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Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

theguardian.com

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Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#91

Post by ghaff »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #87
ghaff wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'd look at university towns and small cities generally in the northern end of the country. Though it's probably not just the largest universities--there are smaller schools that caan still give a place a feel of a university town. Then pick some climate metrics like average inches of snow. Create a shortish list and go from there. I suspect some of the criteria are also less important than others. Continuing e…

Re: continuing education: I just wanted a way to take some classes and gain access to the university library. Technically I have access to lifetimes of material online via books, papers, MOOCs, etc; but it would be really nice take a philosophy class and actually be able to have in depth discussions, or check out some book that's never been published on kindle.

The in-depth discussions part (i.e. things like seminars) is probably difficult without registering for a class in some manner—which, in turn, is difficult at a traditional university without enrolling, outside of some continuing ed program. My undergrad university library is also accessible (at least if you look like you belong) post-COVID in the sense that you don't have to card in but even I (as an alum and moderately large donor) would almost certainly have to pay an annual access fee to check something out. It also has some generally accessible activities in January but you need to know where to look.

Universities/colleges are a pretty good source of cultural activities and other things in a town but their classes, and to a lesser degree libraries (it depends as some libraries let people just walk-in though not check-out material; others control access pretty tightly), are not really public resources.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#92

Post by ghaff »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #83
ghaff wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably need to decide if you want no "lake effect" snow specifically or just don't want a lot of snow. It still snows a lot in places that aren't Buffalo or Syracuse. Just in New York state Ithaca is pretty much out of the lake effect snow belt but it still snows quite a bit.

I have cerebral palsy. I'm from the south, and the few experiences I have with snow and ice have not been great, lol. A fall that might just bruise a hip in your 30's might well break it in you 70's and at that age, it's often a serious hit to your quality of life or even 'game over'. I want to be far enough north to rarely deal with dangerous heat, but far enough south that I'm not basically 'snowed in' given I seem…

As someone else commented, you're probably talking about Pacific Northwest (Washington or Oregon coastal regions) then. It's not completely snow-free and can get fairly hot in the summers. But it's probably the best compromise between mostly snow-free and not-too-hot. Pretty much anyplace else in the North that (usually) doesn't get too hot in the summer gets snow, if not the consistent heavy snowfalls of places in the lake effect belt.

In addition to the larger cities, you have places like Corvallis where Oregon State is located.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#93

Post by ghaff »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #84
filoleg wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an alternative proposal to Ann Arbor for this that hits every single one of your criteria, but with a plus-minus (with a caveat, but i will elaborate on that later) regarding reasonable cost of living. That would be Seattle area. I will go point by point. The good: * According to their own Climate Vulnerability Assessment[0], the region is fairly resilient to the impacts of the climate change. * There is no la…

I had previously looked at the PNW. I adore seattle , but the earthquake / tsunami / wild fire risk projections are extreme. I know they're retrofitting a lot of infra and housing there, but a cascadia fault quake / tsunami is gonna be a bad time even if fema's 'everything east of I-5 is toast' is overhyped.

At some point, you need to do the pro/con analysis. If you add minimum natural disasters risk, based on when I knew something about datacenter siting details, you were looking at maybe Las Vegas area (which also has access to Hoover Dam power). But, now, you're in extreme desert heat (predictably) in the summer and probably don't tick off a lot of other considerations either.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#94

Post by ghaff »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #51
dcchambers wrote: post #20

I really thought the major "rust belt" cities were going to blow up after the big COVID WFH push. Why spend 2-10x as much to live in one of four coastal metros when you could get the same pay while living somewhere much cheaper. The biggest issue with these cities in the last 50 years has been a lack of high paying jobs and WFH tech jobs essentially negate that issue. There are a ton of American cities that have fall…

Generally, people like to have fun and will pay premiums to live in cities where stuff happens. Cheap housing and money aren’t the only motivators, otherwise we would have a different landscape.

Generally is doing a lot of work there. There are vast suburbs (including Silicon Valley) and exurbs in the US even before you get genuinely rural.

I can drive an hour into some large cities where "fun happens" although I have lots of activities around where I live too.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#95

Post by Yeul »

ghaff wrote: post #81
tokioyoyo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was there about a year ago with a couple of friends, stopped for a night while driving through Michigan to go up north. It was just so eerie throughout the entire day. Incredibly wide streets, but sometimes you would walk for 5 mins before you saw a single soul. Maybe because it was a bit of a chilly day as well, but it felt like the city was built for way more people, and there just isn’t enough now.

