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Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

economist.com

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Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#81

Post by NortySpock »

reducesuffering wrote: post #50
garren wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I also assume any decent sized river is going to stay that way for the foreseeable future, and with some industrial grade treatment you can get potable water out of it.

Case in point I live near a river that eventually drains to the Mississippi.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#82

Post by awill88 »

_delibash_ wrote: post #78
eysquared wrote: post #24

There 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 comment is indicative that you don't understand how healthy democratic societies should work. What you're describing is a third world paradigm. Where you're "lucky enough" to be born into a "good" family or go to a "good" college or live in a "desirable" neighborhood and on and on and on.

While the comment wasn’t scoped or composed empathetically towards identifying systematic socioeconomic forces, I don’t think this person deserves your assessment that they doesn’t understand the broken, upsetting world we all live in.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#83

Post by calvano915 »

bushbaba wrote: post #71
refurb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your solution? Have internal passports? Government owned housing? Price controls?

Raise interest rates and kill federal backed mortgages except for low income. Limit fed backed loans to 1 per household. Tax housing income as normal income. Remove 1031b exchange. Remove depreciation of homes. Tax all housing sale gains. Housing would then be affordable.

What do you mean!? The status quo is profitable, for the already or soon to be landlords.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#84

Post by codingdave »

01100011 wrote: post #30

I envy the folks who are able to do this. If I had the means, I'd probably have already fled back to the country. I can't help but think that it is unsustainable though. Supporting a large, rural population is less efficient than urbs or even suburbs. Global warming, increasing global competition... I can't help but think the people fleeing the cities will be forced back by incentives and economics in a decade.

> Supporting a large, rural population is less efficient than urbs or even suburbs.

Whenever I see statement like this, it makes me wonder if you know where your food comes from. Because for the most part, the rural populations are supporting the cities. If the supply chains in this country were to fail, it is not the rural communities who would be scrounging for food and water. We'd be just fine.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#85

Post by arethuza »

isaacimagine wrote: post #15

As someone who lived in a small city in the American Mountain West, the boom does have consequences. Sleepy farming towns are becoming endless suburbia, hiking up prices as developers spill over from the Lehi 'Silicon Slopes' area. Midway, for instance, a town on the Wasatch back situated in a location that feels similar to Switzerland, has gone from about 150 diaries to 2, as expanding housing developments buy out t…

Looks like a autocorrect problem there - "diaries" for "dairies" - took me a while to work this out and was busy researching what a diary was in this kind of context... :-)

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#86

Post by imtringued »

nelsonmandela wrote: post #40

Is that house in the first image made of plywood?

It looks like conventional OSB sheathing, the surprising part is that it doesn't have an integrated coating to repel water. This means that housewrap will have to be applied to protect the sheathing from water damage, this is both labor intensive and the potential for misapplication increases the risk of water damage.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#87

Post by _delibash_ »

awill88 wrote: post #82
_delibash_ wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is indicative that you don't understand how healthy democratic societies should work. What you're describing is a third world paradigm. Where you're "lucky enough" to be born into a "good" family or go to a "good" college or live in a "desirable" neighborhood and on and on and on.

While the comment wasn’t scoped or composed empathetically towards identifying systematic socioeconomic forces, I don’t think this person deserves your assessment that they doesn’t understand the broken, upsetting world we all live in.

Not the world, the U.S. And it's a fairly accurate assesment.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#88

Post by robbiep »

hoka-one-one wrote: post #42
eysquared wrote: post #24

There 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

That’s absolute horse shit.

And whilst I don’t have any evidence to sprout, I think that those from more diverse and unusual backgrounds are better adapted for modern life. Growing up in a ‘competitive’ city is a licence for blandness (opinions mine)

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#89

Post by MomoXenosaga »

eysquared wrote: post #24

There 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…

Grew up in a village. It's nice if you are a 10 year old boy. When you're a grown man you want to be surrounded by degenerates and atheists.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#90

Post by xenocratus »

codingdave wrote: post #84
01100011 wrote: post #30

I envy the folks who are able to do this. If I had the means, I'd probably have already fled back to the country. I can't help but think that it is unsustainable though. Supporting a large, rural population is less efficient than urbs or even suburbs. Global warming, increasing global competition... I can't help but think the people fleeing the cities will be forced back by incentives and economics in a decade.

> Supporting a large, rural population is less efficient than urbs or even suburbs. Whenever I see statement like this, it makes me wonder if you know where your food comes from. Because for the most part, the rural populations are supporting the cities. If the supply chains in this country were to fail, it is not the rural communities who would be scrounging for food and water. We'd be just fine.

But... the comment isn't about where the food comes from or who would suffer from a supply chain collapse, it's about efficiency. I think the point was that cities are efficient because gestures vaguely towards economies of scale. It's easier to distribute goods (or services) to a highly-concentrated mass of people than to multiple disjoint locations.
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