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A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

ci.cumberland.md.us

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Re: A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

#171

Post by ghaff »

TylerE wrote: post #166
ghaff wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was on the far edge of relatively convenient airport access when I was working and traveling a lot (and, at some point, decided my employer was just going to pay for a private car whether they complained or not, which they didn't). Now I travel somewhat less but take fewer discrete trips so just pay my own transportation out of pocket.

Yeah I’m about 2 hours from the nearest real airport and it’s pretty miserable. Anything I can drive in 8 hours or less is faster to drive. What you don’t appreciate is that it’s not just the added distance, it’s all the extra uncertainty. Losing an extra hour due to getting stuck on the highway behind an accident is a thing you have to account for. So in the end you end up having to leave like 4 hours or more before…

And, as I say, I get a private car and they do not want to cut things close (understandably). So my not uncommon 6am or 7am flights to either get to Europe without a redeye or to get to the West Coast with the afternoon free end up being 3am pickups.

Re: A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

#173

Post by tonymet »

dccoolgai wrote: post #6
j_m_b wrote: post #4

I just got back from a visit with family in Cumberland. It's the epitome of rust belt. What used to be a thriving manufacturing area has become an abandoned service-sector economy with low-wage jobs. Property values are dirt cheap, even for nice houses. There isn't much nearby, you have to travel hours from Pittsburgh to even get there by plane. Tales of theft of items like power tools from relatively remote farms ar…

When the railroad was the internet, it was really the Silicon Valley of its day. Really makes you think.

And makes you humble.

Re: A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

#174

Post by stackskipton »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #128
stackskipton wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Look at Seattle, Oakland, or the Hollywood hills. They're all built on rugged, mountainous terrain just as difficult as the Appalachians, but they don't suffer the same issues attracting wealth because their economic situation is so different. Wrong. Seattle, Oakland and Los Angeles are mostly built on much flatter parts of those areas. California entire geography is about "Hey, check out these massive valleys or co…

I've been to Appalachia. It didn't strike me as notably more rugged than any other reasonably hilly area, and quite a bit less rugged than many places known for it (e.g. the Alpine cities, or the Himalayas). The west coast cities were a reasonable comparison, because they're (1) in the same country and (2) Fairly comparable in elevation and grade, if not a bit worse. The oakland hills (and other bay area communities…

Instead of just a few pictures showing rich area around a mountain that can afford it because companies like Apple have plenty of flat area, let's use available data provided by government agencies: https://topochange.cr.usgs.gov/topochange_viewer/viewer.htm

Cumberland, MD vs San Francisco. Wow, when I overlay urban areas of Bay Area, it's heavily built up in much flatter areas and gets much less dense as elevation change gets steeper. Not to mention, sea access gives you massive advantage since you are not having to move as much over really tall mountains.

Cumberland, MD has none of these. It's in a valley between two larger ridges of mountains but is heavily constrained. Also, not having sea access means transporting goods there is much more difficult and requires more infrastructure. And since we are one nation, you could just move west to much flatter Ohio and Great Lakes or East to flat parts of Maryland and Chesapeake Bay.

Sure, Bay area built up with creating really excellent schools that created really high paying industries but thinking it was "We lifted ourselves up by our bootstraps" and instead "Our geography and World War with Navy on our coast desperate to win really did help us."

Re: A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

#175

Post by AlotOfReading »

stackskipton wrote: post #174
AlotOfReading wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been to Appalachia. It didn't strike me as notably more rugged than any other reasonably hilly area, and quite a bit less rugged than many places known for it (e.g. the Alpine cities, or the Himalayas). The west coast cities were a reasonable comparison, because they're (1) in the same country and (2) Fairly comparable in elevation and grade, if not a bit worse. The oakland hills (and other bay area communities…

Instead of just a few pictures showing rich area around a mountain that can afford it because companies like Apple have plenty of flat area, let's use available data provided by government agencies: https://topochange.cr.usgs.gov/topochange_viewer/viewer.htm Cumberland, MD vs San Francisco. Wow, when I overlay urban areas of Bay Area, it's heavily built up in much flatter areas and gets much less dense as elevation c…

I'm saying nothing about bootstrapping. What I'm saying is that difficult geography is not a blocker if the economics are sufficient. People built and regraded the hills around Oakland, Seattle, and LA because the economy was there first. The geography is an expensive inconvenience no one wants to deal with, not an unmanageable fact of life.

