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I still am lost why rural MA VT CT is just so much better off or atleast looks it .. It makes no sense.. and yes resorty.
Not saying i like vt etc better than pa, but you know what i mean.
It makes total sense. 18% of the residential housing stock in Vermont is vacation homes. Vermont has a state school property tax that means tests primary residences so most Vermonters don’t get hit hard by it. The vacation homes pay a 1.51% school property tax on top of their muni tax every year. There are a ton of really affluent flatlanders propping up Vermont. At least the Lenox/Stockbridge part of western Massachusetts is propped up by NYC vacation homes. The hilly northwest corner of Connecticut is similar.
On the flip side, the three places also have some real hell holes. Killingly CT. Springfield VT. Mill towns that failed years ago and are still wallowing in their malaise. Of course, nobody goes to Springfield VT or Killingly CT as a tourist. With GE bailing out of Pittsfield MA, that local economy is circling the drain, too. It fortunately has wealthy metro Boston to prop it up. The state funds 100% of public schools there and provides a lot of other subsidies for elderly services, police/fire, and roads. Put Pittsfield in New Hampshire and it would collapse. See Claremont NH for an example.
You’re saying places feel resort-y but that’s because you’re only visiting the resort-y parts of the state. All of Vermont isn’t like that.
Agreed. Most of New England's yucky towns are in Northern NH, Maine and random parts of Massachusetts like Bristol County.
I’m writing this from “yucky” Bristol County, MA. My census tract doesn’t look much different from a Boston suburb in terms of 6-figure household income and percentage of college educated adults. I’m a mile from my private beach and 0.7 miles from my boat slip. We had dinner 4 miles away at the New Bedford waterfront on Friday. That “yucky” place is massively gentrified. -20 al fresco dining options. Quaint cobblestone streets. The fast ferries to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. If you drive by on I-195, what you see are run down triple decker tenement buildings in the worst part of the city. It’s not all like that. By land area, 2/3 of New Bedford is middle class single family homes. It’s like if all you could see of Boston driving through was Mattapan. Not all of Boston looks like Mattapan and Dorchester.
Im sorry but this all of rural New England looks nice is totally not true. Much of Rural New England looked dry crusty faded and is boarded up. TInking NorthEastern CT, much of Western/Central MA. Northern Mine and New Hampshire. No one describes those places as nice. I feel like your just talking the Berkshire/Happy Valley, LitchfieldCounty CT, and Southern Vermont because idk what you've seen but...nah
Maybe better than many rural parts of the USA but they still are with declining job prospect, declining populations and poor infra.
Im sorry but this all of rural New England looks nice is totally not true. Much of Rural New England looked dry crusty faded and is boarded up. TInking NorthEastern CT, much of Western/Central MA. Northern Mine and New Hampshire. No one describes those places as nice. I feel like your just talking the Berkshire/Happy Valley, LitchfieldCounty CT, and Southern Vermont because idk what you've seen but...nah
Maybe better than many rural parts of the USA but they still are with declining job prospect, declining populations and poor infra.
No theres a stark political, income difference between a good portion of rural New England to neighboring Upstate. Its not really up for debate..
Im sorry but this all of rural New England looks nice is totally not true. Much of Rural New England looked dry crusty faded and is boarded up. TInking NorthEastern CT, much of Western/Central MA.
As someone from CT I've literally never got any kind of boarded up vibe from anywhere I've been there. There are definitely some sketchy cities there but boarded up? Nah. I've also lived in NYC and NJ and there are definitely some boarded up areas there. Please post some google street view links so I can see what you are talking about.
I think the point that BBMM (please correct me if I'm wrong) is making is that the relative overall condition of rural New England isn't as uniformly prosperous as it's often made it to be. Population loss and/or the remaining impacts of deindustrialization is very much part of a not insignificant portion of the New England landscape.
Is it better off compared the rural US as a whole? Yes, most likely. That's due to the relatively strong social safety net in NE and the greater proportion of towns supported by well-heeled tourists. As noted upthread, this seems to describe Vermont's economy most closely, but places like The Berkshires, Coastal Maine, and the NH Lakes Region are other prominent examples.
But the underlying economic conditions in many rural NE communities aren't exactly that of vibrancy. I've always been fascinated by this Distressed Community Index, which definitely shows a pretty strong rural vs. urban economy divide in NE: https://eig.org/dci/interactive-map
Not as pronounced as much of the rest of the US, but the disparity exists, and sadly is likely to get worse over time.
As someone from CT I've literally never got any kind of boarded up vibe from anywhere I've been there. There are definitely some sketchy cities there but boarded up? Nah. I've also lived in NYC and NJ and there are definitely some boarded up areas there. Please post some google street view links so I can see what you are talking about.
Refer to my comment above.
But Hartford and Watebury have quite a few boarded up properties sprinkled all over
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