NYCers move to the country

With the pandemic, many urbanites got tired of paying high rents, they could work remotely, and they opted to try living in the country.  I find their perspectives quite interesting.  These were their results:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/realestate/new-yorkers-return-nyc-pandemic.html

John S
PDX OR

City conveniences allow people to trade their dollars, earned usually doing a job requiring limited skills, for their daily needs.   While in the country setting it is a bit reserved.

Also this idea of making it alone is dandy, yet without $$ or big family or true community... especially in places that have Four seasons with a strong winter it becomes a challenge MOST city dweller couldn't imagine and therefore couldn't be ready to face ... Yet it seems that such rural do-for-self living will soon be necessary for many.

The article was chronicling the adventures of people trying to make a life in the country. One guy had a tough time. He had beavers on his property. He also didn't adjust well to the whole DIY lifestyle. Others really liked the change. Some liked living in the country but missed take out food, live music, etc.  Some really liked the peace and quiet and lower living costs.
John S
PDX OR

As someone who currently lives in a city this was interesting to me. A lot of the concerns they're having are things that I learned about by browsing Permies. I'd like to move to a more rural area eventually, and having Permies as a resource to learn from is very helpful in that regard - it really is a different lifestyle. I can imagine someone going in blind could be shocked by a lot of things. City folk tend to take it for granted that things like power lines and roads are maintained for them.

Interesting, yet not surprising. Thanks for posting!

(For those who don't have a subscription but have an old, slow PC, here's a Dirty Rotten Trick: If you're fast, the moment the page appears, if you quickly hit Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C, you can copy the article to clipboard before the paywall comes up. Then dump it into LibreOffice Writer (to see photos) or like me dump it into a plain text editor to read the text. I feel so dirty.)

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:.... if you quickly hit Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C ....

Dirty Rotten Douglas.......how dare you make such a suggestion to our readers!



(..........worked like a charm!.... Bravo!)    

I hope this is not construed as a thread hijack.... It's a ~9 min. podcast on human (and human-produced) sound versus 'natural' sounds and includes a story of a NYC couple who could spend no more than one evening at a Bed and Breakfast in N. California.  They found the sound of crickets intolerable for sleeping, so immediately booked  hotel room in downtown San Francisco so they could sleep with their preferred sounds of traffic!  Terribly foreign concept to me, but perhaps illustrates the power of conditioning across many years, to the point of normalization.

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/bernie-krause-human-made-noise-nature/

John Weiland wrote:They found the sound of crickets intolerable for sleeping, so immediately booked  hotel room in downtown San Francisco so they could sleep with their preferred sounds of traffic!  Terribly foreign concept to me, but perhaps illustrates the power of conditioning across many years, to the point of normalization.

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/bernie-krause-human-made-noise-nature/

Yes. I taught at urban, inner city school school and students expressed the same complaint.
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A big part of these POOR experiences city folk have in the country is the lack of practice of these skills.... and the schooling they received is geard towards being an  aloof consumer rather than producers.  

It is interesting and hopeful and some will stay and enrich their community!

John Weiland wrote:It's a ~9 min. podcast on human (and human-produced) sound versus 'natural' sounds and includes a story of a NYC couple who could spend no more than one evening at a Bed and Breakfast in N. California.  They found the sound of crickets intolerable for sleeping, so immediately booked  hotel room in downtown San Francisco so they could sleep with their preferred sounds of traffic!  Terribly foreign concept to me, but perhaps illustrates the power of conditioning across many years, to the point of normalization.

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/bernie-krause-human-made-noise-nature/

I stayed in a rural area once near a freeway. There was a good amount of car noise coming from it, despite our remote location. I didn't have any trouble sleeping, but in the middle of the night I suddenly woke up. I couldn't figure out why, until I realized - there weren't any cars going by! I'm so used to the traffic noise that I was woken by silence. Granted, in my area it's cars AND planes.

I live in NY. Im more country boy living than most on this site but I see why NY gets a bad name. It's from NYC!

City boys buying land they have no idea how to maintain or even setup. Is part of the reason undeveloped land is so expensive now!!!

If you truly understand and want the change?? Then go for it but don't think its an easier life than office life!

Youtube makes it look so easy yet most cant even bait a hook let alone skin a pig or deer!

However, real understanding country boys and girls do need tourists from the city to buy our goods. Well really we don't but it makes our smiles and belly's bigger!