Other people makes a big difference. Even back when NYC was a lot more iffy than it is today in general, I never really felt uncomfortable walking down somewhere like Fifth Avenue late at night because there were enough people at night. Various midwest cities can be pretty eerie--especially after business hours. The downtowns are often not that busy during the day and they're deserted--except maybe some local pockets…

This is an interesting point. In the 1980s Amsterdam was dirt poor but it was never empty. In fact it attracted all kinds of people who wanted to live an "alternative" lifestyle in cheap real estate. Communists, artists, gay people.

New York no matter what happens will always be located in the most densely populated part of America.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#96

Post by Yeul »

schmichael wrote: post #62
dcchambers wrote: post #20

I really thought the major "rust belt" cities were going to blow up after the big COVID WFH push. Why spend 2-10x as much to live in one of four coastal metros when you could get the same pay while living somewhere much cheaper. The biggest issue with these cities in the last 50 years has been a lack of high paying jobs and WFH tech jobs essentially negate that issue. There are a ton of American cities that have fall…

> Why spend 2-10x as much to live in one of four coastal metros I think you answered your own question: it’s not (entirely) an economic decision. Weather, culture, nature, civic amenities. There’s a lot in life that money can’t buy. Sure I could own a McMansion on a palatial plot of prairie, but what if the square footage of my house and acreage of my yard isn’t what’s important to me?

Being surrounded by Christian conservative Trump voters is not how everyone wants to live their life.

HN probably consists of a lot of people who are perfectly content spending their entire life looking at a screen perfectly oblivious of what is going on.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#97

Post by tzs »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #79
psunavy03 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no state income tax . . . yet. But the "soak the rich" band is already tuning up, and with the cost of living being what it is out here, "rich" will probably include anyone who can afford a house.

I would not be too worried about that. Washington legislators just outlawed income tax last year. While those who want earned income tax are vocal, the support for the initiative against income tax was so widespread that the politicians did not want it on the ballot for fear of voters being swayed to vote for the other ballot initiatives. https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Initiative_2111,_Prohibit...

But note that support of the ballot initiative to repeal the capital gains tax was not widespread. 63% voted to reject it and keep the tax.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#98

Post by silisili »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #83
ghaff wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably need to decide if you want no "lake effect" snow specifically or just don't want a lot of snow. It still snows a lot in places that aren't Buffalo or Syracuse. Just in New York state Ithaca is pretty much out of the lake effect snow belt but it still snows quite a bit.

I have cerebral palsy. I'm from the south, and the few experiences I have with snow and ice have not been great, lol. A fall that might just bruise a hip in your 30's might well break it in you 70's and at that age, it's often a serious hit to your quality of life or even 'game over'. I want to be far enough north to rarely deal with dangerous heat, but far enough south that I'm not basically 'snowed in' given I seem…

This is basically what every human on Earth wants. Which is why the entire west coast is so expensive, because it's about the only place in the US that fits that bill.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#99

Post by ghaff »

pc86 wrote: post #46
no_wizard wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most companies will cut your pay based on where you live, though. You aren’t usually paid the same. That isn’t the norm. Secondly and probably more important is there is zero guarantees that WFH will be supported by the work places they can support it will, we have seen a huge RTO surge. I’d hate to be in one of these cities and get that call. If WFH opportunities had legal protections and incentives it’d be a differ…

Whether or not locality-based pay is the norm is an open question. Every place I've ever worked had a budget for the role and that was that, but most places I've worked only hire folks within the US who don't need visa sponsorship so that's already a smaller group than "anyone who can type JavaScript into a computer." Would you rather live and rent in NYC and work from home for 4 years until asked to commute again, o…

Even if there aren't location-based salaries as such, there's a lot of "ROFL, we're not going to match your Facebook offer." I worked for someone who eventually ended up with very few California employees and, I believe, eventually closed their relatively small office there.

>Moving is easy

I disagree with this. If you have a relatively small number of possessions living by yourself in an apartment, maybe. But, as you say, with a partner and even kids with an established circle of friends—and maybe a house, is definitely not easy.

Re: Detroit’s revival takes shape after decades of decay

#100

Post by ghaff »

silisili wrote: post #98
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have cerebral palsy. I'm from the south, and the few experiences I have with snow and ice have not been great, lol. A fall that might just bruise a hip in your 30's might well break it in you 70's and at that age, it's often a serious hit to your quality of life or even 'game over'. I want to be far enough north to rarely deal with dangerous heat, but far enough south that I'm not basically 'snowed in' given I seem…

This is basically what every human on Earth wants. Which is why the entire west coast is so expensive, because it's about the only place in the US that fits that bill.

Plenty of people are fine with snow and ice in the winter—certainly relative to places where the alternative is >100 degree F summers. But I don't really disagree that many people like a Mediterranean climate (that the coastal PNW also largely has except for the non-summer grayness) which tilts the scales. Also generally good outdoor recreation options for the most part.
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