I saw the same thing growing up in the Hudson Valley region of NY. When I was a kid, it was considered the “sticks”, we still had lots of farmland etc. Then the exodus from NYC happened and the folks who were priced out of Rockland and Westchester Counties came North, with them came the demand for things like, sidewalks on every street, paving of all roads and increased public services. Of course, with that came the increase in taxes and our reliably “Red” counties became purple.
That’s because union goonz do all the paving and sidewalking. :-)
Paving and sidewalks aren’t bad things to have, IMO, as long as the option exists to have people other than union goonz doing the jobs. #RightToWork