Considering moving (for a job) from a city of ~500,000 to a smaller isolated area with maybe
Considering moving (for a job) from a city of ~500,000 to a smaller isolated area with maybe
Helps if you have an activity to help you meet some local folks. Running, cycling, bowling, stamp collecting whatever. Other than that, learn patience and hopefully you're happy spending some nights alone. I prefer small town life and miss it.
How small and how isolated? Are we talking 50,000, 5,000, or 500 people? For me, something around 50,000 is preferred. I could be happy with 10,000, provided there was a 50,000 city/town within 50 miles. And (the big one for me) I was living in a place with a lot of outdoor activities.
Varies. I've noticed that there isn't much difference in amenities between town sizes after 25,000 people. What doesn't differ in amenities, differs in how a conurbation is designed to hold.
25,000 has your usual downtown area, sidewalks, proper streets, modern plumbing, electricity, high-speed Internet, TV, cell phone towers, branded restaurants and fast food joints, perhaps just off the interstate and so forth. Most cities above this seemingly arbitrary point have these services.
After this, the major difference is just larger areas of residential, commercial and industrial sectors. The general plan of a 25,000 town doesn't differ much from a metropolis such as Chicago, it's just that Chicago has 1,000x more of it.
Smaller towns in the middle of nowhere may lack some high speed communication services, branded restaurants, properly maintained streets and fast routes to larger cities.
It's awesome. But, you will realize how completely ridiculous most people in cities have become. This doesn't go very well when you have to deal with them. In the country when there are few people around it's obvious how happy human beings can be without much of modern life.
To me it is clear that most people would be happiest with a way of life far more conservative/real than that which is commonplace in most cities. I'm not religious myself, but you can understand that there is something wrong with our urban citizens by simply considering their opinions on christian values. Most people I've met in cities see Christian values as this sort of archaic hold-over of an oppressive former world. They reference the crusades and blah blah as if it somehow negates the fact that Christian values are basically responsible for the ascent of Western civilization and the conditions necessary for scientific progress.... everything good about the Western World owes a debt to Christian values... the values of a healthy community, which permit the advance of culture/science. There is (to me) far more implicit acknowledgement of this amongst the residents of the country (unfortunately much of it gets channeled into Fox News watching angry hick blabber rather than productive political change).
I have seen both sides of the coin (Graduate degree from respected state school, but spent much of childhood/post-grad life in the country). In my experience to be happy in most cities you either need to be perceived as above the fray (think suit&tie, brisk walk or cold determined stare) or you need to be okay with conforming to the new Fascist value set of the American citizen.
In college I saw the putrid rhetoric of feminists and Machiavellian Communists (Ayers-like circle-glassed intelligentsia idiots) infect plenty of innocent minds and I've rarely seen anyone happier for it.
I've also seen many healthy families with incredible spiritual (often even non-religious) lifestyles that were so many thousands of times more content and at peace with their lives/purpose. I've never seen real families like that in big towns/cities. That's not to say that I haven't also seen some seriously degenerate folks in the country or that happy nuclear families can't exist in the city.
The truth is that men and women aren't equal (they are equal as humans), but this becomes really obvious in the country. In the city I'd say the majority of women would be willing to fight you over saying something like that. In the city you can pretend all you want because rarely does anything actually need to get done. While I would love to live in a city for the really incredible advantages... easy access to all kinds of great places/stuff..... I just can't tolerate the majority of people and their blindness and it just works better for me and my productivity to be at peace mentally and make the drive when I want to do something. Not to mention, I'd like to have a family at some point and I would NEVER raise kids into mainstream American culture, which pretty much means with the Parcells is the only place to be. On top of that, when the financial system finally implodes the cities will be pretty scary me thinks what with the millions of people who think they deserve a check in the mail by virtue of their presence.
Lets put it this way, a small isolated town in the deep south is absolute hell on earth.
OP - are you still alive? "with maybe...." Don't leave us hanging!
Small towns are great if you're the kind of person who spends his night writing a 750 word essay on letsrun.
Writing a 750 word essay on letsrun at least takes some brain power, thought and articulation.
