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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?

#201

Post by solveit »

mmckelvy wrote: post #141
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…

There are some rural areas that fit your description, but many that do not, and are quite nice places to live. Also, urban areas generally have very high concentrations of uneducated, addicted, and poverty stricken individuals as well, and the proportion of the population that fits this bill has increased dramatically in the past few years.

>the proportion of the population that fits this bill has increased dramatically in the past few years.

Wait really? Source?

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

#202

Post by TulliusCicero »

RickJWagner wrote: post #135
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…

On the other hand, remote work (at city wages) makes for a decided economic advantages in a remote LCOL area. Crime is lower, family activities are more readily available. If you like outdoor activities, hobbies that require lots of space, or less light and noise pollution, rural areas are nice. There are advantages for both. You can be happy in either location, so long as you play to the strengths of your locale.

Your comment is an excellent example of "what does rural mean?" Right now I live in a suburb of Seattle. I'm quite confident there's more opportunities for kids and kids' activities here than a rural area of the kind where you need to drive a long distance to get to a big grocery store, or where most people need wells for water. Any time I search for kids' stuff here it's like I'm drowning, in any big metro I think you're spoiled for choice.

No disputing the costs though. Seattle is expensive as hell.

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

#203

Post by TulliusCicero »

vampiretooth1 wrote: post #199

The name is escaping me right now, but I believe there are startups in AZ that are building "artificial communes" - ie a rural kind of community, no cars, everything within walking distance, inhabitants are tech people working remotely. I think their business model is eventually going to be charging some kind of tax on everything that occurs within the community. I'd try to Google something reminiscent of "AZ artific…

That sounds pretty dope to me. I'd love to have a planned community that are car-free or car-lite (this was by far my favorite aspect of living in Munich).

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

#204

Post by greenie_beans »

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…

I live near where they tried to unionize amazon and yes, it’s like that, but also your description seems like you haven’t lived in these places you describe. Yes, we’re rural and conservative and backwards, in pockets, but there are pockets that aren’t. It’s not a monolith. You won’t be alone and the only one paying taxes for roads.

Edit: and where you see something worth abandoning, i see opportunity for growth and improvement

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

#205

Post by chrisco255 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #46
fasteddie31003 wrote: post #30

I live in Breckenridge, CO. I'd love to make this more of a rural tech community. The harsh winters here make for great skiing and programming weather.

I'd love to live in Breckenridge. (One of my favorite things is feeding the trout in the dredge pond.) But... there's no way I could afford to live there :-<

There are many smaller / less bougie mountain or valley towns in CO. I've got a couple friends who live in Alamosa and work remote. Their cost of living is cheap and they're surrounded by mountains in all directions.

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

#206

Post by cjameskeller »

dkarp wrote: post #89
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…

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…

I think you would be able to find what you're looking for at the edges of many metropolitan areas. I'm about 30 min (<40km / <25mi) from the regional city of half a million people, and it's very possible to get that kind of acreage here. I'd base your search on other factors, like climate, education (if you have or will have kids), political stability, etc, and come up with some regions to dive into in more detail.

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

#207

Post by majormajor »

engineer_22 wrote: post #139
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…

>I'd argue you need to think about climate change and whether the US will continue to subsidize rural life. Not to fault you, but you're a seriously urban-centric thinker. Rural productivity is vital to urban concentration. Raw material does not come from the depths of the subway system, nor do the land and seaports magically produce goods. Food, fiber, fuel, etc come from the rural reaches. Flip this on it's head an…

Rural communities are providing a subsidy to urban communities by ... selling them things? Isn't "charging money for" just about the opposite of subsidizing?

Food is necessary; that does not mean that the US's rural communities in their current form are all necessary or even that they're unsubsidized. Food is an incredibly substitutable market, you'd expect the market to push prices down to a minimum.

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

#208

Post by sulam »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #196
refurb wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reads like the opinion of someone who only knows about rural communities based on what they read on social media. Is it satire? I especially love the "white" part when the less urban SouthWest has the highest black population in the US, yet a city like SF pushed most of its black population out decades ago. Definitely appreciate the lecture on "diversity".

You may be surprised to learn that there are more races/ethnicities than "white" and "black". It's true that SF has lost a lot of black people, but the proportion of white people is lower in 2020 than it was in 2010, which is lower than it was in 2000, etc. This is because of the Hispanic and Asian populations, plus mixed-race people. > I especially love the "white" part when the less urban SouthWest has the highest…

I think they likely meant Southeast. I’m not aware of a large population of rural, black people in the Southwest.

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

#209

Post by refurb »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #181
refurb wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cities literally can’t sustain themselves without outside inputs - food, building materials, energy, etc. Subsidizing agriculture isn’t a “rural” subsidy, it’s a “population” subsidy.

> Subsidizing agriculture isn’t a “rural” subsidy, it’s a “population” subsidy. It's both, actually. Just like if the government started paying for free, say, cloud storage, regardless of where anyone lives, that'd be a population subsidy on the consumer side, and an area/industry-specific subsidy on the producer side. > Cities literally can’t sustain themselves without outside inputs - food, building materials, ener…

I'm not arguing if it's a subsidy, I'm arguing who benefits.

You can't grow enough food for a city within city limits. So if a subsidy goes to a rural area to grow food, that's not a subsidy for rural people, that's a subsidy for everyone.

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

#210

Post by ochoseis »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #198
justin66 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Rural productivity is vital to urban concentration. Raw material does not come from the depths of the subway system, nor do the land and seaports magically produce goods. Food, fiber, fuel, etc come from the rural reaches. We pay a premium to buy food from the rural US in the form of common import tariffs that stifle or eliminate competition at the expense of the consumer and to the benefit of agricultural interest…

Exactly. It's bizarre how often you see people arguing as if a lack of rural or farm subsidies would suddenly mean food disappearing.

The core function of the government is to provide basic necessities to its constituents. In other words, guaranteeing a food supply is a critical national interest and there’s no better way than to incentivize home-grown food.
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