Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come • Hacker News Board

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#101

Post by GuiA » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 7:35 PM UTC

ctennis1 wrote: post #91

psadauskas wrote: post #47

I did not ever expect to see my old hometown of 30k people on HN. Growing up there in the 80s and 90s, it was a nice enough place, but basically 0 tech jobs outside of doing basic IT or support. My parents still live there (my dad an EE at the mentioned Cummins), but the fortunes of the town are tied to Cummins' stock price. They've done a lot to revitalize the downtown in the last decade, it used to be pretty run do…

I think you'd be surprised. I moved to Columbus in the early 2000s after college from another Indiana city. Perhaps I have blinders on, but I don't ever recall any casual racism or homophobia. If anything I'd say it's a more progressive city than many other small conservative midwestern towns. There is considerable diversity in the city, given that many of the engineers who live here have come from other countries. T…

Do you identify as LGBT or non white? No dig against you personally, but if so you are most likely not in a good position to judge the state of racism/homophobia/etc.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#102

Post by JBlue42 » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 7:35 PM UTC

sscarduzio wrote: post #77

aaron-lebo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that the same Mexico with 100k+ killed in the drug war since 2005? Maybe it's an unreasonable fear, but conducting business and sticking out as a foreigner seem like a risk.

I’m saying to conduct a 100% online us/eu based business. You get 6 months visa for Mexico anyway. Get yourself an American style condo in Cancún and that’s it. Mexico is not all uniformly violent, unlike US.

The violence seems avoidable but is bad Internet? I've heard its not so great down there.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#103

Post by Mz » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 7:40 PM UTC

Apocryphon wrote: post #61

I'm wondering where's the equivalent for California. Sacramento is too significant and big a city to be comparable. I'm thinking Bakersfield and Elk Grove. http://kedc.com/kern-county-fast-becoming-a-mecca-for-millen... https://www.marketwatch.com/story/4-cities-where-millennials...

I don't think there really is an equivalent in California. I searched for a small town with affordable housing and some minimal level of infrastructure. I found what I needed in another state.

I work remotely, so my income is portable. I could potentially go anywhere in the US. I couldn't find anything in California that met my needs.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#104

Post by jasomill » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 7:59 PM UTC

Nelkins wrote: post #21

I think about this a lot, mostly about Rochester, NY (where I went to college). It has world-class universities (and a renowned music conservatory[1]!), great history, festivals, relatively low unemployment[2] and the housing is dirt, dirt cheap[3]. The thing is, right now I make a pretty great salary in NYC and I don't know that anything in Rochester could come close, even taking into account cost of living. Even if…

There are interesting parallels between Columbus and Rochester, and, in particular, the roles played by J. Irwin Miller and George Eastman, respectively, in their values and cultural development.

As an aside, both men built interesting residences that are open to the public, and well worth visiting, especially by anyone with even a passing interest in design[1] or photography[2], respectively.

[1] Miller's house was designed by Eero Saarinen, whose other notable projects included the "futuristic" Dulles and JFK airport terminals, and the St. Louis Arch.

[2] In addition to the building itself, the Eastman House now serves more generally as a museum of photography and photographic technology.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#105

Post by froindt » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 8:00 PM UTC

yeldarb wrote: post #94

froindt wrote: post #12

Surprised to see Cedar Rapids, IA on the list. I grew up in the area and it was not very appealing to stay in the area. Growing up, everybody's parents worked at Rockwell Collins, and not many of my peers had intentions of staying in the area. Few did. In the last few years I have noticed changes around the city. Some big investments downtown, new developments for commercial and shopping space, etc. I doubt Cedar Rap…

NewBoCo[1] is doing some awesome stuff in Cedar Rapids. They’ve got a startup accelerator, a code school, a coworking space, and run lots of great events. [1] https://newbo.co

That was one of the developments I had in mind, along with lots of revitalization on the northeast side. That's on the far other side of town compared to where my parents live, but we still head out to the NewBo market a couple times per year.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#106

Post by s0rce » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 8:03 PM UTC

selectodude wrote: post #52

sitkack wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

School funds should be distributed equally across the entire population. If we were a democracy, rich neighborhoods wouldn't have better schools.

The wealthiest school districts in the country tend to be the worst.

Definitely not the case in the Bay Area -- Palo Alto, Piedmont, Orinda are wealthy and have some of the best schools.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#107

Post by Johnny555 » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 8:09 PM UTC

humanrebar wrote: post #9

sverige wrote: post #5

My town is on the list and still incredibly affordable. I guess it's time to buy up some properties so I can gouge these youngsters later. Not a bad retirement plan, actually. It will be nice to be on the other end of the transaction for the first time in my life.

