We are already projected to have a water shortage this summer in the Rockies and it’s only going to get worse. Every state along the Colorado river is gearing up for water right battles and I dread to think what’s going to happen once the snow pack in the Rockies gets less and less every year
Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
41–50 of 592 posts
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#42There seems to be a lot of negativity in the comments so far. Is this not the dream that is often touted on hacker news? Work at a FAANG and "retire" somewhere more affordable? I'm personally doing just this. I was lucky enough to land a good job out of college, buy a house in a desired area, and see it appreciate in the last 10 years. This increase plus the birth of my kids left me wondering if there wasn't a better…
Your kids all else equal will be outsprinted by kids who live in more competitive cities. You can decide you don't care about any of that, but understand that type of that decision will ripple through to future generations, e.g. your grandkids will be less educated.
The irony is that most educated people living in small towns want to get out, and a generation or two after they do they want to go back. Will the cycle repeat itself?
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#43There seems to be a lot of negativity in the comments so far. Is this not the dream that is often touted on hacker news? Work at a FAANG and "retire" somewhere more affordable? I'm personally doing just this. I was lucky enough to land a good job out of college, buy a house in a desired area, and see it appreciate in the last 10 years. This increase plus the birth of my kids left me wondering if there wasn't a better…
Yup. I moved to SF because that's where the good jobs were. Now I can leave and keep my good job. Huzzah!
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#44Great, you can work from. So you take your California money to middle of nowhere and buy a home for cheap. Renovate it and now it’s awesome. However, that local, who isn’t making California money, that is working a local job and making local money and is hoping to move up in housing for their family is priced out because housing pricing has doubled or even tripled. People that wanted to retire to rural or remote area…
> However, that local, who isn’t making California money, that is working a local job and making local money and is hoping to move up in housing for their family is priced out because housing pricing has doubled or even tripled.
In your story you missed to mention the local homeowner who unexpectedly got a California price for her old house, the proceeds from which she can now use to send her grandchild to college and pay her medical bills.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
That local may well have a better paying job because more people are moving into the area. Also, it's the US mountain west. There is a lot of space there to build more houses. Housing isn't a zero sum game unless you have poor zoning.
Is there though? Arable land is at a premium in the mountain west, because of all those mountains. And it’s not just land, but water is lacking...build a bunch of houses and then what will they drink? And infrastructure, if you build without building roads and schools...well, they do that in China and Russia and it doesn’t always come eventually. It is easy to say the problem is that we just aren’t building enough in…
Let's check in on the Bozeman population density: 2,448.94 people per square mile
Let's check on how San Francisco is doing: 18,790.74 people per square mile.
Okay, no worries, Bozeman can keep its current foot print and 8X its population comfortably.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#46We are already projected to have a water shortage this summer in the Rockies and it’s only going to get worse. Every state along the Colorado river is gearing up for water right battles and I dread to think what’s going to happen once the snow pack in the Rockies gets less and less every year
And that doesn’t even touch on the new year-round fire season normal we have to contend with. Last year was crazy and this year is supposed to be as bad or worse. Every 3rd or 4th pine tree in the hills is beetle kill.
A lot of people are looking to move into mountain communities that are largely water stressed already. Adding more people, with less water, and higher fire danger and it’s going to get ugly.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there though? Arable land is at a premium in the mountain west, because of all those mountains. And it’s not just land, but water is lacking...build a bunch of houses and then what will they drink? And infrastructure, if you build without building roads and schools...well, they do that in China and Russia and it doesn’t always come eventually. It is easy to say the problem is that we just aren’t building enough in…
Let's check in on the Bozeman population density: 2,448.94 people per square mile Let's check on how San Francisco is doing: 18,790.74 people per square mile. Okay, no worries, Bozeman can keep its current foot print and 8X its population comfortably.
It’s like my entire comment was ignored :). You need more than just density to increase the size of a community.
My mom and step dad built a house in Helena, which isn’t that far away. Pretty expensive place to live, infrastructure wasn’t great, housing was expensive (this is back in the 90s). The house turned out to be economically non viable for reasons unrelated to demand.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#48There seems to be a lot of negativity in the comments so far. Is this not the dream that is often touted on hacker news? Work at a FAANG and "retire" somewhere more affordable? I'm personally doing just this. I was lucky enough to land a good job out of college, buy a house in a desired area, and see it appreciate in the last 10 years. This increase plus the birth of my kids left me wondering if there wasn't a better…
Your kids all else equal will be outsprinted by kids who live in more competitive cities. You can decide you don't care about any of that, but understand that type of that decision will ripple through to future generations, e.g. your grandkids will be less educated. The irony is that most educated people living in small towns want to get out, and a generation or two after they do they want to go back. Will the cycle…
>Your kids all else equal will be outsprinted by kids who live in more competitive cities
But it won't "all else equal", there are so many variables at play here that it's meaningless to talk about a hypothetical "all else equal" scenario. Also there have been so many successful people who were born and raised in what you'd call "less competitive" areas.
>The irony is that most educated people living in small towns want to get out, and a generation or two after they do they want to go back.
What's ironic about people going to places chasing things they desire? Big cities and small towns offer different things, and those things value differently to different people. The people who are leaving small towns chasing after opportunities and the people who want to move back to small towns from big cities are obviously at different stages in their lives and value different things.
>Will the cycle repeat itself?
Probably? But why is that an issue?
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let's check in on the Bozeman population density: 2,448.94 people per square mile Let's check on how San Francisco is doing: 18,790.74 people per square mile. Okay, no worries, Bozeman can keep its current foot print and 8X its population comfortably.
It’s like my entire comment was ignored :). You need more than just density to increase the size of a community. My mom and step dad built a house in Helena, which isn’t that far away. Pretty expensive place to live, infrastructure wasn’t great, housing was expensive (this is back in the 90s). The house turned out to be economically non viable for reasons unrelated to demand.
It's like your comment was completely void of any kind of validity and it was easy to immediately look for evidence to the contrary of one of your major points.
I'm sure it would be trivial to counter the point around water. Just consider any of the metropolises in the Middle East.
In terms of infrastructure, that can be built as well. See literally any other city larger than Bozeman.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#50We are already projected to have a water shortage this summer in the Rockies and it’s only going to get worse. Every state along the Colorado river is gearing up for water right battles and I dread to think what’s going to happen once the snow pack in the Rockies gets less and less every year
And that doesn’t even touch on the new year-round fire season normal we have to contend with. Last year was crazy and this year is supposed to be as bad or worse. Every 3rd or 4th pine tree in the hills is beetle kill. A lot of people are looking to move into mountain communities that are largely water stressed already. Adding more people, with less water, and higher fire danger and it’s going to get ugly.
Where can one find areas that are most water-abundant and don't run into the water scarcity issues?