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The liberal NYT assumes, like most of America, that their happiness is based on how much money they make or having social status. People like this will gradually leave a rural area. But people who put a higher priority on safety, a slower pace of life, a better family life, will still find the good life in rural America. Its not for everyone. Thank God.
Which reminds me .... I haven't seen my truck keys in a while.
It's OK................. Found them. I left them in the truck when I used it last week.
The liberal NYT assumes, like most of America, that their happiness is based on how much money they make or having social status. People like this will gradually leave a rural area. But people who put a higher priority on safety, a slower pace of life, a better family life, will still find the good life in rural America. Its not for everyone. Thank God.
You can't just make blanket assumptions that rural is safe and urban is unsafe.
At least here in northeast TN, rural areas are generally much less safe than the cities (with the exceptions of rare bad neighborhoods) and their suburban areas.
Rural areas in Tennessee have an absolutely massive methamphetamine and opioid problems. It's very common to have break-ins and property crime in rural areas by people on drugs, looking for drugs, money/something to sell to buy for drugs, etc. There are also tends to be a lot of domestic violence in the rural areas here. In general, I'd never recommend that someone from outside the local area by a property in a rural area anywhere east of Knoxville without doing considerable due diligence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonF
Because twisting words and lashing out avoids an uncomfortable confrontation with reality.
I grew up in a similar area. It hasn't gotten better and it isn't going to get better. The schools are awful, the roads are awful, internet access is slow, and there's only one cellular provider. There was at least public water and sewer.
The reality of the situation is that unless there's a mine to work in, there's no reason to be there, and mining employment is unstable and dwindling.
I don't know how you fix it, though. Things could have been great if, in the 1950s and 1960s when there was a strong economy (but the writing was already on the wall), money had been invested into infrastructure and schools so other industries could come in. Now? There's no money to do anything. Even if the state decides to dump some money in for a new highway or something, it makes no difference because the economy died years ago.
That's what happened here.
Back in the 1920s-1970s or so, mining employment made these tiny backwater areas into prosperous middle class cities. Money was made in coal, but much of that money was not kept in the local economy. A coal company with a Richmond headquarters doesn't have much vested interest in seeing Virginia counties that are eight hours prosper. The owners largely lived outside the local area.
All the easy to get coal is gone. There's no more of it. The coal that's left in Appalachia requires increasingly sophisticated machinery and processes to get. That requires trained personnel, not just any Bubba fresh out of high school at 18 can do it. It takes far fewer people to mine far more coal than in the past.
As those jobs left, so did the people. The people who remained are largely unmotivated, unwilling to move, or are for some reason tied to the immediate area.
My first job out of college was at a defense contractor that set up in office in rural southwest Virginia. Anyone who was motivated at that site transferred to other offices in Richmond, NoVA, etc. Those people generally have real careers making good money now. Those who stayed work in a call center.
Rural areas in Tennessee have an absolutely massive methamphetamine and opioid problems. It's very common to have break-ins and property crime in rural areas by people on drugs, looking for drugs, money/something to sell to buy for drugs, etc. There are also tends to be a lot of domestic violence in the rural areas here. In general, I'd never recommend that someone from outside the local area by a property in a rural area anywhere east of Knoxville without doing considerable due diligence.
And isn't it ironic? Same thing happened in NYC - the city became safe and desirable and the 'affordable' suburbs became filled with high rates of drug use and petty crime
I'm most familiar with the rural farm belt. Many if not most of the smaller (under 1K) towns in the midwest (especially those off the beaten path of a big highway) are dying and there's not a formula to bring them back. First they lost retail with Walmart moving in 10, 20, 40 miles away, then it's the eateries, then it's the bank, then it's the school, then it's the Co-Op, then it's the Post Office. Nothing left but hollowed out cores. As family farms gave up and sold out to corporate there are fewer and fewer reasons to stay behind and if you need a job you are SOL. Networks abandon those markets to FoxNews where people get more angry and more hopeless because ad revenues mean everything.
I'll call myself a liberal to simplify matters and I care very much what happens to places like these. Unfortunately with money as their God most people in our leadership positions regardless of party don't care. They say they care but they don't until election time. There's not enough time, MONEY, or votes to get wrapped up in the problems of folk that have no influence, that don't and will never go to their cocktail parties or golf junkets.
The solutions won't be one size fits all, will necessarily be regional, then local. For some there will be no solutions sadly and that is what I think the article suggests through the various excerpts I've read, though I can't say for sure because the NYT has ticked me off for reasons conservatives might find amusing so I refuse to pay them dime.
