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The Answer is the Coming Small-Town Revival
The American Conservative ^ | Apr 30, 2021 | James Howard Kunstler

Posted on 08/04/2022 2:27:02 PM PDT by Noumenon

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To: Noumenon

Just one of dozens of economically depressed Upstate NY canal towns.

Beautiful architecture in most of them. You can tell that at one point they were thriving, prosperous places to live.

Then NYS government happened.

Those small towns will remain a thing of the past as long as NYS hangs onto its corrupt and immoral government.

Just another reason we moved out of NYS.


21 posted on 08/04/2022 4:56:02 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: babble-on
Real estate is crazy cheap in American towns

What planet do you live on?

22 posted on 08/04/2022 4:58:01 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: Ex gun maker.
We stop letting them tell us what to do and their power is gone.

Generally, the only power people have over you is what you let them have.

Yes, I realize there are exceptions, but if more people en mass stopped obeying unlawful orders from politicians, we’d be freer and better off.

23 posted on 08/04/2022 5:00:52 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: PGR88

While we have left CNY and are glad for being away from the government and the dreary weather, there are some stunningly beautiful areas of Upstate and I do miss the agriculture and other aspects of the state.

There was a lot to do in Upstate and I enjoyed the rural life there.


24 posted on 08/04/2022 5:03:33 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: Robert DeLong
When you are young, the cities are where it’s at. The country is dullsville. When you get older, the opposite becomes true.

My kids have had that epiphany.

25 posted on 08/04/2022 5:04:23 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: Noumenon

We just closed last week on 5.75 acres 67 miles north of Where we live now which is the N Atlanta burbs. We are working night and day to get it set up to move to ASAP. Its a rural community of like minded folks. The city is getting really bad. Crime is soaring.


26 posted on 08/04/2022 5:09:12 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: metmom
It would not surprise me in the least to see these corrupt state govt entities collapse once their current occupiers have been dealt with. At the very least, they'll find that their writ doesn't run outside their urban enclaves.
27 posted on 08/04/2022 5:15:47 PM PDT by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Well, welcome to the neighborhood!


28 posted on 08/04/2022 5:36:43 PM PDT by misanthrope (Deranged, sinister, deplorable troll)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Glad you are getting out while the getting is good.


29 posted on 08/04/2022 5:49:08 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith…)
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To: Noumenon

Up here in North Idaho, we have the opposite problem. All our small towns have doubled, tripled, or more in population the past 10 to 15 years. The growth is horrendous and people wish it would stop and we can go back to what we had.

Upstate New York has been on a downward trajectory forever. I grew up there and did a lot of business there in the 80s and 90s. All sorts of business incentives have been tried to arrest the decline, but nothing works. The state was and still is very business-hostile. Like California. They simply cannot jettison their woke-liberal ways to save their states. It’s the same all over the country.


30 posted on 08/04/2022 6:03:24 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, angels protect you and heaven accept you”)
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To: babble-on

“Real estate is crazy cheap in American towns”

That was true until about 2018 or 2019. All over the US, locals are squeezed out with soaring real estate prices. Real estate has almost tripled here in North Idaho in that time frame. The paper and NextDoor app are full of people bemoaning the lack of affordable housing.


31 posted on 08/04/2022 6:05:33 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, angels protect you and heaven accept you”)
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To: Noumenon

Have you had V-Bar-X ranch meats? They have the best bacon!


32 posted on 08/04/2022 6:06:21 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, angels protect you and heaven accept you”)
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To: SaxxonWoods

“Teenagers hold doors open for me and call me sir”

Yep, it’s the same here in North Idaho. The kids at the restaurants and markets all ask “How’s your day going? Doing anything interesting today? Got any plans” and they all mean it. It isn’t just a put-on taught them by the store manager.


33 posted on 08/04/2022 6:08:08 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, angels protect you and heaven accept you”)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
We live in Oldtown, so I know of what you speak. Property values have gone nuts, inventories are very low and rents are pricing people out of their homes. Propert I bought along with a super double wide we put on it came to a little over $100K Put another $50K or so into improvements and a remodel, got it declared real property and now we're looking at near half a million.

We're seeing a LOT of California / Oregon / Washington refugees moving in. Our new next door neighbors came from Vancouver WA and they're solid folks, thank heavens. So not all of the noobs are garbage people, but some certainly are. Usually, all it takes is one or two Panhandle winters to send them elsewhere.

It's anyone's guess how this is going to go down, but go down it will. No guarantees, but the solid, dependable, skilled and resourceful among us will pull through.

34 posted on 08/04/2022 7:12:54 PM PDT by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: misanthrope

😎


35 posted on 08/04/2022 9:44:32 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Noumenon
Some of us have already performed an exit, a stealth bug-out to small town, rural America. We have done so in the knowledge that urban life will become a hellscape of disease and disorder, of starvation and savagery. When the lights go out, when the toilets stop flushing, when the grocery store shelves are bare, urban/suburban Anywhere will be no place to be."

I bought an 80 acre parcel far from "civilization" about five years ago. Built a house and integrated myself into the community. My Mennonite neighbors have told me they will feed me if things get that bad. I own a 65 acre forest with millions of BTUs of stored energy. I have a well.

I have become a simple observer of the fall of the West. Personally, I will not participate.

36 posted on 08/05/2022 6:22:33 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Proud member of the control group)
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To: PGR88

“Upstate NY is a pretty good place to live.”

Small towns in western NYS also are very nice — where I grew up. They’re actually more “Tennessee” than Tennessee is in some ways. When we visit, we see more Confederate flags there than we do in TN — seriously. (THEY know the flags don’t represent slavery; THEY know they’re symbols of rugged individualism and freedom.)


37 posted on 08/05/2022 6:29:10 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Sometimes when you get to where you're supposed to be, it's too soon.)
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To: marktwain

“the need to organize the activities that support food production locally,”

Sounds a LITTLE like the socialist Grange my ancestors were involved in decades ago.


38 posted on 08/05/2022 6:30:05 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Sometimes when you get to where you're supposed to be, it's too soon.)
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To: Ex gun maker.
"... folk are not going to thrive on a diet of onions, garlic, cabbage, and hemp."

Throw in some Black Angus beef, some dairy, a few chickens for meat and eggs, and some fish and, yes, they will survive on that diet.

The trucks have to run to the factory farms with their inputs and then from the factory farms to the cities to feed the multitudes. People in rural areas only need the things they cannot produce or gather themselves. Salt, sugar, and baking powder come to mind.

39 posted on 08/05/2022 6:35:38 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Proud member of the control group)
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To: marktwain
Sorry, Mark, you are absolutely wrong.

In my local community many families produce virtually all their food and are happy to sell a vast surplus. This is in a fairly harsh climate with poor soil.

40 posted on 08/05/2022 6:39:47 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Proud member of the control group)
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