They'll pay you upfront, but will you pay for the rest of your life?
While 54% of Americans lived in rural places in 1910, that number fell to 19 percent by 2010, Zillow reported. To revive their communities, these places are hoping that everything from cash grants to paying off student loans and giving away free land will help draw a younger generation to them.
But it's not just small towns that hope to draw more people to them with these programs. Some cities like Baltimore and even entire states like Alaska will pay you to be their newest resident.
Tribune, Kansas will pay off $15,000 of your student loans. Marne, Iowa will give you free land if you build a house that's at least 1,200 ft2 on it. Baltimore, Maryland will give you a $5,000, 5yr forgivable loan and $10,000 down payment toward rehabilitating abandoned homes.
Tempted?
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Also at NPR, Reuters, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, and The Hill:
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These 9 Places in America Will Pay You to Move There
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 11 2017, @11:11AM
Rural may have meant "not in any sort of township" in the past but that is not what it means today except to those looking to lie by numbers.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @11:33AM (16 children)
If that's what the locales in TFA want, that's fine. However, there are communities who enjoy the peace and quiet of country living and want no part of "growth" and actively discourage it.
We here have passed zoning laws to prevent multi-unit and mini-mansion tract housing developments by making the permit structure intentionally difficult and expensive. We also have a farmland preservation fund. So far, it's been working.
We have great schools, very little crime, and a viable local economy. We don't need or want the trouble urbanization inevitably brings.
It just comes down to local decision-making. You know, democracy. Communities have every right to choose or reject growth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @01:41PM (6 children)
Where in the summary or the article does it say, or even imply, that they don't? Where does it imply that there is any pressure on any other communities to grow, or even that the ones that do want to are more than a tiny minority of the communities out there?
You sound rather defensive. Why is that?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:27PM (5 children)
He wants to preserve his wholesome White community from loud, obnoxious, crime-bringing minorities.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Spamalope on Saturday November 11 2017, @06:33PM (4 children)
Well, some communities have been successful in driving out white minorities. Detroit for example...
(Culture is really the thing. You have to raise kids with the idea that you're a team with your community. Enough toxic personalities can break that cooperation forever. That's what has to be preserved. Race doesn't matter but the ability and willingness to fit in and find a productive place on the team does.)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 11 2017, @06:41PM
You are correct. If you want to see a model community of Blacks, look to California's Rancho Cucamonga as an example.
It's not a rich community, but it does have a lot of nice suburban-style housing, and its residents are personally and professionally professional, and do not speak in Ebonics.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by t-3 on Saturday November 11 2017, @07:25PM (2 children)
Detroit (the actually city, not the whole metro area/suburbs) is possibly the only place in America where one can be pulled over for "driving while white". Great city but I hate those shithead jumpout boys pulling up on me and acting like it's impossible that I have black friends or can be in the city for any reason except buying drugs.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday November 11 2017, @11:43PM (1 child)
So...what you're saying is it sucks to be a minority because the cops are all up your nose for no good reason other than the color of your skin...?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by t-3 on Sunday November 12 2017, @12:15AM
Exactly that, also Detroit city cops are just assholes compared to pretty much any other cops I've encountered, bested only by Toledo cops, who pulled guns on me for grabbing my registration and insurance. The suburbs are even worse if you're black though.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @03:54PM (8 children)
Speaking as somebody that was born and raised in Seattle, we sure as hell don't want people moving here. The city is locked in on 2 sides by water and the other 2 sides are already incorporated cities, which means we can't expand outward at all. Expanding upward means that the neighborhoods will lose their character and because of the hourglass shape that the city has there's massive traffic no matter what the SDOT does to manage it. We have an expensive and barely functioning transit system, so you're going to be wasting a ton of time on the commute.
The people coming here have made a dysfunctional city government more or less incapable of doing anything about any of our problems and they've failed miserably to manage any of the growth. The cost of property is through the roof to the point where fewer and fewer working class stiffs can afford even a basic apartment as those are getting out of hand.
