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Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

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261–270 of 318 posts

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

#261

To give you a perspective on Britain since most replies are US centric, I now live close to Shrewsbury near Llangollen on the Welsh border. I've a castle at the end of my road and regularly see (& smell!) cows, horses and sheep from my kitchen window who graze on a paddock where just a few weeks ago I noticed a hot air balloon take off. My barn has wooden beams, four toilets yet cost less than half to buy than the mi…

Also if you're lucky, bilingual schooling too <3 Wales :D

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

#262

I live on rural property about an hour from SF. My neighbors aren't techies, but they really aren't that different. Lots of older/retired people, plenty of maker-type people. Out here there's space to have shops, tractors, and physically large projects. I can't discuss programming with my neighbors but welding, electronics, gardening, and construction are fun topics. I still see many of my Bay Area friends; weekend p…

I'm looking to move somewhere exactly like this. Are you in the Santa Rosa area?

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

#263

Albuquerque, NM is kind of rural. It's weird, since at 500,000 people we definitely meet the definition of a big city, but culturally people behave like it's a small town. Additionally, it's feasible to live in the mountains and still live less than an hour away, or to live in one of the nearby villages (Corrales, Placitas, Tijeras) and essentially enjoy the same lifestyle as someone living in rural New Mexico despit…

Do you know anything about Las Cruces? I know New Mexico State University is there so I was curious if there's any kind of tech community down there.

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

#264
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In your worldview: the government subsidizes rural life by... building roads? Making gas cheaper? How does all the food grown in rural areas make it into cities? Not by teleportation; by being loaded into semis, driven on roads, using gas. There's a cost. When roads get worse, when gas is more expensive; food gets more expensive; and it gets more expensive for cities more than it gets more expensive for rural areas.…

I even check led the dictionary to be sure, but no, that is not subsidizing.

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

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2. The US begins importing most of its food from elsewhere Gonna stop you there. This wouldn't happen, because the US has plenty of growing acreage and plenty of demand. The farming industry doesn't need subsidies, and removing them would affect total output only slightly on average. Now, if we were more like Japan and had issues with enough space for farming, then yeah I'd agree with you.

Unless medium to large scale farming in the US is significantly different than the rest of the world, Land availability and demand are only tiny parts of the puzzle and not even the hardest issues to solve when farming. The need for immediate scale for any kind of shortage is guaranteed to cause significant shortages + massive price hikes starvation in the short term.

Lol, just how big do you think the farm subsidies are? This is some big-time Clancychat you're throwing out there.

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

#266
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do worry about this. It feel like I often hear complaints of an influx of tech workers leading to higher prices for locals, especially real estate. I have friends in Denver, CO and Bend, OR specifically who have made that complaint over the last couple years

Denver and Bend are not rural. If you’re really in the rural you’d be a significant percentage of the population just by moving in.

I’m talking more about influx of tech workers in those places rather than how rural they are. I’m aware they’re both cities and not that I’m seeking

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

#267
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't think I'm advocating that anyone be made to leave?

By affecting property values and land taxes, your advocations don’t need to be implicit to affect locals- think people with no money who have lived there for decades or more. People who are barely getting by as it is.

Do you really want another old couple on the streets of seattle so that you can live your agrarian fantasy?

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

#268
post #262

I live on rural property about an hour from SF. My neighbors aren't techies, but they really aren't that different. Lots of older/retired people, plenty of maker-type people. Out here there's space to have shops, tractors, and physically large projects. I can't discuss programming with my neighbors but welding, electronics, gardening, and construction are fun topics. I still see many of my Bay Area friends; weekend p…

I'm looking to move somewhere exactly like this. Are you in the Santa Rosa area?

Just outside Winters, on the north edge of Solano county.

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

#269
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have and literally everything they've said is extremely accurate to my experience and those that I've talked to. Moving to a rural area is very much greener grass syndrome. Once you have to deal with the meth heads and associated issues with rural communities (low education, low opportunity, etc.) you will move the fuck out. Obviously if you don't plan to have children and live a semi-hermit lifestyle then whatever…

I grew up in a rural area and moved back now that we're remote. The only time I've met a meth head was when a friend of a friend came back from college and you could tell he was doing meth (based on descriptions of what meth does to you from the internet anyway.) You have to be picky, the area has to have an old culture that's still intact and hasn't been through some serious economic problems. If you go to eg West V…

> You have to be picky, the area has to have an old culture that's still intact and hasn't been through some serious economic problems.

No shit? Really? You gotta find a rural town that hasn't been through incredible economic hardship the last 50 years? Fuck me, that's wild! I never would've thought.

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

#270
post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I'm advocating that anyone be made to leave?

By affecting property values and land taxes, your advocations don’t need to be implicit to affect locals- think people with no money who have lived there for decades or more. People who are barely getting by as it is. Do you really want another old couple on the streets of seattle so that you can live your agrarian fantasy?

In fairness I've no skin in the game, I'm not from here or moving here. Just seemed like a cute town near the train.

I'd hope new housing would be built to accomodate any newcomers.

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