If all the city folk moved to the country. Wouldn't that make it a city?

People please, at least go camping with nothing but what you can carry on your back for at least a week or more before you think off grid is your next move! Once your iphone dies. And you don't have Google to help you. See if you still like the lifestyle because you need more than like. You have to love it city kiddos!!

Sorry for my limited computer skills.  The article should now be available to you:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/realestate/new-yorkers-return-nyc-pandemic.html?unlocked_article_code=mRkA5A82TdsWSXn-w0yQgN260s5zE0MIVl1UNOoikOmlqtb-h2_8Kgiadmwbq8NMtmhWi2XDeUOMEqdF8jS2_K792gRiLH-MDNBpes8Xm5_pR9q0lb9LFbBxQQQ1yuGHnOUTonuUKyRS0U3ORmbIjcoIOe4ZNl1kQxLYQ0T5HnWmnFbjwXaypqgoa5r-ybnb7Baor1ojTbVf8mSanjaKQBMCSXVf6pMCNg7eX3BdgngzBhRbNXw46YeErZUTtA9rTeeoayTCw3IMvGN1Qh-_B70RSIlP5a_sTov0fE1SUdEM5i4kEdmhslnFqpdRrayq1ldJ5mxxTObY9zeN3DW85RfBxXAs0u_zWy6RrQ&smid=url-share

John S
PDX OR

I have got some friends that moved up from New York City and they have done really well, but they assimilated and tried not to bring NYC with them...

Another lady, not so much. She had tis brilliant brainstorm of making a town ordinance where houses in town had to have smoke detectors. As you can imagine that did not go so well. While it certainly is not a bad idea, that is an individual decision and should never be mandated by some town law. Needless to say I was not the only one who thought so, nor did we like her imposing rules on our Amish friends in town. While they do not get into such fights, many of us in town did, and we were not going to let her cram some rule down our throats, nor the throats of our Amish neighbors who do not believe in them either. While it was her choice, the woman moved out shortly later. Again, she was trying to bring her city ideas here, and that just does not work.

For her, a place with no building codes, homeowner associations, and government derived mandates is hell for her; but we call it freedom. It is your house, your property taxes you are paying, and up to you what you want to live under or like; that is up to you, not a municipality to determine.

NYC’ers (and other urbanites) move to the country.. and 99 times out of a hundred, proceed to ruin it for the people already living there at warp speed!

Hi Steve,

I have found it is pretty common for people to move to remote areas to “get away from it all” and then to push for changes that, one way or another, messes up the community they moved to.  I feel it is a good idea to stay out of all aspects of local politics when one first moves into an area.

In my area, a family moved in because  they loved our quaint community.   The wife immediately ran for mayor to change everything that was wrong here. And to her, there were many things wrong.  Of course, she got a tiny fraction of the vote. The family moved out.   Their house sat empty for several years. It was finally purchased for significantly less than the family had paid for it.   To be sure, the house was worth the asking price, but no one was going to help the family in any way after she had insulted so many people in the community.  

I had spoken with her a number of times. No, she was not a particularly nasty individual.  She thought she was showing an interest in her new community.  She saw politics and personal relations as not being connected.  She did not understand that if she told the opposing candidate he was not doing his job, she had just began a blood feud with him, his relatives, his friends, etc that would last for 7 generations.

R

John F Dean wrote:Hi Steve,

I have found it is pretty common for people to move to remote areas to “get away from it all” and then to push for changes that, one way or another, messes up the community they moved to.  I feel it is a good idea to stay out of all aspects of local politics when one first moves into an area.

This was my sad experience at a property I owned in New Mexico. 20 acres.. not the middle of nowhere, but right next door. My folly was buying this land knowing that it was under a Property Owners Association. My big mistake was believing that anyone buying these remote properties were rough and tough, freedom minded individuals. Not so much. I was the only full time resident, while the “board members” were weekend warriors at best.. and most other owners might come from wherever once a year to check on their land and attend the POA meeting. These folks created a petty tyranny, with subjective application of rules and covenants against anyone (me) who spoke out against them for attempting to turn this lost valley ghost town into the cities and suburbs they were fleeing. It is quite the tale, but you will have to wait and read my book for the details. It will read as a true crime tragicomedy, with a happy ending.. for me!