People of lemmy, would you live in a rural area? Why or why not?
Grew up in the middle of nowhere. No bus. No shop. No pub. It was hell. Left home for the city at the first opportunity and will never go back. I don’t want to be dependent on a car ever again.
Honestly I feel like I’m going in your direction just want from middle of nowhere Vermont to Florida for college and man its nice not having to pack water and food to bike 30 miles up and down mountains I’m still amazed by my determination as a kid to get anywhere on bike fr I continued doing that even after I got a car
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I’m torn between affordable land and going to ideological war with rural neighbors.
That was my thought too. I’m guessing you’re American. Rural Americans are especially bigoted for some reason. I’ve been to rural areas in other countries and they’re not this bad. People openly stare at you in rural America if you’re not white.
Not quite, but it’s very similar. I have an old friend that lived for a couple decades in a VERY progressive, urban area, recently moved closer to me in a smaller town, so I went to see him and, while we are definitely still friends, there were some very dangerous conversation topics covered (carbon climate, EVs which are easy to get me going on). It’s like a conservative brain worm infected him sometime in the past few months, very strange.
Could it be that he was finally exposed to alternative viewpoints after leaving, as you described it, a VERY progressive, urban area?
I wouldn’t call that a brain worm. If anything, he probably made a correction toward center after leaving an area saturated in blue.
Yeah, sure, he “corrected” towards believing more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is good and that “leftists” were responsible for starting a bunch of local wildfires.
Ahhh yes, the most galaxy brain of galaxy brain political ideologies.
Enlightened Centrism.
I grew up rural, lived in a few cities as an adult, and currently live in the biggest town near the area I grew up. I can get to most anything I need within 10 minutes, with more options an hour away, and three major cities within two hours.
I was able to buy a three story (7 bedroom) house for less than 100k.
The biggest downside is that most people in my area are racist homophobic Christian Republicans. I can blend in well enough as a white man, but I can definitely see why many people would not feel welcome here.
I would and do. It’s quiet and peaceful, I have forest all around me, no traffic, cost of living is lower.
Rural meaning wilderness, yes.
Rural meaning farming communities, no.
I currently live in a small city surrounded by wilderness. Transit could be better, but there’s tons of culture I can walk to and I can escape to solitude in 15 minutes and it’s divine.
This weekend I’m going to PAX. Last week I saw Japanese Breakfast. Next week I’m seeing John Oliver do standup. Went to a Mariners game last week too. Got Sounders tix coming up, and hockey starts soon.
Rural is nice for a weekend. Urban is where the action is.
Sounds like urban is where the money’s spent 😋
As someone who lived in rural area (single house, no neighboars), village/small city and capital city, I would pick capital city anytime:
- Maybe it’s Lithuania’s thing, but capital city is like day & night dofference in terms of culture and education from the rest of the country.
- Accessability (no depending on car).
- Everything in one place.
Why I would not live in rural area:
- Internet is shit
- accessability is shit
- Way more expenses
- Not much place for a walk, especially during wet season.
- Ticks.
Why I would not live in small city/village:
- People are retards (or it’s just my unique case lol).
- Government of the city is a joke.
- if no shop - still depending on car.
- Ticks.
I do and have for most of my life. I lived on an island where my SO and I were the only permanent residents for 8 years.
I have lived in the suburbs of a couple of large towns/small cities for some years too - and in the centre of an all-but-city and although there is some convenience in those, I’d choose rural any day. The peace, proximity to nature and the ease of getting out for enjoyable walks beats convenience every time for me.
I feel like “Would you move to a rural area?” and “Would you live on a private island?” are completely different questions. 😂
A) - it wasn’t private - it was a nature reserve and I was the warden and B) - I kinda intended this in an “…and I EVEN lived on an island…” way.
There are a lot of aspects of it that really appeal to me, but I’d miss the shit out of using a bicycle as my primary means of transportation and having everything relatively close.
To be fair, this largely depends on the country you’re in. Appreciate that the bike is going to be pretty useless in somewhere as car-centric as the US, but I’ve lived in rural areas in the EU where the bike was quite enough.
I live in the US and my bike is my primary means of transportation, not rural though: When you get more remote, everything of significant distance is highways and it’d be super dangerous trying to ride a bike or even an ebike. You’d need a motorcycle at minimum.
Yes, sorry, that was the point I was making (albeit poorly). Rural US is an impossibility unless you have a car.
Unless you’re a 15 year old me who just has a shit ton of stamina water bottles and a even more shit ton of determination to get to a city so I can throw myself around a roundabout
I live in a town of about 2000 people. It has a grocery, a liquor store, and a hardware store. It’s rural enough. I would never live anywhere I can’t walk to get a bag of chips. Rural sounds good until the power goes out in a snow storm and your lane way is 7 miles long and the plow guy ain’t coming.
If you have a 7 mile driveway, and the plow guy isn’t you, you fucked up.
Contingent on fiber internet and having a four-wheeel-drive vehicle, yes.
Snow’s a bitch and so is DSL. Other than that, the solitude would be rad.
The DSL thing is a bit of a myth nowadays. The rural area around where I live has better internet than the city.
Then you live in a pretty recently upgraded area. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/1184726217/rural-states-likely-to-benefit-the-most-from-funds-to-improve-broadband-access
I have a feeling the reason the internet is so good in MS is because they are more concerned with doing literally anything else besides giving us drinkable tap water.
And, you know, there’s a whole planet that exists outside of the US…
Just like the areas that exist outside your little rural area. It’s almost like either of us shouldn’t make blanket statements.
Except that acknowledging that the world exists doesn’t constitute a blanket statement…
I have starlink. Better internet than I ever had in town. We should be getting fiber any day now too.
Just to clarify, I’m from a European country
Nah, I’d rather just live in towns that are well connected to cities (like bus stops going to that city) while also having rural areas not too far from there
Absolutely. The beauty of nature is incredible, and being able to enjoy it is important to me. Not to mention there’s not as many people around to mess things up, make things loud/dirty, or be crowded by.
Moving to a rural/secluded area has been the best thing ever for my mental health. My commute is gorgeous and there’s nothing better than waltzing around outside naked in the sunshine.
there’s nothing better than waltzing around outside naked in the sunshine.
Oh my goose. It’s been so long since I did this but this brought back memories.
I just did the naked bike ride through a major American city.
No, I’ve done it before. It’s awful being dependent on a car to go anywhere, there’s less to do.
I grew up in what was a rural area that suburbanized as I got older. Even then, it would still be around 15-20 minutes to get anywhere by car, including the grocery store. There wasn’t much to do that didn’t involve church, so if I wanted to do something like go to the movies it would be about a 30 minute drive with good traffic. Where I’m at now is in the middle of a moderate size city, where I can walk to restaurants and bars, and I can get to several grocery stores or movies or the mall within 10 minutes. I like living in the city better, I don’t want to live far away from stuff anymore.