Please, for the love of god don't come here. If you don't like the city enough to pay your moving expenses do those of us from here a favor and don't come. It's extremely expensive here, the weather sucks, the people don't have any interest in making friends with people not tied to the area and we already have enough people from parts of the country that don't understand how to run a city government.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 11 2017, @05:33PM
(Score: 3, Touché) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 11 2017, @05:54PM (1 child)
Speaking as somebody that was born and raised in California, my state sucks and anybody considering moving here should go to Portland or Seattle instead.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @10:38PM
Being born and raised in California goes a long way to explaining the amount of stupid in you. Doesn't excuse it but explains some of it.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by HiThere on Saturday November 11 2017, @06:01PM (1 child)
From your description, you already have an oversupply of people who don't know how to run a city government. For some reason many of them seem to be running the city government.
So I understand your point of view. But be aware that this is true in a lot of other places, too. The "land locked" thing may be your salvation, sort of, as it keeps the city from growing (well, except up).
The problem is that city governments always need more money. This seems to be a universal. But when they get it they spend it on the projects most important to those running the city rather than those most important to the citizenry. I don't know what to do about that prior to the Singularity. (And how will *that* solve the problem? Perhaps we'd rather not know.)
Many people seem to want to return to their idealization of the early 1900's, but the population wouldn't survive in that kind of structure. Even then population pressures were pressing at the edges of what the system could support. With current populations... No, thank you. If that percentage of the population died it would probably include me. And if you read literature current at the time you'll find out it wasn't all that ideal to those living in it.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @06:35PM
TBH, if we had more room for people to move in and for us to resolve the traffic mess, I don't think it would be as much of an issue.
We're a rich city, we have plenty of money to cover things that need to be covered. In the '80s before the city government went to crap, they figured out how to diversify our local economy so it was based on logging, shipping, aerospace and technology. Now, it's getting overly top-heavy with overpaid techies that don't give a shit about what they're doing to the city. And why should they care, if there's a bust they'll just move elsewhere. Even if there isn't a bust, they'll get sick of working for one of our companies and retire, taking their money elsewhere. The property that they grossly overpaid for gets sold at the same or more money by the next group moving in and anybody that has been working here can't afford to buy.
And since we're legally barred from having an income tax, the city doesn't benefit from the ridiculous salaries being paid.
The other problem is that we're wasting tons of money on idiotic liberal friendly things like bike lanes and street cars. That money would better be directed at fixing our roads and improving our mass transit system. We have an increasingly dysfunctional education and the quality of life is in a bit of a nose dive as traffic gets worse and there's more and more people.
I personally would rather have a city more like in the past when we were the high end of backwater and people wondered if they could get basic necessities when traveling here. Not every city needs or wants to be world class and that's something that outsiders don't seem to understand or respect.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday November 11 2017, @07:57PM (2 children)
And yet the city votes time and time again for MORE OF THE SAME.
Embarrassed by a gay mayor that abused children and was forced to resign? Not Seattle. They elected another gay mayor. Awaiting the inevitable scandal.
So get use to no less then 1 murder every night leading the news, get use to another war-in-the-streets May Day parade, get use to priced-out homeless living in tents under bridges and driving in with dilapidated junker mobile homes from neighboring states, and being the northern end of a heroin pipeline, because Seattle is living the liberal dream. You get what you elect.
There are 8 or 12 billionaires in Seattle who could 1) end the city's existence by moving away, or 2) entirely end the city's homelessness problem with modest tract homes served by public transit, all provided free of charge out of their pocket change.
But It was never the plan to providing affordable housing. It was always about pricing out the riff-raff, and getting them to move away so the rich could erect steel and glass where their modest homes use to be. But it seems the riff-raff doesn't want to leave.
