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Um, it isn't only the skiing and ineresting rural setting, but the other qualities that draw developers.
2) Desperate-to-encourage-growth communities, that will tax current citizens to supply water, sewer, roads, and even police and fire stations, to ensure developers' not having to foot the bills so that they profit and can oversell their properties.
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I agree with #2 for sure. Many high ammenity areas seem to have developers, real estate agents, and big business interests on the city commissions of these towns. Then, more development= more traffic= more infrastructure needed= higher taxes= more congestion, etc!
I believe our Colorado member JazzLover had a good term for this profligate pro-development outlook. (The I-70 Sacrafice Zone).
On the other hand, Great Plains states like Nebraska do offer good advantages. I have good knowledge of those advantages because I lived in rural Kansas and near the KC metro for 20 years. The Great Plains states generally have lower COL, great work ethic, generally lower taxes, less regulation, wide open spaces, etc. One of my favorite places to visit includes the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The openess and incredible visibility on a clear day is just remarkable. The Sand Hills has been good about marketing themselves to some retirees.
However... Nebraska like other Great Plains states has serious issues regarding the extreme out-migration trends in all areas outside the metropolitan and micropolitan cities. These out-migration trends in rural areas have been occurring for over a century, but the overall percentage declines are generally accelerating more quickly with time- especially out in the frontier counties. This puts extreme strain on the level of services that can be offered in some of the more isolated areas and results in nearly continuous rounds of consolidation with time. Also, isolation is a factor for most people who tend to not want to live in a very isolated area with very limited services.
I enjoyed living in the central US, but it was time to move on in search of abetter job opportunity in a different part of the country- which I found. I also appreciated moving to a part of the US that was more diverse, had a strong/business friendly Downtown, an active Farmer's Market during many months out of the year, has pleasant weather with little wind, a solid/stable job market, and great proximity to the coast and mountains.
SCGranny,
Exactly what amenities of city life are "right next door" if you are living in Cherry County Nebraska? Does Valentine have a symphony orchestra? Is there a Neiman Marcus in O'Neill? Are there professional sports franchises and five-star gourmet restaurants in Ainsworth? You may be saying to yourself, "Well, who gives a rat's behind about those things?", but I'll tell you who: People who have lived in heavily populated areas. And we have no chance of luring people like that to go live in the middle of nowhere. The quaintness and charm of the quiet life will wear off after a while and those people are not going to be too excited about the prospect of an eight or nine hour round trip drive to Omaha or Lincoln if they want to attend a cultural event at the Orpheum Theatre or Lied Center. We may be able to lure manufacturing factories to rural Nebraska that employ blue-collar, working-class people. More power to us if we can manage that. But attracting corporations that hire highly educated, affluent, white-collar people, or attracting culturally rich, well-to-do retirees to rural Nebraska? Good Luck. You mention the overabundance of cheap property in rural Nebraska. Ask yourself: Why is it so cheap? If there was a heavy demand for that land so people could move to rural Nebraska, it would be more valuable wouldn't it?
I agree: Rural Nebraska can be heaven on earth....DEPENDING on what your interests are. Some people couldn't care less about hunting and fishing, however.
I admire your marketing flair for our state, though!! Maybe you should move to Lincoln and get a job with the State Dept. of Economic Development! Those people can use all the help they can get.
I lived in a very rural community. 40 miles away was a resort island. The only reason people came to our county was the hunting... and some of them paid big bucks just to spend a weekend at a 'hunting camp' - a large house with guest houses around it, just so they could go out intot he cornfields and woods and swams to hunt. A few of them that came were developers taking time off. They decided to start putting up developments, so they influenced Wal Mart to put up a store. Then they put up their ' residential communities', and I was involved in national marketing efforts to draw not only residents but businesses. It worked. A small town that had only 800 people grew to 50,000 in just eight years. The town I moved to NE from - with a population of once 1500 when I first moved there - is going to grow to 240,000 in the next seven years. There are malls popping up everywhere - I actually sold my house to a mall developer. So that is the cycle of how it happens... don't ever think that it can't happen in Valentine or Mullen or even Eli, because it can. And if Nebraskans aren't careful, it will. But you can rest assured that I won't be a part of it - because with developers and development comes increased ordinances, increased crime, increased impacts on your water, sewer, electricty, and other utilities, increased taxes - and a sharp decline in your quality of life. But the biggest problem is that newcomers come because - so they SAY - they love the beauty and richness of the area, and the local folk's attitude toward life, and their attitude towards others - and immediately demand that all of that change to suit them.
