I’m a sucker for good used books. And I recently picked up one about “Scenic Drives In The United States”. It had a lot of routes, information, pretty pictures.
Obviously, several of the drives are the famous coastal ones you’d expect - and these places can be popular, crowded and presumably pricy.
But quite a lot of the routes are in pretty isolated areas with very small towns. The US is an extremely pretty country in parts. How come these parts often don’t attract larger communities when they seem like gorgeous places to live or retire?
“Scenic drive” doesn’t usually imply “nice view of downtown streets.” So the book will have selected primarily for rural places.
Lack of jobs and/or weather most people think unpleasant, fairly often. Also, people who like to live in large communities generally want the large community to already be there, or at least to be close by, so that they have easy access to all those large-community things. People who like to live in small communities or out in the country will only pile up to a point – then the community will start looking too big to them, and they’ll want to spread out more.
Definitions of “the nicest parts” vary widely. Which is a good thing, because otherwise everybody would probably be trying to live in one spot.
I think of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It’s one of the most attractive provinces with some nice cities and loads of lakes and mountains.
Vancouver has become very expensive, then areas close to cities did. But then the whole province did - small towns of a few thousand close to a ski resort or pretty view. There’s still lots of empty space but people there put a premium on living someplace beautiful, even if isolated in the sense that you can get groceries but there are no large chains.
Sure, the weather in Red Rock is probably oppressive. But quite a few places look very inviting. Maybe it’s like Canada - still a lot more space than people and plenty of alternatives.
I’m of the opinion that it is still the case that most people pick where they live primarily based on where the work is - either the job they have, or the job they want.
Then as a folllow up question - with increasing rural connectivity and some remote work options, will cities become much less popular over the next fifty years?
I doubt it. If there is a second factor for where people choose to live, it’s the services available in the area - which at the least means ‘town’ and might mean ‘small city’.
As a demonstration of this, Boise, Idaho is a popular place for Californians to move to - way less people, way lower cost of living. And it’s the biggest city in the state. Once you’re used to having two walmarts in town, most people don’t want to go for less.
There is an exodus from NYC and the surrounding cities currently. COVID inspired.
Houses are selling quicker than ever in the further suburbs of NYC (Like Central Jersey) and NYC just had it largest dwelling availability in over a decade or something like that.
People have been talking about the end of cities because of remote connectivity since before the arrival of television. In the past that future never happened because the appeal of stores, clubs, amenities, and businesses within close proximity was too great.
The question is whether the rise of work from home because of COVID and the increased availability of getting products delivered to one’s house is going to change that equation.
I think there will be some limited affect, but not a huge changeover. Big cities have an entirely different feel from small towns and rural areas. City people enjoy spending vacation time in the country, but living there would drive them crazy through lack of stimulation. Although many people find it possible, even preferable, to work from home, probably just as many find the confinement stifling and stressful. People like being around people. And what about after work and on weekends? What will they think when nobody is around and they’re still stuck in their homes making zoom calls?
Cities have a purpose. That’s why people put up with them despite all their inconveniences. Some pretty scenery can never take the place of a bustling metropolis. Besides, the more people the less pretty the scenery becomes because it will get destroyed, something that has a century of experience in this country. Scenery benefits the first arrivals, not the last.
I’m sitting on my deck at 11,200 feet in elevation as I type. Across from me 2 miles as the crow flies are two 14,000 foot peaks. It’s beautiful, very quite and calm, and can be an absolutely brutal place to live weather wise. It’s August. Very soon there will be snow.
4x4 plow truck chained up on all 4 wheels with a special mounted 10,000 lb winch on the back.
4x4 tractor/loader also chained up on all 4.
Wife and I each have GOOD SUV’s. Ground clearance for snow is a top priority. We don’t take off the snow tires, just run them year round. Summers are so short there really is no point in it.
There are 2 big box stores and 3 grocery stores within about 15-25 miles. Well, that’s all there are in the entire county. There are 2 or 3 other stores that sell food. But If it doesn’t have a produce section, I don’t count it as a grocery store.
You had best not expect pizza delivery. Or pretty much anything else delivered.
It took me a good 5-10 years to adjust to living up here.
