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Find a new city

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Re: Find a new city

#111

Post by bbcbasic »

nextos wrote: post #20
mkolodny wrote: post #17

I love the sentiment. Silicon Valley and NYC became what they are because of people hacking on things in garages / shitty apartments. Now those shitty apartments cost $2,000/month. The equivalent of those places, where things like Apple started, isn't Silicon Valley and NYC. It's places like Detroit. Or wherever people doing cool things decide to move and congregate. Then again, it is still possible to live cheaply i…

I can't agree more. But it's hard. I feel Silicon Valley and NYC became what they are because of cheap real estate and talent pool. I find it hard to find places with a lot of talent but undervalued real estate these days. Maybe all low hanging fruit is gone. In Europe, London, Oxbridge, Stockholm are somewhat similar. Insane prices. Berlin and to a certain extent Copenhagen are cheaper. Some smaller locations like C…

Kiev?

Re: Find a new city

#112

Post by forgotuser »

bufordsharkley wrote: post #82
forgotuser wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Community Land Trusts are a great example of the sort of thing people should be looking into as an alternative to the current model. Don't see people talking about them much. The basic idea is that a nonprofit purchases the land in a community and holds it in perpetuity. It rents the land long-term to residents (and for the most part, they're required to be residents), instead of selling it. It's still possib…

I've wanted to look more into CLTs, but haven't yet-- What's stopping CLTs from existing today? Is it merely the novelty and relative complication of the CLT? Or is there policy that makes them impractical?

They do exist! There are, I believe, currently a few hundred in the US. They're just spreading very, very slowly. I imagine the main issue is a combination of lack of public awareness + the difficulty of acquiring land + lack of public policy to accommodate the weird structure.

Re: Find a new city

#113

Post by dragonwriter »

smt88 wrote: post #68
rpazyaquian wrote: post #34

This jumped out at me: > “I’m trans, so I need to live somewhere progressive so I feel safe day-to-day and don’t feel like I’m going to get beat up for using the wrong restroom.” This is a pretty damn good reason to live somewhere like Seattle or Boston, and a pretty damn good reason not to live somewhere like (edit:) North Carolina or Tennessee or Georgia. The reality is that many of us are limited by not wanting to…

You shouldn't make blanket statements about entire states you don't live in. Cities are liberal in every state.

> Cities are liberal in every state.

Cities are probably relatively liberal -- or at least, cosmopolitan -- in most parts of the country compared to non-urban areas nearby, but that doesn't mean that New York City, Atlanta, Kansas City (either of them), and San Francisco are all equally so. It doesn't even mean that cities in some regions aren't far more conservative and/or intolerant than non-urban areas in other regions.

Re: Find a new city

#114

Post by imsofuture »

dionidium wrote: post #39
rpazyaquian wrote: post #34

This jumped out at me: > “I’m trans, so I need to live somewhere progressive so I feel safe day-to-day and don’t feel like I’m going to get beat up for using the wrong restroom.” This is a pretty damn good reason to live somewhere like Seattle or Boston, and a pretty damn good reason not to live somewhere like (edit:) North Carolina or Tennessee or Georgia. The reality is that many of us are limited by not wanting to…

It jumped out at me, too, but as a wild exaggeration that could only be made by somebody unfamiliar with a place like Kansas City. I live in St. Louis where there is a thriving gay community. It's a red state, but urban centers are reliably blue. I know people have this idea that our schools all teach creationism and gays aren't welcome, but it's simply not true.

Yep, exactly. Same with the mountain west.

That's fine with me though, I like the peace and quiet that I'm afforded -- and can do without hysterical urbanites as intolerant as the imagined middle america they fear.

Re: Find a new city

#115

Post by vertex-four »

refurb wrote: post #108
initram wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's not only about being safe. I don't have to worry too much about that sort of thing because I blend in most places in my country. But I've lived where people had different values than me and it just gets exhausting. Constantly being bombarded with messages you fundamentally disagree with 24/7. Billboards; local TV; newpapers/web sites; overhearing conversations of the people around you; having odd things s…

But I've lived where people had different values than me and it just gets exhausting. Really? I thought diversity was a good thing? I know I wouldn't want to live somewhere where everyone thought the same thing I did. Sounds boring.