I was offered a job in casual conversation with the State Eco Dev people, but I turned it down. I do NOT want to promote this state to its own destruction, no matter how eager some innocent and well-meaning people are to do so. "I seen the elephant" and it is big and ugly and leaves low-paying service jobs, a lack of opportunity, and a lack of community involvement, in its wake. The folks here not only pick up their own trash but their kids pick up other peoples' trash. There are no gang bangers in the high school, there are no body piercings or rap music or sexual assaults in the hallways, and there are no day care centers for the students' children on the HS campuses. There is no graffiti splashed everywhere, and no swarms of kids going around town destroying private and public property 'for fun' - while their parents insist that "MY child would never do such a thing!" and the Juvenile Justice Department works overtime every weekend. And that's the way it needs to stay. While volunteering/working with EMS, I delivered seven babies in seven years - and all but one were crack-addicted. I hated all of that, and I came here to get away from it, not bring it with me. Unfortunately, not all people who 'escape to the country' feel the same - they demand their Neiman Marcus, Starbucks, and their Wal Marts and everything that goes with them... the underpaid service workers who struggle to make ends meet, and the workers who come to do the construction and stay to do social damage when they cannot become re-employed after the construction rush is over.
Why would anyone want to bring Hell to Heaven?
What I would rather see done in the rural areas is that the locals take control of their incredible ability to produce foodstuffs and become a force not only nationally but globally in the food production chain. If the first Commandment is "Thou shalt not live without air" the Second is "Thou shalt not live without food". Nebraska is uniquely situated to provide massive amounts of healthy, uncontaminated grass-fed beef and non-GE foodstuffs to the marketplace. They need to go with what they know, and not get involved in the mad rush to self-destruction that other areas have, for a fast-fleeting profit and and even faster decline in their quality of life. But that's just MHO.
I lived in a very rural community. 40 miles away was a resort island. The only reason people came to our county was the hunting... and some of them paid big bucks just to spend a weekend at a 'hunting camp' - a large house with guest houses around it, just so they could go out intot he cornfields and woods and swams to hunt. A few of them that came were developers taking time off. They decided to start putting up developments, so they influenced Wal Mart to put up a store. Then they put up their ' residential communities', and I was involved in national marketing efforts to draw not only residents but businesses. It worked. A small town that had only 800 people grew to 50,000 in just eight years. The town I moved to NE from - with a population of once 1500 when I first moved there - is going to grow to 240,000 in the next seven years. There are malls popping up everywhere - I actually sold my house to a mall developer. So that is the cycle of how it happens... don't ever think that it can't happen in Valentine or Mullen or even Eli, because it can. And if Nebraskans aren't careful, it will. But you can rest assured that I won't be a part of it - because with developers and development comes increased ordinances, increased crime, increased impacts on your water, sewer, electricty, and other utilities, increased taxes - and a sharp decline in your quality of life. But the biggest problem is that newcomers come because - so they SAY - they love the beauty and richness of the area, and the local folk's attitude toward life, and their attitude towards others - and immediately demand that all of that change to suit them.
I was offered a job in casual conversation with the State Eco Dev people, but I turned it down. I do NOT want to promote this state to its own destruction, no matter how eager some innocent and well-meaning people are to do so. "I seen the elephant" and it is big and ugly and leaves low-paying service jobs, a lack of opportunity, and a lack of community involvement, in its wake. The folks here not only pick up their own trash but their kids pick up other peoples' trash. There are no gang bangers in the high school, there are no body piercings or rap music or sexual assaults in the hallways, and there are no day care centers for the students' children on the HS campuses. There is no graffiti splashed everywhere, and no swarms of kids going around town destroying private and public property 'for fun' - while their parents insist that "MY child would never do such a thing!" and the Juvenile Justice Department works overtime every weekend. And that's the way it needs to stay. While volunteering/working with EMS, I delivered seven babies in seven years - and all but one were crack-addicted. I hated all of that, and I came here to get away from it, not bring it with me. Unfortunately, not all people who 'escape to the country' feel the same - they demand their Neiman Marcus, Starbucks, and their Wal Marts and everything that goes with them... the underpaid service workers who struggle to make ends meet, and the workers who come to do the construction and stay to do social damage when they cannot become re-employed after the construction rush is over.
