Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 592 posts

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#321

Post by mring33621 »

RC_ITR wrote: post #303
mring33621 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as "locals getting screwed" in this scenario. We live in a free country, where people sometimes choose to move. In fact, when the demand for housing in an area goes up, often locals profit handsomely. Unfortunately, "I was here first" sounds a lot like "fuck you, I got mine". And it's not gonna fly.

Listen, nearly everyone largely agrees that wealth inequality at the current US level is bad. Wealthy people moving to low-cost areas (and thus raising cost of living) accelerates inequality for a few reasons. 1) Unlike you scenario, many working-class people in places like Sedona can only afford to rent their homes (25% of total, give or take in Sedona). These people incur huge monetary costs in being forced to move…

I'm OK with "ideas of socialism," I think. Especially regarding UBI and universal medical care.

But, I also think that it's better to be in a growing area than a static or declining area. I'll never understand anti-gentrifiers.

As an adult human being, it is your responsiblility to adapt and decide what is best for yourself and your dependents. No one owes you an unchanging landscape.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#322

Post by almost_usual »

dcolkitt wrote: post #299
almost_usual wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coastal California prices have gone up 20-30% in the past few months. These are people who were priced out of home buying there and renting, mountain towns are cheaper. Every IPO and stock vest causes home prices to go higher in the Bay Area, there’s been a lot lately.

My understanding is that rents in San Francisco are down 20%+. LA is not as large a drop, but still down. While the cost of home ownership may be up (most likely as you identify due to the wealth effect of equity grants), the actual cost to live in coastal California is sharply down.

Yeah this is true, it’s a good time to lock in rent control if you don’t want to own.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#323

Post by lostlogin »

aiisjustanif wrote: post #201
digikazi wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldn't you take your child on BART? I'm not looking for an argument, I'm genuinely curious. I live in the UK but I've never visited the SF area.

I’m not the poster, but personally I would. I go to London quite regularly and usually stop by San Fran once a year (not 2020). I personally find the BART similar to the MARTA (Atlanta) and DART (Dallas). I don’t know if you live in London, but I would say they compare to the Northern Line it terms of quality. But at the end of the day the real difference is about riders. I would say you do notice more issues like li…

> lallygag.

Thanks for this, a new word for me.

Lallygag/lollygag: to loll about; idling lazily. There is an interesting article on it’s etymology in the NYT.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/magazine/25wwln_safire.ht...

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#324

Post by tomlue »

ecshafer wrote: post #316
nerdkid93 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> deep learning team for Capital One What!? Capital One has a deep learning team? As a long-time customer of theirs, I can't even begin to guess what that team might do for their set of products, except maybe to optimize their credit card offerings.

Which company doesn't have a "deep learning" team. Not to be cynical but tons of companies that barely even know what it is have AI/ML teams because its the hot thing.

nah, it makes a lot of sense for capital one to have ML expertise, and they've been hiring for it for a long time.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#325

Post by [deleted] »

anonfornoreason wrote: post #315
lotsofpulp wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not the school system that is abysmal, it’s people not wanting their kids to mingle with kids from lower income/less wealthy families. Cities might have various socioeconomic classes living near each other, and so the schools have a more mixed population. Suburbs can restrict their schools to those that can afford to live there, so those public schools can have very few kids from lower socioeconomic classes, and…

I am a parent of a kid who starts kindergarten in 6 months. Moved to a smaller mountain town in the same state six months ago, primarily because of the schools. Our old local school (4 block walk) has a 1/10 rating. The city just put in a homeless camp literally across the street from the school. I would do a needle sweep before letting my kid play on the playground there, and would regularly find needles on the play…

[deleted]

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#326

Post by supernovae »

anthomtb wrote: post #269
vailprogrammer wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Vail, and most Colorado ski resorts, are already full of 10+ story hotels. I’m not sure how building a residential or office tower would be any more impactful.

It's weird with mountain towns and these ski resorts because the bulk of the land in these areas is federal lands with long term leases...

we're trying to preserve these national treasures, but at the same time, choose winners as to who gets to build there...

I'd hate to see towers pop up in Vail and Breck to be honest.. the charm is what it is - the log cabins and resorts that disappear in the mountains.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#327

Post by davidw »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #281

My wife and I traded living near a beach and lagoon in San Diego country for a small but nice house in a mountain tourist town (Sedona Arizona). That was back in 1998. Except for some time working as a contractor at Google in Mountain View and managing a deep learning team for Capital One in Urbana/Champaign IL, we have lived a quiet life in the mountains since 1998. One reason for my success in being happy here is t…

I think this concept of "acceptance of other people" is key. There seems to be a sort of cultural meme, especially in the western US, that everyone should be able to have a ton of land to themselves, but that's simply not realistic.

"Beautiful, scenic place; solitude; easy access to population centers" - pick two. There's a popular Wilderness Area about a 30 minute drive from Bend, Oregon and people act all surprised that there are lots of people there. You're not going to get solitude in a place like that. You need to accept that others want to be there too, and deal with it. And maybe do some volunteering to maintain the trails / educate people about proper wilderness etiquette.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#328

Post by almost_usual »

RC_ITR wrote: post #303
mring33621 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as "locals getting screwed" in this scenario. We live in a free country, where people sometimes choose to move. In fact, when the demand for housing in an area goes up, often locals profit handsomely. Unfortunately, "I was here first" sounds a lot like "fuck you, I got mine". And it's not gonna fly.

Listen, nearly everyone largely agrees that wealth inequality at the current US level is bad. Wealthy people moving to low-cost areas (and thus raising cost of living) accelerates inequality for a few reasons. 1) Unlike you scenario, many working-class people in places like Sedona can only afford to rent their homes (25% of total, give or take in Sedona). These people incur huge monetary costs in being forced to move…

> Wealthy people moving to low-cost areas (and thus raising cost of living) accelerates inequality for a few reasons.

Low cost _desirable_ areas.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#329

Post by giantg2 »

dublinben wrote: post #313
Loughla wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You built a house there eight years ago Sorry, I should've been more clear. I grew up here as well. I've lived here for my entire life (outside of the 6 years I was at college/grad school, and even then I was back to work on the farm on the weekends). It's not NIMBY. I don't care who lives here. That's actually what I like the most about rural living - for the most part if you leave people alone, they'll leave you a…

If a few wealthy people moving in has driven up housing prices so much, then the supply of housing is insufficient. The appropriate reaction to increased demand for housing is to meet it with increased supply. What local and state policies might be inhibiting this and harming these communities?

It sounds like it's more than just a few wealthy people.

"What local and state policies might be inhibiting this and harming these communities?"

Do you have any examples? It sounds to me like the policies have made it a nice place to live, enticing people from other places to move there, and that influx is causing the shortage. Should they impose some sort of moving tax or other policy to remove that demand?

In my experience, policy isn't the issue in rural areas. The people who live there and own the land don't want to sell the land to be developed on.

Re: Small cities in America’s Mountain West are booming

#330

Post by panzagl »

imtringued wrote: post #86
nelsonmandela wrote: post #40

Is that house in the first image made of plywood?

It looks like conventional OSB sheathing, the surprising part is that it doesn't have an integrated coating to repel water. This means that housewrap will have to be applied to protect the sheathing from water damage, this is both labor intensive and the potential for misapplication increases the risk of water damage.

Colorado Springs is in a desert, if that changes things.
Post reply on HN