Having just been to Santa Fe, I am wondering if only poor education and water shortages keep it from being a remote work magnet.
Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
171–180 of 592 posts
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're seeing negativity because it's getting harder and harder to deny that this "dream" involves the locals getting screwed when tech monopoly money turns their local economy upside down. Sure the guy who had the foresight to start a brewery wins but everyone else loses. You know what the end game of this looks like? It looks like Vail CO, Cape Cod MA, coastal Long Island and CT, the Hamptons, wealthy retirement ar…
Locals wouldn't get screwed if they advocated for better zoning policy and allowed more housing to be built. This doesn't happen because those same locals that are homeowners love the value of their house exploding upwards
I agree with this sentiment in cities, however, I believe that this approach in the mountains would result in skyscrapers being built in areas of natural beauty, and be harmful to all of the wildlife that live there. The Eagle (Vail) Valley is relatively small to begin with.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you lived in any of these places? I grew up in Fairfield County and you seem to greatly exaggerate its dystopian qualities. What's more, industry's flight from the area has nothing to do with folks coming from NYC.
I grew up in one of those places. How else would I have developed such disdain for that economic model? Replacement of whatever (necessarily small, otherwise the big city money wouldn't be a problem) industry there is/was with entertainment and tourism isn't the issue. The reality of an economy that is dependent on a specific image or perception (many would say facade) of quaintness is the problem. You get all sorts…
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Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#174Are we still ignoring the ecological collapse that is caused by urban sprawl? We *must* increase the density of our cities. If you believe that the climate crisis is a problem and a big one, then you could be for a rude awakening as most experts now consider the collapse in biodiversity to have far bigger impacts on human lives and living conditions than climate change[0]. The only reason why there are fewer headline…
I'm extremely sympathetic to this view. Habitat destruction is the #1 or #2 way we're screwing over the planet.
However, this looks like an area where environmentalists risk getting themselves into trouble. Global warming is a defined and solvable task, but the messaging keeps changing to something more like an open-ended commitment. That has huge risks for the public to tune it out, and perhaps further procrastinate on the carbon emissions problem. Average people do not have the emotional energy for a perpetual guilt machine.
> We must increase the density of our cities.
I kind of don't feel like we can afford to. The housing price increases since 2020 have an atrocious human cost. These rising costs of living are not sustainable. There are some good (tech) jobs that compensate sufficiently for this type of development to work... but no where near enough. On a macroeconomics sense, I'm inclined to think it just doesn't work at all.
I'm also skeptical that the arguments apply to THIS migration. People are not moving into the rain forest, and the American mountain west, in particular, is fairly arid. The wildlife density of some places is orders of magnitude greater than other places.
Preservation is a battle that you never win, you just delay. If we can't have our big houses, wide lawns, and transportation work with some ecosystems, maybe it's all doomed either way.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is this not the dream that is often touted on hacker news? Work at a FAANG and "retire" somewhere more affordable? Practically, probably not. Few people talk about that, most dont. Most will move for affordable, but wont necessary like abrupt change from FAANG and big city to small city and not much to do. They will need to adjust to different culture, new hobbies, find new friends, everything. And that is not even…
What would a small city not have to do that big city would? Or do you mean a small town. Also, what hobbies would have to be given up?
It is not fundamental difference between small vs big city. Options, people and culture are different in this city versus different city - no matter which one is larger.
Say you liked boardgames with friends. The new city have different people, the play different games, you dont like either new games or new people. Say you liked swimming and the swimming pools in new city are too full or otherwise dont suit you. You liked going to local beginner art/dance club, but new place dont have equivalent.
Moving to different place, especially when the environment changes comes with changes in lifestyle you may or may not welcome.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're seeing negativity because it's getting harder and harder to deny that this "dream" involves the locals getting screwed when tech monopoly money turns their local economy upside down. Sure the guy who had the foresight to start a brewery wins but everyone else loses. You know what the end game of this looks like? It looks like Vail CO, Cape Cod MA, coastal Long Island and CT, the Hamptons, wealthy retirement ar…
Have you lived in any of these places? I grew up in Fairfield County and you seem to greatly exaggerate its dystopian qualities. What's more, industry's flight from the area has nothing to do with folks coming from NYC.
Yeah. Even so, not sure how representative Fairfield County is of CT in general. On the one hand, it's the de facto bedroom for people who work in NYC. On the other, because it's the bedroom, you will see a different spread of economic activity. Go further north and you have manufacturing and pharmaceuticals and engineering as well as insurance. The state probably could do a lot more to promote businesses, but it will need to consider that they're basically sandwiched between Boston and NYC (which they probably have). Also, I read that Covid has actually been good for states like CT because with the exodus from large cities, people have moved or started business in the state. Companies have also canceled their plans to move to places like NYC (GE did move to Boston, but Aetna canceled its plans to move to NYC). I wouldn't be surprised if NJ also benefited similarly (and NJ is also a state sandwiched between two large cities, NYC and Philly).
COVID and the resulting remote work might actually be contributing to a better distribution of wealth in the country in general. It might depress salaries for industries that have concentrated in places like SFV and NYC, and thus create incentives to move out of those areas and create less drastic occupational concentrations in some industries. These changes will create conditions that create secondary benefits.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're seeing negativity because it's getting harder and harder to deny that this "dream" involves the locals getting screwed when tech monopoly money turns their local economy upside down. Sure the guy who had the foresight to start a brewery wins but everyone else loses. You know what the end game of this looks like? It looks like Vail CO, Cape Cod MA, coastal Long Island and CT, the Hamptons, wealthy retirement ar…
Locals wouldn't get screwed if they advocated for better zoning policy and allowed more housing to be built. This doesn't happen because those same locals that are homeowners love the value of their house exploding upwards
It only takes a handful of non locals to move in and start showing up at council meetings. Don’t of this blame solely on locals.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#178Are they booming because of some underlying industry or are they just high af off the California money (which could evaporate at a moment's notice)?
For these cities, I'd say it's mostly California money, but there's a fair amount of people moving away from the East Coast as well.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#179I went through many of them moving from Chico CA area in a grand US west/southwest roadtrip moving to Austin TX to escape climate change fires/power outages (ironically), increasing taxes and housing prices, and a decline in general happiness. I didn't see any obvious signs of this.
I can recommend not moving anywhere near Greely CO where cattle are slaughtered by the thousands. It smells very bad. Also, driving in Wyoming there is effectively no speed limit between the highway patrol is very sparse.. and there isn't much there.
50%+ WfH OTG homesteads in the middle of nowhere but with access to fresh water and sunlight are a very good idea long-term, especially for raising a family, growing crops, mental health, well-being, and peace-of-mind.
Big cities are (and were pre-pandemic) only useful for conducting high-level economic activity due to the density of connectedness and potential for rapid wealth accumulation, but in general, they often tend to be terrible places overall for the most part, and people should escape to more tranquil and mentally-healthy places.
Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming
#180My last home in the US was near a ski resort in Colorado, and it was a fantastic life - incredible mountain biking in the summer, and of course snow skiing in the winter. It was truly heaven. That was before remote work was as common as it is now. If I had to go back to the US, that would be the place. Sure, you miss out on the cool things the city offers; but a couple hours drive and you're in a big city. I found th…
I think a lot of people assume you're either 200 miles from the nearest Walmart or you're in downtown Manhattan/a dense close-in suburb. Go 1-2 hours from pretty much every large city and you can be in pretty rural areas--although not necessarily a mountain town of course. I do like going into cities now and then but I really don't need or particularly want one on a day-to-day basis.