Why would anyone want to bring Hell to Heaven?
What I would rather see done in the rural areas is that the locals take control of their incredible ability to produce foodstuffs and become a force not only nationally but globally in the food production chain. If the first Commandment is "Thou shalt not live without air" the Second is "Thou shalt not live without food". Nebraska is uniquely situated to provide massive amounts of healthy, uncontaminated grass-fed beef and non-GE foodstuffs to the marketplace. They need to go with what they know, and not get involved in the mad rush to self-destruction that other areas have, for a fast-fleeting profit and and even faster decline in their quality of life. But that's just MHO.
SCGranny,
You asked if I wanted to bet. As a matter of fact I DO want to bet....oh wait, no gambling in Nebraska....lost my head there for a moment.
If your previous place of residence was only 40 miles from a resort island, then that community was presumably located near a coast line and therefore was nowhere near as isolated as the part of Nebraska I was describing in my previous post. So I would assert that any parallels you are trying to draw between the two areas regarding the evils of rapid growth and redevelopment are not applicable because rural Nebraska does not have or ever will have that kind of development potential. When I used the term isolated to describe that part of Nebraska, what I meant is no cities, no airports, no interstate highways, no mountains, no oceans/beaches, no National Parks or vacation destinations nearby, no cultural outlets, etc. That's what true isolation is. Throw in the lousy winters, and we aren't talking about a highly marketable part of the country, are we? I still stand by what I said earlier: You are never going to attract large masses of people to move to that area.
You make excellent points about the nasty by-products of greed-driven, stampede, too-much-too-soon development. Indeed, healthy development should be organic in nature. I just don't realistically see the doomsday scenario that you describe ever happening in that part of Nebraska, however. We can agree to disagree on that one.
I'm glad that you have found your Utopia where you currently live. You can rest assured: rural Nebraska will never change. Except of course for the continuing trend of rural depopulation that has plagued the state for the past 40 years or so. If you don't think that is a problem, then we can agree to disagree on that one too. And that's okay.
rural Nebraska will never change. Except of course for the continuing trend of rural depopulation that has plagued the state for the past 40 years or so. If you don't think that is a problem, then we can agree to disagree on that one too. And that's okay.
Rural areas of KS have been declining in population for well over 100 years Many rural counties have reverted back into "frontier status" and have fewer than 7 people per square mile. This trend will not change, and the extreme out-migration of College graduates and working age individuals will continue. Most people move to a metropolitan or micropolitan city that has a diversified economy with many job opputunities as well as more cultural opportunities. Today's rural landscape is a lot different now compared to 75+ years ago when we had many hundreds of thousands more family farms than we do today. Today, you see fewer farms, but they are much larger in size because the bigger players bought out the smaller players. The big operations, and big agribusinesses also get more federal subsidies as well.
Some rural counties in the Plains are experiencing positive non-farm job growth rates, but stemming the out-migration and retaining wokers is extremely tough in isolated areas that are very far removed from even micropolitan cities. Around 80-85% of the population in Nebraska lives in either a metropolitan or micropolitan county with the remaining 15% of the population in rural areas. This is now the highest percentage of people living in urbanized areas since Nebraska first became a state.
Guys, forgive me, but you are talking about the past trends. And they really are about to become the past.
What is changing and what sort of impacts will it have? These are the things that you need to consider before making such sweeping statements when predicting the future based on the past.