Also, as has been said many scenic places have difficult economic conditions in one way or another as they are usually remote. Though some prefer a city skyline. The economy can kill you in either situation. Social interaction is different as well. I’m lucky in that I can work remotely, that just started with COVID in March. Been wanting to do it for years. I’m oddly getting to know my co-workers better than I had before. Haven’t seen one in person in 5 months though. Works fine for me.
Being about half deaf is probably a contributor to that. Any group larger than about 5 people, and I might as well just go read a book. The speech gets very hard to understand.
It took me a good 5-10 years to adjust to living up here. I know that as I get older, I won’t be able to do it any longer, and that makes me sad.
As I approach retirement age, I definitely want to move from the big city where I am living (although, ironically where I live has traditionally been a big retirement area). And moving to one of these scenic, low population areas would be ideal.
But there are some practical considerations to consider - especially when you consider “retiring” in a place. A big one is access to medical care. Shit starts to break down as you get older, and being hours away from a decent hospital won’t cut it.
Then there’s weather. British Columbia mentioned above is beautiful, but come winter they get plenty of cold and snow. So now things like getting groceries becomes a major ordeal. Or…you live closer to town. (so now you’re not quite as “away from the crowds” as you might like).
With all this working from home brought on by the pandemic, you think “well if you’re still working, why not live someplace more remote ?”. You still need infrastructure - namely internet access. Yes, there are satellite options, but the bandwidth is still fairly limited and it is exorbitantly expensive.
If you have kids, unless you’re already home schooling, you need to consider the options for schooling (long bus rides ?).
We drove from Cheyenne to Yellowstone and then back to Casper last week, and since I’ve been to YS numerous times but never driven that part of Wyoming, I found the drive to be just fascinating. The landscape going from SE to NW Wyoming was very varied, (at least slightly) always changing.
I told my daughter that it would be tempting to retire out there, as long as you had a generator, a fuel tank, a tin roof, and good WiFi somehow (hurry up Elon Musk’s Starlink).
Then we got to Casper, which looked like most mid-sized cities, with its Olive Garden and WalMart and Best Western (to name three places we stopped at). It was only then that I realized we just drove about five hours without any of those “amenities” that we kind of expect and use all the time.
Yes it was nice, parts breathtakingly beautiful (you MUST drive the Wind River Canyon by Thermopolis on US20), but it’s a long way to anywhere. At least it was a nice place to visit.
Good points have already been made - availability of jobs, schools, health care, weather issues. But I always wonder why Hawai’i Island has such a shortage of physicians. If I were an MD I would definitely want to practice here. Granted, many of the schools aren’t great, but there are a few good ones, and what if you don’t have or want kids? Cold weather and snow aren’t a problem for sure. I don’t get it.
I spent two weeks on vacation with my family in Hawai’i back in 2016 (on Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island). I absolutely loved it, and would love to go back again for another visit. I’m not sure I’d want to live there, though. Even after only two weeks there, it started feeling a little claustrophobic. Look up “island fever” for more info.
As for lack of snow, that would be a problem for me. I got into downhill skiing in a big way within the last few years. I do like to hike and scuba dive, though, which the islands do offer.
Yes, for the obvious reason that if you can’t do normal NYC stuff (restaurants, bars, shows, museums, etc) and you can work from anywhere remotely, there isn’t any reason to live in a small overpriced box. Especially once you have kids.
That might have come off harsher than I’d intended. I did say how much I loved it there. And even though I definitely had that feeling of claustrophobia, it’s not to say I couldn’t get used to it.
Maybe. Now that I think about it, we did have a couple of extreme experiences on the ring roads, one on Maui (on the Hana Highway) and one on Oahu (on the Kamehameha Highway). Part of the issue in both incidents was the fact that there was only one way to go, and if you ran into a problem you had no choice but to turn around and go the other way (adding hours to your trip).
So maybe not. Maybe I have permanent claustrophobia PTSD from my years on a submarine.
At some point, the social distancing measures will end and it will once again be possible to congregate in restaurant and bars and to attend shows and museums. At that point, people will want to return to New York, San Francisco and the other big, dense cities. Perhaps not the same people who are leaving now, but maybe a new crowd.