Re: A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

#176

Post by QuantumGood »

martinald wrote: post #139
plaidfuji wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maryland is full of places like this. Beautiful exterior, super solid construction. But on the inside, brittle plaster walls (hard to hang anything), lead paint covered by about 1/4 inch of repeated repainting, finicky radiant heating, sparse electrical outlets usually ungrounded, 100 year old plumbing, literally zero central air or proper ventilation anywhere (= upper levels are a sauna… look for a single HVAC grate…

It's really not a big deal to strip that all back and redo it all. It's much easier that way round than taking a badly constructed "newer" house actually making it solid. In the UK houses of that type are the standard and renovated all the time.

I think disrupting "decades of ... carefully grandfathered code violations" is what makes it a big deal, not that there isn't a reasonable path forwards simply from a construction basis.

Re: A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

#177

Post by martinald »

QuantumGood wrote: post #176
martinald wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not a big deal to strip that all back and redo it all. It's much easier that way round than taking a badly constructed "newer" house actually making it solid. In the UK houses of that type are the standard and renovated all the time.

I think disrupting "decades of ... carefully grandfathered code violations" is what makes it a big deal, not that there isn't a reasonable path forwards simply from a construction basis.

But you'd rectify all the code violations when you rewire and replumb the house?

Re: A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

#178

Post by codersfocus »

tom_vidal wrote: post #151
ghaff wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it. Physicians (and nurse practitioners, etc. at urgent care clinics) could arguably do more remotely but I'm not convinced that reducing the involvement of trained humans would be a positive move.

Think you missed the implied /s here :-)

No sarcasm implied. There needs to be programs at medical schools (or ideally, new schools in the first place) that teach robotic surgery only.

Why would you think this is sarcasm? The availability of capable surgeons is already limited; when looking geographically, they are extremely limited.

You would have surgical assistants and nurses on the ground, but the actual expertise for surgery shouldn't be location dependent.

Re: A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

#179

Post by everforward »

kkfx wrote: post #40

I honestly do not get such programs, I'm from EU where equivalent programs exists in slightly different form (1€ old and abandoned homes for sale) and that's a total stupid initiative because people face MUCH bigger costs and still have no potential development in place. Instead of proposing such gifts state a complete development programs: how do you count to augment the population enough to create room for a local…

Those things are all pretty easily Googleable for anyone interested. Honestly, I would expect most people in the US to be able to answer most of those questions with reasonable accuracy without Googling.

The candies are to offset the downsides currently preventing people from moving there. Given its Appalachia, those downsides are probably a) bad, poorly maintained infrastructure, b) lack of jobs, c) lack of proximity to anything, and d) the surrounding poverty.

A lot of Appalachia struggles because the towns were built around a profitable industry, which then died. The town still has all that infra, but now has none of the tax base to pay for it.

They’re probably fine with someone who wants to build a McMansion they never leave, as long as they pay their tax bill and buy groceries in town to support local jobs. They honestly mostly need money. Appalachia is well known for their sense of community already, but also for their poverty.

Re: A $10k stipend is available for anyone moving to Cumberland, MD

#180

Post by dgfitz »

TylerE wrote: post #92
dgfitz wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you know that Columbia, MD is consistently voted one of the best cities in the country in which to live and work?

Columbia and Cumberland are about as opposite as you can get. You might as well say “San Francisco is one of the greatest cities on earth, so you should move to Bakersfield.”

GP said “ Maryland is so bad…”

You made the same point I was making, not sure if you realize that.

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