1) Baby boomers retiring. Not all baby boomers are looking for the quaint active retirement communities. Many are looking for a simpler, more productive way of life than the swimming pool at 10, the links at 2, and the cribbage games at four. I am on other forums with folks who are looking to 'retire' - but to retire productively. 5-30 acres where they can grow their own and truly go back to their 'hippie beliefs' - ok, free love not so much, but natural fruits and vegies, places where folks are still folks and not interested in drivebys and seeing how many children they can have or how many protests they can attend. While developers right now are concentrating on 'active retirement communities', that trend is passing and they don't even know it.
2) Political and social waves. From terrorism to liberalism, folks are getting their hackles up and/or are running scared. Why on earth would you want to live in a city that may be bombed - by either the Evil Axis of Power or the Timothy McVeighs? People young and old are trying to raise children in this environment - and the more prevalent these things are, the more people will start to abandon the big cities and seek out places where the masses of lemmings are not sitting ducks, waiting for the Hand of God or Satan to clasp around them. They may not know WHAT is wrong, but they know something is - and it is a human tendency to withdraw into a comfort zone rather than to charge into or remain in a war zone.
3) Fiscal upheaval/recession/depression. These are the things that are worrying people most of all. Many folks are losing their homes or becoming 'upside down' in them - because they firmly believed that the prices of real estate would forever climb. They are looking to get out of those commitments and to live a simpler, less-impacted lifestyle. Read, read, read - people are scared. They are watching their 401Ks lose money, their properties lose money, their lifestyles shrink, and they will be looking to downsize. While some may still believe that this, that or the other politician knows what to do, and will save them, many are coming to the conclusion - especially from all of the bailouts - that all of this will impact their future earning potentals even more.
4) Food supplies and sales trends. Do you know what Whole Foods is? Do you know what beprepared.com is? These places are growing by leaps and bounds - because folks do not trust the current imported food supplies. Sushi from China, raised in filthy mudpits, the melamine in the wheat gluten, the antifreeze in the cough syrup - people are going to try to go back to locally raised and less genetically engineered foods. They want the free range chickens now, where before they were too messy and dirty to think about. They want the organic foods and grass-fed beef, because the discussions of the applications of the Monsanto GE corn and the hormones is starting to affect them. They want clear pure water, not the multifiltered and multi-additive stuff that comes from their taps right now - most of which they are too scared to drink, and buy bottled water. They are developing allergies that no one in their family ever had - and they are figuring out that it is caused by the additives, not the food itself.
5) Pandemics and the threat of bio warfare. More and more people are seeing diseases that they heven't seen in years, or even in their lifetimes - antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, polio, bacterial meningitis, the strep that causes MRSA - diseases that are spread rapidly through highly-populated areas. Older folks with health problems, younger folks with children - all are at first shocked when they read about these diseases in their neighborhoods and communities - then they start to place blame, or start to realize that these diseases are becoming more and more prevalent and less and less curable. They will not want to live in communities through which these diseases can spread like wildfire - nor will they want to live in communities where the biological warfare element causes superbugs to pass through their communities like that same wildfire.
6. Climate changes and the ability to escape natural disasters. Naturally you can't predict where the next hurricane willl hit, or when Mt St Helen's will erupt, or if Yellowstone will ever erupt, or even where the next NE tornado will hit. But you can pretty much predict to a certainty that you will not be able to escape these ever-increasingly-frequent disasters if you live in a heavily-populated area where every road OUT is already jam-packed with other folks fleeing at a dead standstill. If hurricanes become more prevalent, if increased natural disasters start wreaking even more havoc, people will not want to be in the path of the next one, and will look to go elsewhere.
And where is elsewhere? And how can NE plan for this change in development and Social trends, to be leading edge rather than follow-the-crowd?
And BTW no I don't have any more facts about any of these occurances than the next guy; not a conspiracy theorist, not anyone with secret knowledge or a tinfoil hat. But perception is everything - and what people perceive to be true will make them relocate and rethink their habits as surely as the unvarnished truth.
Folks are not going to continue the trend of gathering in ever-growing and larger group/cities, eating the food harvested and prepared by unknown hands. Bit by bit they are breaking away and looking for something else... smaller communities, less stress, less expensive, less gatherings of the violent, the diseased, the potentials for disaster that they see growing ever closer to their own doorsteps.