Don't feel too guilty. Most of these small towns are in areas where people can move outside of town a bit if they don't care to be gouged. With minimal impact on commute times. Though amenities like affordable high speed internet drop off pretty precipitously if you get too far out.

With minimal impact on commute times

That works up to a point, but eventually as more people move out of downtown to less expensive suburbs, roads start to clog and the community can't afford the billions of dollars it would take to build more freeways or public transit.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#108

Post by froindt » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 8:11 PM UTC

humanrebar wrote: post #62

froindt wrote: post #12

Surprised to see Cedar Rapids, IA on the list. I grew up in the area and it was not very appealing to stay in the area. Growing up, everybody's parents worked at Rockwell Collins, and not many of my peers had intentions of staying in the area. Few did. In the last few years I have noticed changes around the city. Some big investments downtown, new developments for commercial and shopping space, etc. I doubt Cedar Rap…

> Perhaps it will be easier for them to get young talent in the coming years? Dunno what kind of work happens up in Cedar Rapids, but it's a lifestyle sacrifice to be unplugged from the internet and mobile communication during work hours. If a significant portion of the work up there happens in secret labs, they'll absolutely have problems recruiting millenials. Especially software engineers, who benefit from online…

Rockwell has a split of commercial and government. No idea on the distribution of levels of confidentiality on the government work, but I definitely agree that a lack of access to online reference materials would a hard pass for many engineers.

I know they do lots with GPS and flight displays.

Beyond Rockwell, much of the city is employed by grain processing. Cargill, Penford (it has a new name now, don't know it), general mills, quaker oats, and Conagra all have large factories in the city.

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#109

Post by jimmaswell » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 8:35 PM UTC

seppin wrote: post #66

jimmaswell wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like if all work was suddenly remote, city residency would drop at least 50% in a week. I hope remote eventually becomes the norm. There are probably a lot more like me out there who even in their 20s only work in a metro area solely out of necessity. I have a hard time imagining that all these people I see on HN pining for city living and making suburbs out to be worse than prison are more than a vocal minori…

> I feel like if all work was suddenly remote, city residency would drop at least 50% in a week. I hope remote eventually becomes the norm. Could not disagree more. (Young) people move to cities for vibrancy, culture, and to be around each other.

What do you mean by vibrancy? Are grids of apartment buildings, high rises, and pigeons supposed to be more vibrant than apple orchards, nice houses, and cardinals? Yeah, cities section off squares to be parks sometimes, but it's not the same.

And what's culture? Saying somewhere doesn't have culture makes as much sense as saying you don't have an accent. Where I grew up there's locally made apple cider and other apple products, good farmer's markets, locally butchered meat, the colleges have all the "arts" stuff going on that you'd want if you're into that, and there are great authentic Mexican restaurants everywhere.

Being around people as a mandatory part of the living space isn't really for me.

Maybe I'm just out of touch with the other "young people" my age but I've been to a few cities and I can't say I was exactly "captivated."

Re: Millennials to Small Cities: Ready or Not, Here We Come

#110

Post by jimmaswell » Sun, Nov 05, 2017, 8:50 PM UTC

lordCarbonFiber wrote: post #95

jimmaswell wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like if all work was suddenly remote, city residency would drop at least 50% in a week. I hope remote eventually becomes the norm. There are probably a lot more like me out there who even in their 20s only work in a metro area solely out of necessity. I have a hard time imagining that all these people I see on HN pining for city living and making suburbs out to be worse than prison are more than a vocal minori…

Im pretty sure it's the opposite direction. The economies of scale make it so cities have above and beyond more amenities than the suburbs ever could. Be it food, culture, access to jobs/networks, or even just the dating pool working remotely in a huge house in the middle of nowhere really can't provide a substitution. Living isolated far away from civilization might be appealing to some, but I'd put money on the ide…

>I can't see any benefit to leaving the city.

There's less crime, driving is viable (what do you do if you want to bring home a large item from a store in a city?), your surroundings are actually nice to look at, it's quieter, establishments aren't crowded, some people don't like walking all day, you can play loud music or whatever in your home without a noise complaint if you don't live right next to anyone, and privacy in your yard, for a few examples.

What's special about city food? That it's more expensive? Calling small towns "away from civilization" is so disingenuous that it seems intentional. I've gone over this in another response, but do you really believe there isn't nice food and events out there?