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Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#111

Post by tjr225 »

CalRobert wrote: post #59
toast0 wrote: post #23

Some of the Seattle 'suburbs' get fairly rural, lots of trees, at least some lots are a couple acres, a few working farms, lots of hobby farms, but still have a lot of tech workers. If remote work is important to you, check out internet options. There's a chance of Comcast and CenturyLink, but both get shifty about actually servicing homes in places (Comcast won't run a drop to my house even though their cable is on…

I'm on a train and just went through some charming town south of Centralia. Wonder if it would appeal to remote tech workers.

I think the people of Centralia have been displaced enough by spoiled tech workers.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#113

Post by hunterb123 »

mdasen wrote: post #83
julianlam wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems peculiar to me that there is no standard process for the winding down of city governance when population dwindles. It's probably just the human element. I don't mean to be promoting some sort of libertarian "self-governance is great!" philosophy, just thinking out loud. Imagine a city building game where city expenses increase with each population milestone (due to new positions in local government, new depa…

You can wind down certain things, but at what point are you winding down stuff that's more on the necessity side of things? The US has a lot of crumbling infrastructure that needs repair and replacement and I don't think people want to be told "sorry, your house is only accessible by off-road vehicle now." We're spending over $20B to increase rural broadband because people in rural areas don't want to be told "sorry,…

I just wanted to say your walls of text are very offensive, inaccurate, and read as someone who has never lived in a rural community.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#114

Post by Clubber »

sjmm1989 wrote: post #106
dkarp wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your point about population decline as that isn't something I had considered at all. Maybe rural doesn't capture what I'm looking for, but I'm not sure of a better word and it does capture the feeling. I would like at least 4 acres and some privacy at the very least. Then the question becomes what I'd have to give up to get that. It definitely means giving up living in a big city, but maybe it doesn't me…

Don't listen to that blow hard. They clearly have never lived in a rural area before, or had a really bad experience in a rare situation. Here's the truth of it for ya. Most of the technologically inclined people you are looking for in the rural areas tend to move to the cities; from the rural areas. Mostly due to the only thing that user was correct about. Opportunity. But once they have the money to come back home,…

Something else to consider, you want to be within 30 or so miles from a grocery store and a hospital. I would suggest looking for land outside a medium city.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#115

Post by Clubber »

countvonbalzac wrote: post #78
mdasen wrote: post #48

> I've heard that people tend to be very different to those you find in a city In a lot of cases this is true - and it's not just about tech. Rural communities are often more religious, more conservative, lower income, lower educated, and have a lot less access to opportunity. Cities also mean that there's often a critical mass for many interests and minority groups. Are you LGBT? Are you a religious or racial minori…

+1 suburban / rural areas are heavily subsidized by the federal + state governments. It isn't cheap to maintain that amount of roads / utilities and I could certainly foresee a future in which it becomes much more expensive to leave so far apart.

Do you have any figures on this? I know during the Reagan administration the federal government heavily cut subsidization of rural areas, helping to accelerate their decline.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#116

Post by hunterb123 »

Clubber wrote: post #114
sjmm1989 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't listen to that blow hard. They clearly have never lived in a rural area before, or had a really bad experience in a rare situation. Here's the truth of it for ya. Most of the technologically inclined people you are looking for in the rural areas tend to move to the cities; from the rural areas. Mostly due to the only thing that user was correct about. Opportunity. But once they have the money to come back home,…

Something else to consider, you want to be within 30 or so miles from a grocery store and a hospital. I would suggest looking for land outside a medium city.

Small towns have grocery stores and hospitals...

My small town has a Walmart supercenter and another grocery store

Rural is generally farm land outside of small towns, that's where people drive to get groceries.

Land outside a medium city is a suburb, not rural.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#117

Post by blown_gasket »

pineconewarrior wrote: post #77
rmason wrote: post #6

In Michigan there are software companies in small rural towns but no where I know about is there a concentration. I used to live in a small rural town West of Lansing when I worked as an agronomist in a past career. I left to do a SaaS startup and stayed local because this small town became a test site for cable Internet. Note this was a time when neither Lansing nor Grand Rapids had a broadband Internet option, ever…

Traverse City is becoming very techy. Over the course of the pandemic I have witnessed a lot of folks coming in from Chicago, etc, to work remotely, or to do tech work for one of the decent web/it/finance/insurance/medical companies here. P.S. we are hiring web dev and analytics/data engineer if you know anyone in the area!

Maybe you could enlighten me on what you see as becoming very techy about Traverse City. When it comes to the companies that I've seen there you have:

- Small computer repair shops competing with big box computer repair

- Hagerty Insurance

- Munson Healthcare (the only health care provider in the 30 mile radius that I'm aware of).

- Finance - There are a couple of banks and credit unions but most of the investment firms I know of aren't based out of Traverse City.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#119

Post by wwweston »

hunterb123 wrote: post #113
mdasen wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can wind down certain things, but at what point are you winding down stuff that's more on the necessity side of things? The US has a lot of crumbling infrastructure that needs repair and replacement and I don't think people want to be told "sorry, your house is only accessible by off-road vehicle now." We're spending over $20B to increase rural broadband because people in rural areas don't want to be told "sorry,…

I just wanted to say your walls of text are very offensive, inaccurate, and read as someone who has never lived in a rural community.

Can you spend some time pointing out a few of the specific inaccuracies from your perspective?

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#120

Post by Clubber »

hunterb123 wrote: post #116
Clubber wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something else to consider, you want to be within 30 or so miles from a grocery store and a hospital. I would suggest looking for land outside a medium city.

Small towns have grocery stores and hospitals... My small town has a Walmart supercenter and another grocery store Rural is generally farm land outside of small towns, that's where people drive to get groceries. Land outside a medium city is a suburb, not rural.

>Small towns have grocery stores and hospitals...

Yes, but 4-40 acres gets a lot cheaper the further you go from the town. My point was as he was looking and pricing, make sure you are 30 minutes away from a grocery store or hospital. You can always grow a garden and hunt if you so desire, but if you break your leg or something, an hour is a long drive to get it fixed.

>Land outside a medium city is a suburb, not rural.

Depends on the city.

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