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College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

thetowner.com

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Re: College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

#11

Post by etrautmann »

futun wrote: post #5

What 90% of college graduates fail to consider is that many of those townies will one day be far richer than they are. The idea of students 'looking down' at (for example) the local plumber is often ridiculous, considering a plumbers' hourly rate often exceeds that of many lawyers. As we all know, there is a frightening, decreasing correlation between college education and financial success. At the same time there ar…

That's not really the point he was making in this article, which was more about people that make their homes in multiple places. It was using the term townie differently from the standard definition.

Re: College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

#12

Post by iamacynic »

panglott wrote: post #7
pkd wrote: post #4

Is this more common in the US? Because in my country it seems to be the absolute opposite. The permanent residents (or the locals as we call them) are extremely apathetic towards the students. Whereas the students (me included) absolutely fell in love with the place and find it hard to leave. The locals also take advantage of the relative wealthiness of the students (higher education is not cheap) and you will find t…

There are different kinds of "college towns" in the US. Boston is a big college town because it has several of the nation's most important/prestigious institutions of higher education—but it's also a distinctive and vibrant city in its own right, with a unique history, culture, built environment. New York is similar. But many of the state universities and land grant universities, especially in the West, put the state…

one thing the University of California system got right is that they put their campuses in large metropolitan areas, oftentimes in some of the most expensive real estate around. there really is no concept of 'townie' vs 'student' from what i saw.

Re: College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

#13

Post by epberry »

Well hey, I live here too! Actually I've lived here my whole life, growing up in West Lafayette and attending Purdue, and then working here as a software engineer after graduation. The author is spot on about many of the drawbacks but there are quite a few nice things that are hard to appreciate unless you've actually experienced them.

One I think is quality of living for the price. I'm pretty sure that by several metrics my quality of life is much better than that of many friends living in NYC or SF. I make about 1/3 of their salary on average but I have a relatively large apartment, walk 8 minutes to work every day, see my parents about once a week (starting to appreciate this more and more as I get older), have a steady supply of graduate student friends and my own colleagues who I went to school with to converse and hang out with, and a Purdue community to engage with and learn from.

Drawbacks for me are a intense feelings of FOMO as I read about the innovation happening in real tech hubs, a lack of a larger network of startups and strong engineering companies, no big city to experience, and seeing my parents once a week ;).

I don't want to stay in West Lafayette forever (although I would strongly consider moving back here to raise a family) and maybe I'm just rationalizing my situation, but the SF-or-bust feelings I used to have in college have subsided quite a bit.

Re: College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

#14

Post by closeparen »

>This attitude manifested itself most corporally in the behavior of the local college students in traffic; they would wander in and out of the street without looking, exuding a kind of studied indifference, sending a clear message to the local people that the streets were for them, risks of blunt force trauma notwithstanding

It's one of my favorite things about college campuses that pedestrians own the streets and cars wait their turn.

You could always tell when it was parents weekend by the huge size of cars on the streets and their unusual aggressiveness at crosswalks. Suburban/exurban parents out of their element. It was always satisfying to see them ticketed. This is an urban college campus. That shit doesn't fly here.

It's not really about student vs. townie, it's just that these few blocks, unlike almost anywhere else in the country, are for walking.

Re: College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

#15

Post by panglott »

iamacynic wrote: post #12
panglott wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are different kinds of "college towns" in the US. Boston is a big college town because it has several of the nation's most important/prestigious institutions of higher education—but it's also a distinctive and vibrant city in its own right, with a unique history, culture, built environment. New York is similar. But many of the state universities and land grant universities, especially in the West, put the state…

one thing the University of California system got right is that they put their campuses in large metropolitan areas, oftentimes in some of the most expensive real estate around. there really is no concept of 'townie' vs 'student' from what i saw.

In Oklahoma specifically, central Oklahoma was largely settled in the land rush of 1889, and within a year or two OKC, Norman, and the University of Oklahoma were all founded. Oklahoma didn't even become a state until 1907. Norman was one of the largest cities at the time; it would not have been clear at all which cities would eventually become large metro areas a century later.