So here's the thing - diversity of ideas is good, diversity of values is what people struggle with. As long as two people agree on where they're trying to go, they can disagree on the details of how to get there and still be perfectly happy - when either of them gets closer, both do.

But, say you're a gun nut and the people surrounding you are decidedly anti-gun-ownership - there's no shared goal, and no obvious resolution to your differences. If the people surrounding you make progress towards their goal, it goes against yours. There's nothing to do but fight. And fighting is exhausting.

Re: Find a new city

#116

Post by rayiner »

rpazyaquian wrote: post #34

This jumped out at me: > “I’m trans, so I need to live somewhere progressive so I feel safe day-to-day and don’t feel like I’m going to get beat up for using the wrong restroom.” This is a pretty damn good reason to live somewhere like Seattle or Boston, and a pretty damn good reason not to live somewhere like (edit:) North Carolina or Tennessee or Georgia. The reality is that many of us are limited by not wanting to…

If I were gay or trans, I'd actually be more worried about Boston than Atlanta. Boston is pretty provincial. And there is a very large and public LGBT population in Atlanta.

Re: Find a new city

#117

Post by logfromblammo »

initram wrote: post #37
rpazyaquian wrote: post #34

This jumped out at me: > “I’m trans, so I need to live somewhere progressive so I feel safe day-to-day and don’t feel like I’m going to get beat up for using the wrong restroom.” This is a pretty damn good reason to live somewhere like Seattle or Boston, and a pretty damn good reason not to live somewhere like (edit:) North Carolina or Tennessee or Georgia. The reality is that many of us are limited by not wanting to…

For me it's not only about being safe. I don't have to worry too much about that sort of thing because I blend in most places in my country. But I've lived where people had different values than me and it just gets exhausting. Constantly being bombarded with messages you fundamentally disagree with 24/7. Billboards; local TV; newpapers/web sites; overhearing conversations of the people around you; having odd things s…

It's bad enough when people say "buggy" instead of "cart" or "coke" or "soda" instead of "pop".

I can only imagine how much faster my social stamina would be depleted if everyone around me were constantly arguing about whether it would be better if I didn't exist at all, or if I just went far away, never to return.

Re: Find a new city

#118

Post by Mz »

He has a decent point. He is, perhaps, not saying it very well. It generally doesn't work to use imperatives, like "Find a new city." His point might go over better if it were framed more like 'Artistic youth need a new option."

I totally get where he is coming from when he says you just need to move to someplace cheap. I am a big fan of doing what is within my means, regardless of whatever is going on in the world. But you have to be careful with how you frame such thoughts. Framing in a way that can be read as "It is your fault your life sucks" instead of "It sucks that places like New York and San Francisco aren't what they were a few decades ago. But maybe the piece within your hands is picking a new place to live that meets your needs better."

Re: Find a new city

#119

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

SandersAK wrote: post #3

Many New York artists talk about NYC as if it was cheap but it is simply not true. There is no other place in the US that concentrates so many different types of people. Patti Smith, David Byrne etc all benefitted from there being billionaires, millionaires, celebrities, thespians, high profile doctors, lawyers, and more than a century of civic dedication to arts and culture. There is a shared communal love and suppo…

you want that in NY now you move to crown heights. And there will be some myopic look back in 25 years saying the same shit about that place too

I smiled when I read this because I remember having a gay co-worker describing his neighborhood as "I live in controversy-ridden Crown Heights" about 27 years ago.

Holy crap, I'm old!

Re: Find a new city

#120

Post by chadgeidel »

api wrote: post #65
startupdiscuss wrote: post #10

This view ignores the benefits of the large cities. The rents are high for a reason. You want to go there. And not just for the cultural opportunities. Most people want good jobs. You can't have everyone starting startups, or working remotely. To put it another way, almost everything important and interesting you do will require other people.

The Internet was supposed to help by breaking down information barriers but the effect seems to have been extremely minimal. I can now learn almost anything instantly in Nowhere, West Virginia but that doesn't seem to matter. It shows two things I think: (1) The Internet has yet to replicate anything close to the "bandwidth" of in-person interaction. (2) Capital for virtually any endeavor is geographically concentrat…

To add on to your #1 - There's no desire/impetus to bridge that particular gap. It's very easy to just tell prospective employees to show up. I wonder how long rent will have to increase before prospective employees stop showing up.
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