Guys, forgive me, but you are talking about the past trends. And they really are about to become the past.
What is changing and what sort of impacts will it have? These are the things that you need to consider before making such sweeping statements when predicting the future based on the past.
1) Baby boomers retiring. Not all baby boomers are looking for the quaint active retirement communities. Many are looking for a simpler, more productive way of life than the swimming pool at 10, the links at 2, and the cribbage games at four. I am on other forums with folks who are looking to 'retire' - but to retire productively. 5-30 acres where they can grow their own and truly go back to their 'hippie beliefs' - ok, free love not so much, but natural fruits and vegies, places where folks are still folks and not interested in drivebys and seeing how many children they can have or how many protests they can attend. While developers right now are concentrating on 'active retirement communities', that trend is passing and they don't even know it.
2) Political and social waves. From terrorism to liberalism, folks are getting their hackles up and/or are running scared. Why on earth would you want to live in a city that may be bombed - by either the Evil Axis of Power or the Timothy McVeighs? People young and old are trying to raise children in this environment - and the more prevalent these things are, the more people will start to abandon the big cities and seek out places where the masses of lemmings are not sitting ducks, waiting for the Hand of God or Satan to clasp around them. They may not know WHAT is wrong, but they know something is - and it is a human tendency to withdraw into a comfort zone rather than to charge into or remain in a war zone.
3) Fiscal upheaval/recession/depression. These are the things that are worrying people most of all. Many folks are losing their homes or becoming 'upside down' in them - because they firmly believed that the prices of real estate would forever climb. They are looking to get out of those commitments and to live a simpler, less-impacted lifestyle. Read, read, read - people are scared. They are watching their 401Ks lose money, their properties lose money, their lifestyles shrink, and they will be looking to downsize. While some may still believe that this, that or the other politician knows what to do, and will save them, many are coming to the conclusion - especially from all of the bailouts - that all of this will impact their future earning potentals even more.
4) Food supplies and sales trends. Do you know what Whole Foods is? Do you know what beprepared.com is? These places are growing by leaps and bounds - because folks do not trust the current imported food supplies. Sushi from China, raised in filthy mudpits, the melamine in the wheat gluten, the antifreeze in the cough syrup - people are going to try to go back to locally raised and less genetically engineered foods. They want the free range chickens now, where before they were too messy and dirty to think about. They want the organic foods and grass-fed beef, because the discussions of the applications of the Monsanto GE corn and the hormones is starting to affect them. They want clear pure water, not the multifiltered and multi-additive stuff that comes from their taps right now - most of which they are too scared to drink, and buy bottled water. They are developing allergies that no one in their family ever had - and they are figuring out that it is caused by the additives, not the food itself.
5) Pandemics and the threat of bio warfare. More and more people are seeing diseases that they heven't seen in years, or even in their lifetimes - antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, polio, bacterial meningitis, the strep that causes MRSA - diseases that are spread rapidly through highly-populated areas. Older folks with health problems, younger folks with children - all are at first shocked when they read about these diseases in their neighborhoods and communities - then they start to place blame, or start to realize that these diseases are becoming more and more prevalent and less and less curable. They will not want to live in communities through which these diseases can spread like wildfire - nor will they want to live in communities where the biological warfare element causes superbugs to pass through their communities like that same wildfire.
6. Climate changes and the ability to escape natural disasters. Naturally you can't predict where the next hurricane willl hit, or when Mt St Helen's will erupt, or if Yellowstone will ever erupt, or even where the next NE tornado will hit. But you can pretty much predict to a certainty that you will not be able to escape these ever-increasingly-frequent disasters if you live in a heavily-populated area where every road OUT is already jam-packed with other folks fleeing at a dead standstill. If hurricanes become more prevalent, if increased natural disasters start wreaking even more havoc, people will not want to be in the path of the next one, and will look to go elsewhere.
And where is elsewhere? And how can NE plan for this change in development and Social trends, to be leading edge rather than follow-the-crowd?
And BTW no I don't have any more facts about any of these occurances than the next guy; not a conspiracy theorist, not anyone with secret knowledge or a tinfoil hat. But perception is everything - and what people perceive to be true will make them relocate and rethink their habits as surely as the unvarnished truth.