Re: College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

#16

Post by kratak »

panglott wrote: post #7
pkd wrote: post #4

Is this more common in the US? Because in my country it seems to be the absolute opposite. The permanent residents (or the locals as we call them) are extremely apathetic towards the students. Whereas the students (me included) absolutely fell in love with the place and find it hard to leave. The locals also take advantage of the relative wealthiness of the students (higher education is not cheap) and you will find t…

There are different kinds of "college towns" in the US. Boston is a big college town because it has several of the nation's most important/prestigious institutions of higher education—but it's also a distinctive and vibrant city in its own right, with a unique history, culture, built environment. New York is similar. But many of the state universities and land grant universities, especially in the West, put the state…

I wouldn't consider Boston a "college town", and I doubt it qualifies according to this article.* A "college town" usually means a town where the college dominates the local economy, and the students make up a large portion (or even a majority) of the total population during the school year.

I used to go to Virginia Tech; at the time, there were roughly 34k people in the town during the year, 26k of those students. The "townies" were only about 8k (and of course, this included the staff and faculty that lived within town limits, which was a significant portion of the townies). So when it was summertime, the town was seemingly deserted (and it was a wonderful time too!).

* As an example, Tempe, Arizona is home to ASU, one of the top 10 universities in the US by enrollment. Look at the map in the article: there's no dot for the Phoenix metro area. Hence, Tempe (and the rest of Phoenix) is not a "college town", because even with over 50k students, the school doesn't dominate the local economy.

Re: College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

#17

Post by futun »

etrautmann wrote: post #11
futun wrote: post #5

What 90% of college graduates fail to consider is that many of those townies will one day be far richer than they are. The idea of students 'looking down' at (for example) the local plumber is often ridiculous, considering a plumbers' hourly rate often exceeds that of many lawyers. As we all know, there is a frightening, decreasing correlation between college education and financial success. At the same time there ar…

That's not really the point he was making in this article, which was more about people that make their homes in multiple places. It was using the term townie differently from the standard definition.

Just in case this isn't 100% clear to anyone: "Townie" is derogatory.

Re: College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

#18

Post by pkd »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #8
pkd wrote: post #4

Is this more common in the US? Because in my country it seems to be the absolute opposite. The permanent residents (or the locals as we call them) are extremely apathetic towards the students. Whereas the students (me included) absolutely fell in love with the place and find it hard to leave. The locals also take advantage of the relative wealthiness of the students (higher education is not cheap) and you will find t…

Unless vendors are discriminating against customers, I don't understand which rules are being skirted in your examples. Higher demand should cause higher prices (or more vendors, but that requires prices to reach a certain amount first).

Skirting rules means exactly that - skirting rules. You are not supposed to sell things at a price higher than what is marked as the MRP - yet that is the norm with soft drinks of any kind. Taxis have a meter attached to them and they have to use it to calculate fares but the drivers here don't even bother to switch the meters on. The police is also apathetic.

This isn't capitalism I am talking about.

Re: College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By?

#19

Post by panglott »

kratak wrote: post #16
panglott wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are different kinds of "college towns" in the US. Boston is a big college town because it has several of the nation's most important/prestigious institutions of higher education—but it's also a distinctive and vibrant city in its own right, with a unique history, culture, built environment. New York is similar. But many of the state universities and land grant universities, especially in the West, put the state…

I wouldn't consider Boston a "college town", and I doubt it qualifies according to this article.* A "college town" usually means a town where the college dominates the local economy, and the students make up a large portion (or even a majority) of the total population during the school year. I used to go to Virginia Tech; at the time, there were roughly 34k people in the town during the year, 26k of those students. T…

"Ian Faith: The Boston gig has been cancelled...

David St. Hubbins: What?

Ian Faith: Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town."

Boston and New York at least have large populations of college students, but certainly they're not iconic of what Americans consider a "college town".

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