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I have been wondering why so many life long big city dwellers, decide they must relocate to some quaint idyllic small town, and then work as hard as they can to gentrify the original character out of that town. Overcrowding the area, raising prices, bring in big city trappings.
Examples? Try, Brenham and Boerne Texas, Gatlinburg and Chattanooga Tennessee, Asheville and Boone North Carolina, Charleston and Beaufort South Carolina.
I get the attraction of a quaint small town, but why transform it into another hipster tourist town, crowed by traffic, chain burger joints and "fake" craft shops?
Because you get tired of spending hours in your car driving to the places you are familiar with and want to go.
In my town, most of the restaurants just suck or offer "meh" food or offer the same fast food or pizza that you find elsewhere (so that's really not a huge draw in the first place). That's one thing my town doesn't have a shortage of- is pizza places.
I moved to my small town specifically because it is growing, not because it's stagnant.
I don't think that it's realistic to market yourself as a growing area and welcoming to growing families and then tell people in the same breath that you are ticked off because you still want the town to be the same as it was before. Even if the town is now attracting a different demographic. That's just unfair.
It's simply not my fault that farmers are selling their land to housing developers because small farming isn't profitable and farmers can't sell the land as a working farm. Nor is it somehow my fault that road planners assumed that farming would always be the way of life around here. We are smart enough to come up with solutions to some of these issues.
Honestly, had housing been less expensive in a few of the suburbs that we were looking at, we would have moved there instead. But it wasn't and this is where we got the best bang for our buck, so this is where we moved.
People want to act like local, local, local is all that, but sometimes the hype doesn't live up to reality. We've got a Mexican place like that in town. The food has no flavor. It really seems slapped together with no care or consideration. I can make better food at home. Through talking with people, they go for the beer and the nachos. (So, apparently, you need alcohol to eat there, so you don't mind that the food has no taste.) But it's local, local, local so people feel obligated to go because they are supporting the local business. (Or it's what they know and think that it's actually good.....) Needless to say, we don't do Mexican in town b/c it's just awful. (We have no idea why it has the following that it does.....but I guess if you like beer and nachos???? We aren't into beer, so beer really isn't a draw.......)
I also can't wait for the day when we are able to build a bigger library b/c trying to cram more stuff into the space that they have really isn't working out too well at this point.
I have been wondering why so many life long big city dwellers, decide they must relocate to some quaint idyllic small town, and then work as hard as they can to gentrify the original character out of that town. Overcrowding the area, raising prices, bring in big city trappings.
I get the attraction of a quaint small town, but why transform it into another hipster tourist town, crowed by traffic, chain burger joints and "fake" craft shops?
The town where I live was a nice place 40+ years ago but it has been ruined forever like a lot of other towns in the area. We are now overrun with self absorbed, entitled pompous bags, which is painfully obvious based on what I see on nextdoor. We have way too much traffic, schools are overcrowded and always need more money, plastic water bottles, Mountain Dew cans and fast food garbage litter every roadside, the county needs a $40 million jail expansion and a tax increase for a new firehouse. Quality of life is going down the crapper and it’s only going to get worse.
I have been wondering why so many life long big city dwellers, decide they must relocate to some quaint idyllic small town, and then work as hard as they can to gentrify the original character out of that town. Overcrowding the area, raising prices, bring in big city trappings.
Examples? Try, Brenham and Boerne Texas, Gatlinburg and Chattanooga Tennessee, Asheville and Boone North Carolina, Charleston and Beaufort South Carolina.
I get the attraction of a quaint small town, but why transform it into another hipster tourist town, crowed by traffic, chain burger joints and "fake" craft shops?
I know that places like Charleston, Asheville, and Chattanooga aren't major cities, but they are certainly well past the point of being "quaint rural small towns"--and that was before gentrification kicked into high gear.
Tourism is a double-edged sword. So is retirement relocation. Some places would die without it.
Those city dwellers whose families were from rural areas a generation or two ago went out and discovered what was left behind and they liked some of it. Relocation fever brings people out to find cheaper places to live in retirement. They find places to live in small towns and bring certain expectations and changes with them.
I have been wondering why so many life long big city dwellers, decide they must relocate to some quaint idyllic small town, and then work as hard as they can to gentrify the original character out of that town. Overcrowding the area, raising prices, bring in big city trappings.
Examples? Try, Brenham and Boerne Texas, Gatlinburg and Chattanooga Tennessee, Asheville and Boone North Carolina, Charleston and Beaufort South Carolina.
I get the attraction of a quaint small town, but why transform it into another hipster tourist town, crowed by traffic, chain burger joints and "fake" craft shops?
Not many examples of this in the Midwest, with exceptions such as Kenosha and Racine, WI, which many would consider far out suburbs of Chicago and Milwaukee. I'd imagine small towns in states like Oregon, Idaho, and other mountainess areas are where this would be a thing, but honestly I don't know.
Gatlinburg was not quaint and idyllic. I can remember (vaguely because I was a tot) it being one hotel a store along a solitary strip of roadway.
Sevierville has some quaintness though the quaint core has been surrounded by tourist sprawl. Coming from a big city you'd still find Sevierville affordable though supply is a bit constrained since the Gatlinburg fires.
Chattanooga has a gentrified downtown but still lots and lots of affordable housing. Bring your tool belt. The Rossville rd commercial strip is anything but gentrified.
Last edited by creeksitter; 07-13-2019 at 10:49 AM..
It's pretty rare for a rural city to significantly change. 95% of rural areas are pretty much identical to how they were decades ago, barely anyone is affected by "rural gentrification."
In the Texas, the area between Houston and Austin/San Antonio used to be littered with small old fashioned towns. All with a town square, shops that sold local crafts, restaurants that were one of a kind mom and pop joints, farmer's market, etc.. Land and housing were reasonable. You could go out at night with no worries and star gaze and watch fireflies.
I have noticed over the past 20 years as the rich of Houston have bought up land for their weekend estates, more and more of those town's identities have vanished. High dollar clothing and jewelry stores, chain restaurants, brew pubs, craft and gift shops full of "imported antiques" have appeared. Land and house prices are insanely soaring and the traffic on weekends is like Houston during rush hour!
The Hipsters attracted by the new restaurants, brew pubs and art are also flocking in with their parent's money and internet careers. Until the towns have become mini-Austins and Houstons.
What I can't understand is - if the area originally attracted them because of it unique characters and rural charm, then why convert it into just another version of the place you came from?
Its like, "Boy I really love the country, but you know what it lacks? A Whole Foods, Starbucks, Urban Outfitters......."
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