Folks are not going to continue the trend of gathering in ever-growing and larger group/cities, eating the food harvested and prepared by unknown hands. Bit by bit they are breaking away and looking for something else... smaller communities, less stress, less expensive, less gatherings of the violent, the diseased, the potentials for disaster that they see growing ever closer to their own doorsteps.
Responses: 1)Yes, the allure of Florida and Arizona is slowly going by the wayside. Some communities are growing, but those areas are generally in higher ammenity areas and do not generally occur in the Plains. Most of the aging in the Plains is in place because of the obvious lack of in-migration in any significant fashion
2)This makes it sound like all urban areas are truly frightening. I am not "scared of my own shadow", and generally prefer living in a micropolitan city that is not to large at all. Please do not take this comment as an insult.
3)The political polarization that is occuring in this country is quite concerning, especially regarding the Republicans who voted for the financial bailout, but could care less about those impacted by the severe decline in the auto industry. In terms of real estate everyone is being impacted by falling prices, but some areas never saw much price appreciation either. If one moves to the Plains you can not expect your property to appreciate unless you are sitting on very valuable mineral rights or a gold mine
4) am extremely concerned by what big agribusinesses have done in order to maximize profits at the expense of public health and the environment. I eat as little meat as possible, I frequent the local farmer's market here in Merrimack County all the time during the growing season to stock up on locally grown produce. I have my own vegetable garden that also provides very good yields during the growing season. I shop at the local coop that sells organic, and I am careful to avoid foods that have lots of additives, preservatives, and the dreaded high fructose corn syrup.
5)While that is a very valid concern, I do not dwell on it nor think about it too often. Also, the vast majority of the US population lives in cities so if something terrible like that did occur we would have the human resources to combat it. Most world renown medically trained people and researches also live in cities... If you read the book "Who's My City" by Richard Florida he explains this clustering phenomenon fairly well.
6)Climate change is leading to more extreme events everywhere. Those impacts include urban and rural areas. We have seen improvements in disaster planning and evacuation routes in the Hurricane Belt over the past few years. Coordination, communication, and technology will only increase those capabilites with time.
"And where is elsewhere? And how can NE plan for this change in development and Social trends, to be leading edge rather than follow-the-crowd?"
(Conclusion)Fact- nearly all in-migration into Nebraska filters into the metropolitan and micropolitan cities. This includes: Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings, Grand Island, Kearney, and North Platte. I don't see this migration pattern changing too soon as I study these trends by working with Geographic Information Systems technology. A few retirees continue to migrate to the Sand Hills (Mullen), but the overwhelming majority of the in-migration is to urban areas, and out of the very isolated frontier counties. My relatives still operate a ranch in two frontier counties in the northwest portion of Kansas. I have first-hand experience working with people in rural counties, frontier counties, and urban counties.
"And BTW no I don't have any more facts about any of these occurances than the next guy; not a conspiracy theorist, not anyone with secret knowledge or a tinfoil hat. But perception is everything - and what people perceive to be true will make them relocate and rethink their habits as surely as the unvarnished truth." I am fearful about a lot of things as well, but I don't let those fears overwhelm my everyday perception.
"Folks are not going to continue the trend of gathering in ever-growing and larger group/cities, eating the food harvested and prepared by unknown hands. Bit by bit they are breaking away and looking for something else... smaller communities, less stress, less expensive, less gatherings of the violent, the diseased, the potentials for disaster that they see growing ever closer to their own doorsteps." I somewhat agree with that statement. The US as a society has become rather complacent, and we have lost the knowledge to be able to fix a lot of things that we own ourselves. The "disposable economy" has dominated our realm of thinking for far to long. I think that some people might continue to move to micropolitan cities to retire, but I continue to see urban areas of the US as the innovative, creative, talent magents, capital centers, and networking centers.
Guys, forgive me, but you are talking about the past trends. And they really are about to become the past.
I feel that the population decreases are very realistic (as depicted by the Census Bureau estimates), and will likely continue for a long time to come. I speak for the northwest frontier counties in Kansas where my relatives operate the family ranch.