That's the conversation that needs to be had. Not assigning blame or fingers stuck in ears, lalalalala I can't hear you because you are "insert label here". The pertinent questions: Can this area be saved? If so how are we going to do that? What will the future look like without the factory, mine or other local mega-employer? What are the area resources? What are the drawbacks?
Meaningful slogan free conversations should start in towns, counties, regions around the country. We can't depend on leadership from state or national politicians except maybe the rarest of birds that is an actual leader instead of a hopeless bureaucrat or worse kleptocrat with a decent spiel that they wind out every 2, 4 or 6 years. It's up to rural residents to get out of their own way and work the problem. That's how I see it as a rural resident that cares very much about my neighborhood.
When you factor in traffic fatalities, rural areas are far more dangerous. I’d be more nervous about my children driving dark, tree-lined roads at 55mph than walking city streets. It’s rare when a teenager gets killed in the city. Teens wrapped around trees seems like a weekly occurrence in rural Virginia.
Some of us are drawn to low Cost-of-Living areas. The low crime and slower pace is nice, nearly everyone has a garden, fishes and hunts.
I commonly see town debates where people 'want' growth, so these small towns can be just like NYC. Whenever I see someone arguing about how to create this growth, I have to ask why do you want growth?
If you want to live in a high cost / high crime city, then move to one.
I say the same thing about our small town. People want it to grow to bring in more tax revenue.
I say we should just make what we have look nicer etc., and thus bring in more people that want to live here and commute to the big city 25 miles away.
Hmm. Looking at the last several posts it appears that small town life in TN and VA and perhaps the South and midSouth does not have the same quality of life as what you find in the north and west.
In my area population is stable, there are jobs, the main traffic hazard is deer and drug use is way down from 20 years ago
You have another choice, which is Satellite Internet. And if you have satellite T.V. you can often get a discount on your Internet. And often can improve your phone service through satellite internet.
Congress is looking to bring high speed internet to rural areas.
Eduardo Porter, (author) has an agenda (surprise) !
As mentioned... this NYT article is mentioning a LOT of 'election' / politically motivated bias.
We already know... Our vote does not count. (36 counties are without a voice and controlled by a 3 county majority in my 39 county state) Hint... it is not the RURAL folks that get their say on election day.
Population decline in Rural lands has been happening since the tractor was invented (By a rural entrepreneur) and electrification (automation) arrived.
I'll admit it is getting more difficult to hire farm kids, but I still engage in that quest. (They are 'hands down' more capable and innovative for projects requiring tangible results). And you can leave them alone with your business / assets / customers / vehicles.
There are many reasons for staying rural, but WAGES is not usually one of them.
Hint: Get beyond wage income (sooner the better)
I have a lot of fun (and success) doing rural economic development (in my free time).
When in doubt... dive in and do something to help others!
As the article mentions...Internet access would be nice (Instead of driving to town ( Denny's in my case) to check email and balance the checkbook). Much of my state got wired in fiber in rural areas near Hydro Dams. I only wish I had something beyond dial-up.
Which reminds me .... I haven't seen my truck keys in a while.
It's OK................. Found them. I left them in the truck when I used it last week.
Doesn't everyone keep their vehicle keys in the vehicle?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
... You can't just make blanket assumptions that rural is safe and urban is unsafe.
At least here in northeast TN, rural areas are generally much less safe than the cities (with the exceptions of rare bad neighborhoods) and their suburban areas.
Rural areas in Tennessee have an absolutely massive methamphetamine and opioid problems. It's very common to have break-ins and property crime in rural areas by people on drugs, looking for drugs, money/something to sell to buy for drugs, etc.
That is unique to Tenn.
Not like that at all around here.
yes, technically meth and opioids are here, but the crime has stayed fairly low.
Of course the NYT does not like rural America because much of it is 'conservative'. It doesn't fit their mold. If we all became windmill repairmen they would hold us accountable for every dead bird. Heavy equipment and truck driving are decent paying jobs that have kept food on the tables and the F-150 in the garages of many rural Americans (it that is what they wanted). But I do not like the OP stereotyping rural America; many would be happy if they never had a F-150 (I'm happy with my Silverado 2500HD)!
Exactly. I really don't understand why economic improvement is seen as difficult in rural areas. Telework and telecommuting makes presence in an office basically a negotiable item. Taking classes online, especially in niche technical areas is fairly normal now. It's as if someone just wants all people to be in urban areas - remember the small house thing and gentrification, with a new report showing that most millenials leave urban areas for suburban ones as soon as they marry. Would be nice to bring a few home to their hometowns.
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