Colorado Urban Rural divide

[parfleche]

I think the urban rural divide is fake news.I live in super rural CO and it is never discussed.My 2 Daughters from here live in Denver and could care less either They love it there and I always have a great time when I visit especially for a Broncos game the air is electric and people are so happy and energized.Reminds me of Woodstock.I feel this all started after the last election when the more educated know it all idiots started blaming the redneck white ignorant trailer trash for voting in Trump.Sorry it did not go down that way it's all fake.I even fell for it .
i

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by parfleche

I think the urban rural divide is fake news.I live in super rural CO and it is never discussed.My 2 Daughters from here live in Denver and could care less either They love it there and I always have a great time when I visit especially for a Broncos game the air is electric and people are so happy and energized.Reminds me of Woodstock.I feel this all started after the last election when the more educated know it all idiots started blaming the redneck white ignorant trailer trash for voting in Trump.Sorry it did not go down that way it's all fake.I even fell for it .
i

You know what parfleche? I think you are dead on. I drop in on another Internet Forum from time to time where the members are all democrats. I wrote a post there trying to explain why the people of a place like Montezuma County, Colorado would vote for Trump. The responses I got to my post were so hate filled that I was stunned. These were people who at least in theory were on the same side as me - I'm a Bernie Sanders gal, myself but I voted for Hillary over Trump for a number of reasons. Still, since I live out here with all the "redneck white ignorant trailer trash" too and I like to talk things over with my neighbors in a respectful manner, I could understand why they felt as they did even if I didn't always agree with them. The harsh response of my fellow dems on that forum and their complete ignorance as to what's going on in different parts of this country was deeply discouraging. This devisiveness and deep mutual animosity serves both sides ill and gets us nowhere. In the words of Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Rural and urban, left, right and center, we need to seek common ground. That's what a democracy is all about.

[wilberry]

it all news to keep us distracted ....

[pikabike]

Originally Posted by wilberry

it all news to keep us distracted ....

I'm afraid you are right about that. While the population is distracted by both trivia and stoked-up "news", wasting their energy and time, who knows what Bigmouth is doing behind the scenes.

[GraniteStater]

Speaking of rural Colorado, I found this article interesting:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...et-in-america/

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

Speaking of rural Colorado, I found this article interesting:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...et-in-america/

Thanks for the link, cool that it focused on the SLV.

Lack of broadband internet in rural areas is another reason people and businesses either don't move there or leave there for urban areas where good telecom services are in place.

It has nothing to do with politics or divide and conquer games the pols play. It has everything to do with being in a capitalist society where there's a very poor or zero return on investment to install expensive infrastructure in sparsely populated rural areas. It costs a fortune to build it but there's no profit to be made with a small user base riding an expensive installed infrastructure.

Like the article pointed out, back in the 1930s the REA helped bring electricity to the farms in Appalachia for the same reasons of remoteness and distance between customers. A lot of the electrification was with hydro power off the Tennessee River which had the side effect of stopping the annual river flooding. We could use some federal or state money to expand internet capability in rural areas. Satellite dishes might be the thing to avoid all those costs of cable and digging which gets very expensive.

The article had one misspelled name; it's not Alfred Packer, it is Alferd Packer....Colorado's famous cannibal.

[brightdoglover]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

Speaking of rural Colorado, I found this article interesting:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...et-in-america/

Fascinating article, thanks for posting.

I would love to see rural areas invigorated by people able to work remotely, or otherwise use connectivity to enhance local economies.

[Vision67]

Providing low cost, high bandwidth internet services to rural areas would require some form of redistribution. I doubt that the current political climate would go for it.

But when you think about it, consider our Colorado Springs water system.
SDS Water > Project Overview

That is also a form of redistribution from the rate payers to the developers.

That huge tract of land east of Colorado Springs is virtually worthless without a reliable source of water.

Redistribution from the bottom to the top works. The other way, not so much.

[daprara]

last few years have been drought. people are thinking twice about buyiung in that coloado mountain house. fire danger and higher home owners insurance. difficulty drilling for water.