[Lilybeans]

Originally Posted by Alt Dach

Upstate rural NY is the undiscovered gem, Far and away the prettiest part of the US!
Only drawback is high property taxes no worse than VT.

And some of the worst gun laws in the country.

[NYLIER]

Originally Posted by 925mine

LOL, Rusty the Logger would take issue with this thread. He's the greatest.

Ditto and a cutey too!!

[mustmove]

Originally Posted by Lilybeans

And some of the worst gun laws in the country.

I love guns and VT is great for gun rights, but it isn't enough to overcome the crappy economics. I'm likely to end up back in MA, amazing how bordering states can have such drastically different laws.

[Californio]

Like my mother always said. It's one thing being poor, and its another thing to be poor and dirty.

[925mine]

Californio, Being poor and dirty isn't as bad as being rich and dirty.

[loveeveryone]

Hee hee we do have alot of rednecks in vermont

[wesvt]

I can see that this is an old post, and maybe the original topic has been skewed throughout the past year but I wonder how many people responding to this are people who grew up in VT and know what the state itself is all about. I myself am a 7th generation Vermonter and my family has roots in Dorset which go way back. Growing up in an affluent part of the state and being a local gives you a much different perspective on what the difference between rednecks, flatlanders, and real locals is like. I believe for the most part that local Vermonters who have roots in the state, are open minded, caring, interesting, and interested people. Every place in the world has people who are ignorant, selfish, and self destructive and I'm not saying that VT is free of this behavior, but I do think that compared to upstate NY, ME, and NH that Vermonters are a different breed. Also I would have to say that wealthy out of staters who move to VT have had a much more negative impact on the state than the local "rednecks." Anyone who has spent a signifcant amount of time there, I hope would agree with me. VT is indeed a special place and there are not many places like it in the country.

[NYLIER]

Originally Posted by wesvt

I can see that this is an old post, and maybe the original topic has been skewed throughout the past year but I wonder how many people responding to this are people who grew up in VT and know what the state itself is all about. I myself am a 7th generation Vermonter and my family has roots in Dorset which go way back. Growing up in an affluent part of the state and being a local gives you a much different perspective on what the difference between rednecks, flatlanders, and real locals is like. I believe for the most part that local Vermonters who have roots in the state, are open minded, caring, interesting, and interested people. Every place in the world has people who are ignorant, selfish, and self destructive and I'm not saying that VT is free of this behavior, but I do think that compared to upstate NY, ME, and NH that Vermonters are a different breed. Also I would have to say that wealthy out of staters who move to VT have had a much more negative impact on the state than the local "rednecks." Anyone who has spent a signifcant amount of time there, I hope would agree with me. VT is indeed a special place and there are not many places like it in the country.

I am an "out of stater who moved to VT" but unfortunately since my husband and I moved to VT we are broke . Happy, but broke! So I hope I don't fall into the catagory who have had a negative impact on VT. Can you tell me who lives in those beautiful homes in Dorset? Are they local VTers who have had those homes in the family for generations or the wealthy out of staters you speak of?
Maybe I can understand the locals getting upset with the wealthy people that build vacation homes in VT, but why the families that live here permanently? It's not jealousy because I know a few locals and it doesn't seem like money is an issue. I'm asking this hoping you will give me a logical answer to this question instead of the usual local putting the blame on the outsiders.

[vter]

Hey NYLIer, I can't speak for wesvt's Dorset experience, but can tell a little about my parents.
My parents are "native Vermonters" (from the NEK) who moved to a town near Dorset approx 20 years ago due to a job transfer. After 9/11 a huge influx of very wealthy folks from the tri-state area bought property and moved to the area. Quite a few of them immediately got themselves involved in town politics, and lets just say that the folks that had been in town for a while (or forever) were very turned off by these new people in town. They came in wanting to change the town to what they expected Vermont to be like (according to the 'rents). They wanted new ordinances to ban this or that, noise, etc. Small town politics always get messy regarless though IMO . I think this has happened in a lot of towns in the Bennington/Manchester/Dorset corridor as it's the closest part of Vermont to metro NYC-the area seems to have a lot more WEALTHY transplants from NYC area than other areas of VT (with the exception of Burlington).
My parents ended up moving further north in VT - not because of what happened politically in their former town, but because they found their dream retirement property there. They like their new town-not a lot of "big money" like their old one, but plenty of flatlanders
Again, to reiterate, this was their experience.

[NYLIER]

I heard about Dorset's strict ways. I thought it odd that the Village was so "white". Most of the homes are white with dark shutters. Thank you VTer...I do understand better the unwarranted changes that took place in Dorset and I'm sure some of the other affluent areas of VT. It's sad to say but wealthy people have a lot of power. A perfect example....who is going to pay for this baleout? Not the rich. I'm a bit surprised you include Burlington as an area that the wealthy flocked too. I didn't know that.
We moved from a town that my husband's family had roots for generations. He went through the same thing as your parents. People from other areas, including NYC, moved in and were very demanding. They wanted sidewalks and streetlights. We were one of the very few that were zoned agricultural. Not only did we have a farm, but my husband was a commercial crabber. One of the neighbors did not like the fishing equipment in eye sight of his house. Our guinea fowl and rooster would make to much noise so they would complain to the town noise control officer. There was not a thing that the neighbor could do about it. He bought his house fully aware of the fact that there was a farm next door. I don't know why people feel that everything should change to suit them.
Manchester changed drastically also, am I correct? Were the locals happy when they saw all those outlets opening?
So after 9/11 was when most of the unwelcome change started in Vermont. This is very interesting. Thank you.