattan or even Seattle? Not even close, it's far from that still. It's almost all single family detached homes.
Re: Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you might be reading stricter definitions into some words than I intended. If Everett, WA; Renton, WA; and North Charleston, SC, are not urbanized areas, what are they? If a factory with a ZIP code in San Antonio, TX, isn't in a city, where is it? Going closer to home for me: is Red Bud, IL, not a city? Hecker? Freeburg? Mascoutah? Belleville? That city job I wrote about was not in St. Louis.
I can see our miscommunication here. I feel we need more resolution between the binary of urban and rural. Where I grew up we'd have the neighbors cows wander into our yard and eat our plants when they got out. The Census defined it as urban. So when I see Renton, WA and you ask if it's "urban", well yeah I'd agree it's urban by the census and limited binary choices. Is it "urban" like San Francisco or Manhattan or e…
I don't disagree that more resolution is needed, but we do need to start somewhere when it comes to what truly is rural.
For me, the occasional farm interspersed between single-family homes (or the occasional subdivision of single-family homes interspersed between farms, same deal), strip malls, and Boeing Field (or, in my case, Scott AFB) isn't it. That's merely the outskirts of town.
Alternatively, if you have any chance at all of being reached by anything other than a 50 kW AM radio station from a major city like KMOX, you're probably some semblance of urban.
Similarly, if you can have mail delivered to your street address and not merely a shared delivery point, you're probably some semblance of urban.
Densely urban? No, absolutely not.
Re: Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
#58Here’s another upvote for rural life:
I live on an island in WA state, USA. I’ve got a spectacular view of Admiralty Inlet & the Olympic Mountains, and a workshop big enough for my CNC machine and other equipment. I’m using the workshop on weekends to make weird Arduino-powered clocks and LED art, which I sell on Etsy for beer money.
Re: Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
#59We’re busy keeping the well pumps running, ordering propane when the generator kicks in after power lines fail, cleaning up tree limbs (and trees) that fell in the winter storms. Other than that, it’s a dilemma. I have a spectacular view, living on a ridge, but except for the gas station/quicky mart, everything “a.k.a. Downtown” is 12 miles away and all the stores not named hardware stores are 50 miles away. So are c…
Where is this? Just ballpark it.
Near a famous national park. ;-)
Re: Ask HN: How many people on Hacker News live in rural areas?
#60One large aspect common among rural folks is knowing when to keep your head down and not draw attention to yourself against the hive mind. The rurals are here but you have to be quiet to notice them. (The majority of the rurals are considered urban by the US census, btw.)
> (The majority of the rurals are considered urban by the US census, btw.) I wonder if there's some administrative reason the census considers huge cities and little villages both 'urban'?
It has to do with what the Census report is used for. Most people consider a small village 30 miles from the big town to be rural, but it has many services and supplies that an actual rural property won't.
Also remember when the Census was begun, the divide was much more stark between rural and urban as you couldn't travel quickly.