This illustrates his point.
Is sitting in front of your tv a better investment of time versus formulating thoughts and sharing them with someone who asked a question?
the facebook, go back to watching tv.
TLW wrote:
Writing a 750 word essay on letsrun at least takes some brain power, thought and articulation.
This illustrates his point.
Is sitting in front of your tv a better investment of time versus formulating thoughts and sharing them with someone who asked a question?
No, but partying with your friends in SODO is - like I'm doing right now! Hell Yea!
Sorry guys my post got cut off. 10,000 people give or take. In the northeast. Between Rochester and buffalo NY. No, not batavia.
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Born and raised in northern Michigan - the Upper Peninsula in the 1980's. Take a look at Google Maps Satellite view and see just how desolate it looks.
Anyways, a lot of nights at home reading, and watching the three channels that we had. Board games, Atari, exploring the woods. Admittedly it made us a little socially awkward. I went to elementary school with just 40 kids in the ENTIRE school. So attending the "big" high school was a bit of an adjustment.
I think you'll get pretty introspective (not being sarcastic) living out in the middle of nowhere...possibly a little crazy too. You'll constantly feel like you are at a camp site - but running should be a blast.
Sounds like some cheap living, but the 7 months of winter would suck.
I grew up in a town of about 7500-100 miles from Denver. There's nothing bigger unless you drive 70 miles. The biggest adjustment for someone moving in is being "accepted" by the locals. Don't get me wrong the locals can be welcoming, and friendly, but you are always an outsider-even after a decade. There is no anonymity either. Everyone knows who you are. When I moved to suburbia-it was liberating to just blend into the background. That doesn't happen in small towns.
Chain restaurants-whatever-the best restaurants in ANY town are generally not the Pizza Hut and Olive Garden. But you won't have to worry about that in a really small town.
A phenomenon that repeatedly occurs in my home town is that people move there to retire-and then get the urge to run for school board, city council or whatever after a year or two. They attempt to turn our little slice of heaven into a miniature version of whatever urban shIthole they crawled out of. It almost always ends badly-often with the offending party selling their house and writing a pissy little letter to the local newspaper. 3 out of 5 of these have been retired air force officers. So, if you are a retired air force officer, do yourself and the town a favor and don't run for office.
You need to be more specific. Some small towns are pretty nice places, some aren't. Also, it depends on what you plan on doing there.
If you care about your impact on the environment at all, don't move to a small town.
I go to school in Buffalo and live in Rochester. You will not like living in a small town out here. Horrible climate, a lot of rednecks and not many wealthy people in the small towns. I like Rochester a lot, it has some fun things to do. Buffalo is pretty shtty.
I live in a city of 90, 000. I like the lack of traffic and the ease of navigating the city. I dont like the lack of things to do, the lack of culture, and the laxk of diversity. Seriously, some weekends ill go out to the bars and clubs and they will be empty...on the freaking weekend. It can be lonely, but find yourself a close group of friends and all will be good. Also, if youre single, finding a mate can be more difficult because youre severely limiting your pool.
TLW wrote:
Writing a 750 word essay on letsrun at least takes some brain power, thought and articulation.
This illustrates his point.
Is sitting in front of your tv a better investment of time versus formulating thoughts and sharing them with someone who asked a question?
the facebook, go back to watching tv.
But I was actually formulating my thoughts as well! I was elucidating why someone would choose to live in a boring small town; and the answer is a cause de (that's french, yo) he's the type of person to drone on and on about Christian values and spiritual lifestyles. Plus I got to watch TV at the same time.
To the OP: life in small town rural NY is terrible unless you're from there (and even then...). Yeah, you can read a book at night, whoop-di-doo! You can also get drunk at the bar with the many local alcoholics, watch hockey, freeze your butt off in the winter, maybe go camping if you live in the right area. Maybe the community theatre will put on a production of Oklahoma, too. If that fails, you can watch high school football on Friday nights.
Small isolated town in the western US with some sweet wilderness out the back door: Awesome.
Small isolated town in the rest of the country: Crap.