Whoa, friend!
I wasn't talking about my fears or my perceptions - at all. I was talking about the public perceptions and the resultant trends.
When you are trying to truly advertise, to either mass-market or specific market, you have to be aware of what is going on in the world around you - as well as others - and what the reactions are. When in advertising and promotions, I skimmed 40 newspapers a day, not only local, but national and global, to see what the trends were, who was feeling and responding to what, and why. You also had to determine if it was a fad or a trend. Preparing for Y2K was a fad - preparing for an economic downturn is not. People are becoming more aware that they are living beyond their means, and slowly coming to the realization that they will have to make changes. As an advertiser or a developer, you have to be on the cutting edge of those trends - to have the answers prepared before the questions are asked; to be the answer, to sell the product. If the product is the State as a whole, you had better be aware of what people are looking for - or you'll get left behind with the advertising of 'a great place to take the kids tubing!' when folks are looking for a great place to raise those kids on less.
The world is changing - again. I've lived thru recessions and they are not pretty; the reformations and changes happen in what appears to be a rapid manner, even sudden, but is not.
More things to think about -
What happens when the dollar falls and people from Belgium, China, and the Netherlands come looking for places to relocate? Didn't the Governor of NE just meet with a Chinese delegation two months ago? Didn't you wonder what that was about?
Yes, like the sign on I-95 reads, "Florida's full!" So what's next? Who else is going to be covered up in trailer parks, with retirement communities and high-end subdivisions built right next to the 'best' scenery - the lakes and rivers? Then they of course ordinance those amenities so that only THEY have access? Then what happens to those who use those water resources for irrigation or recreation?
People do not always move to places with the amenities in place. Simply because the land is cheaper if they move to a place and then demand those amenities like malls and parks and playgrounds. They can take a gradual upswing in taxes as long as they don't have to put down so much to begin with - and by doing that they increase their property values over time, turning a $100,000 home into a $450,000 home for resell. Developers are always looking for new frontiers to buy cheap and sell high. What happens to the locals who can no longer afford those high taxes? They sell out.
Nebraska is uniquely situated to take advantage of the new administration's push for diversified power - but the state legislature itself is restricting that growth, by not allowing private-public partnerships, and by letting the power companies control the placement and development. Mind you, I understand and am NOT advocating eminient domain, nor am I saying that there shouldn't be controls in place - but why shouldn't a town be able to form a partnership with the power companies to enhance their ability to grow? The legislature's lack of enthusiasm for opening the door wide to this new technology will cause more private landowners to get ripped off for their 'air rights' being sold to the nice guy who offers them $20,000 - and then sells those same air rights for $200,000. There needs to be some swift, educated, and reasonably fair discussions in the legislature about this before it is too late, and the locals get ripped off by these scam artists.
And finally, instead of trying to lure first this or that small time developer with promises of water and sewer and roads and everything else (paid for by the locals' taxes) - and then ending up with a cheesy development or an empty big box store or warehouse, built by people with stars in their eyes and greed in their hearts, that employ no one over time. There needs to be a cohesive plan in place to make developers pay their own way, not the citizenry.
Grin. I'm not worried. No one will ever listen to me at any level, and everyone else knows best. So I'll just sit on my acreage and smile indulgently... and keep doing as I please. Don't worry - I'm just an old fool, and it could never ever happen here.
Where have I heard that before? Let me think... oh, yeah, I remember now!
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then that community was presumably located near a coast line and therefore was nowhere near as isolated as the part of Nebraska I was describing in my previous post. So I would assert that any parallels you are trying to draw between the two areas regarding the evils of rapid growth and redevelopment are not applicable because rural Nebraska does not have or ever will have that kind of development potential. When I used the term isolated to describe that part of Nebraska, what I meant is no cities, no airports, no interstate highways, no mountains, no oceans/beaches, no National Parks or vacation destinations nearby, no cultural outlets, etc. That's what true isolation is. Throw in the lousy winters, and we aren't talking about a highly marketable part of the country, are we? I still stand by what I said earlier: You are never going to attract large masses of people to move to that area. 
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