Posted on 11/07/2009 4:44:57 AM PST by GoldStandard
My property taxes have tripled in the past 8 years, mostly due to wealthy folks moving here
And, how do you like the Tennessee sales tax?/ highest in the nation, 10% in most area’s of Tn.
No one could possibly want the job for the excitement, that I am sure of. In terms of excitement, County Commission meetings are on par with watching grass grow. It is no wonder that people of modest means will mortgage their home to fund their campaign for County Commissioner, Sheriff, and other relatively low paying elective offices. We had a fairly serious war going on here over the County Executive job a few years ago. The guy who ultimately won the war just so happened to also be a burgeoning real estate developer. Kinda makes you go "hmmmmm"......
Drive down out of the Black Hills into Wyoming, and you will see some space...believe me. Same effect coming down from the Big Horns to the east on Routes 14 or 16. What a view!
If I have a choice between a 10% sales tax and a 10% income tax, I'll take the sales tax every time. I would much rather pay tax on what I spend as opposed to what I earn.....
we went to that area this summer for vacation, I thought it was beautiful!
Yes indeed, got family up there, just wish it was warmer !
I delivered an airplane from Chattanooga to Moriarty, NM, a couple of years ago. West Texas and eastern New Mexico are made up of miles and miles of miles and miles. I don't think folks can appreciate how desolate it is out there until you see if from 3500' for hours and hours and hours.
I drove across central Nevada a few years back on Hwy 50. I went at least three hours without even seen a telephone pole....much less another person....
I broke down on hwy 50 once in my old vw bug. Let me tell you, I learned the feeling of desolate that day.
NC Mtns in the fall Yes it is absolutely beautiful in the NC / TN Mtns - in the Great Smokies..... Fine if the National Geographic is telling people not to go there - all the better for those who adore the beauty there and long to see them up close and personal! Here are some more views from WRAL TV website - discussed and posted on FR Here The glorious pictures all found here: WRAL TV website.
I have never been there. I accept your word for the description. People vote with their feet (wallets). If a majority of people didn't want all those BUSINESSES there, they would go broke and disappear. SOMEBODY supports these businesses. Judging by your descriptions, it is wall to wall businesses. I guess your “normal” level of commercialization wasn't enough to satisfy the general public. THEY wanted more. Maybe Obama should annex the land and bulldoze the businesses. Then you and your friends can appreciate this area the way YOU would like. Maybe this area should be CLOSED to the public altogether, to PROTECT it from people as well as nearby capitalism. Of course the government would allow “scientists, researchers, & party elites to use it. If you don't like it the way it is, don't go there. Apparently, a lot of people do. Welcome to America.
I knew things were taking a turn for the worse in the G’Burg-Pigeon Forge area back in the late ‘80s, when the first outlet malls popped up.
Have you ever flown across this country on a clear day? It is virtually EMPTY.
Give me The Gorges State Park in Transylvania County, NC any time. It doesn't have the sheer sweep of grandeur that is The Smokies, but it more than makes up for being comparatively compact, by being the most spectacular mountain park on the east coast, imho. Not much in the way of accommodations or distractions, but that's ok, that's not why I go. That's my current bias at least, lol.
Best nearby inn would be The Greystone, on Lake Toxaway. Dinner boat tours on a beautiful, restored old wooden Hacker, reminds me of the Adirondacks.
Or, maybe the Roaring Twenties, chestnut-bark sided, deliberately austere rusticity of the old Charleston-Savannah summer crowd, at High Hampton. There are regular summer guests there who have been summering at High Hampton for four or even five generations. That's the former retreat and hunting lodge/preserve of General Wade Hampton III, retreating from the summer miasma and fevers of Charleston, but people have been gathering at inns near that site since the late 18th century. The name of the town it's in, Cashiers, is a misunderstanding, of Hampton's presumed, Charlestonian dropped-r pronunciation. Should have been Cassius. Various legends have Cassius being either Hampton's favorite horse, possibly shot out from under him during the War, or a prize bull.
There are all sorts of stories up there. If you ever end up at High Hampton, look across the lake to that looming granite dome, one of the many lining Whiteside Cove, from whence the name Whiteside came. I was told that that big crack you'll see, and the layer of rubble at the base, is attributed to the great Charleston earthquake. Must've been quite the jolt, even up there.
National Geographic is leftist in its propaganda and I think it sees old-fashioned Americans, which it hates, there in the hills.
“Planned” (communities) and “sustainable are key New World Order buzzwords.
I live on the border with the UP and all of the comercial stuff stops at the cheddar curtain.
With the exception of a casino, there is very little.
One Good thing about the sales tax. Everybody pays it. It’s the only you’re ever going to get anything out of the lower 50%. Unless you count all the dollars they waste on the lottery!
Well, correction. Custom-built mahogany Hacker Craft, 26 passenger launch, new and not restored. Electric for silent cruising, unlike the original steam-powered one from 1915. My mistake.
****Now, driving through them, you might as well be driving through any overcrowded, congested city strip. ***
You aught to see Branson,MO!
I have to agree with the comments submitted to NGS.
http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/destinations-rated/north-america-text/17
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