Seattle isn't one city, its a collection of radical liberal fiefdoms running cheek by jowl like a pack of wild hogs, sucking every dollar out of the rest of the otherwise rather conservative state.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @09:47PM
Have you figured out yet why all the squirrels seem to love you?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @01:12AM
This is rather incompetent. First off, being a child molester and being gay have little to do with each other. There's no reason to believe that a former US Attorney has been molesting children and the fact that she had that job indicates that there aren't likely to be any incidents that we don't know about.
Secondly, property crimes are up, but violent crime is still markedly low for a city of the size with the amount of policing going on. There's not much reason to think either of those facts is going to change much in the near term.
As far as those billionaires go, fuck them and the horse they rode in on, they pay virtually nothing in taxes compared to what the rest of us pay. Sure, they pay a bit more in property taxes, but the sales tax is something that is the other major source of income and billionaires don't pay that much more of it. Because they pay so little in taxes, I'm curious how you think that them leaving would destroy the city. They're already not paying their fair share of the tax revenue, so, I'm unsure how their leaving would have that kind of an impact.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday November 11 2017, @12:27PM (18 children)
I find it an interesting program idea. I do wonder if it's working tho. Lots of things might be interesting as ideas or on paper but turn out to be less ideal or successful in reality.
Tribune, Kansas has according to the web an estimated population of 776. Will there be a lot of high paying job for academic types around Tribune? $15k is nice and all but it probably isn't the entirety of the debt that has to be somehow repaid. I think this might be the issue with a lot of these offers, there won't be jobs out there. So either you better be self-employed, a job you can do from home, retired or already rich.
It is a similar issue with the Baltimore Maryland offer, except there might be a lot more jobs around there, 10k+5k just isn't a lot of money when you have to renovate an abandoned house for them. It's nice to get free money and all but it will just cover a fraction of the costs involved.
This doesn't even take into account that a lot of people have become urbanized and they just wouldn't cut it living out in the country or in a small town. They are to used to what the cities offer, they would probably go mental out in the country.
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Saturday November 11 2017, @01:04PM
Yeap, teacher at the Sunday scho... sorry, head of religious studies at the Humanities Academy of Tribune, Kansas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @01:35PM
Creation scientist, custodian of culture, women's health protection officer, religious freedom advisor, patriot first class. The possibilities are endless.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday November 11 2017, @01:36PM (9 children)
Don't rural regions generally have bad internet connections? This should severely limit the types of jobs you can do from home.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:05PM (7 children)
ssh generally doesn't need that much bandwidth. I'm good.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @03:47PM (3 children)
Hope you never land a gig that involves video editing, gaming, high frequency trading, or any other bandwidth intensive job.
You short sighted ignorant moron.
(Score: 5, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 11 2017, @03:53PM (2 children)
Me too. They sound like miserable ways to live.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @04:39PM (1 child)
Yeah you love the taste of cock and advertising your cocksucking service on craigslist doesn't use nearly any bandwidth at all.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 11 2017, @05:06PM
Capitalism, baby. Gotta love it. Sometimes even literally.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday November 11 2017, @07:45PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @01:16AM
Many businesses need to have the occasional meeting, but in most cases using project management software should remove the need for an actual meeting. There are definitely companies out there that don't do meetings at all, they handle all of the information sharing and prioritization over project management software and email. And, it's really best for everybody if you don't have a meeting unless you absolutely have to. Getting everybody out of work in order to attend is a real pain.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday November 13 2017, @12:08AM
Tunneling RDP, VNC RFB, X11, SFTP, or mysqldump over SSH can need quite a bit of throughput in some cases. SSH for anything interactive also needs low latency, which satellite doesn't provide.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @08:27PM
Can't speak for anywhere but here in Meigs County, Ohio (verrrrry rural) and we have Suddenlink 10GB cable intenet and crappy Frontier DSL.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Saturday November 11 2017, @04:01PM (1 child)
You underestimate how much lower the cost of living is in a small town. Monthly rent can be less than $300, and houses cost only $50k. Some foods can be had pretty cheap too, direct from the farms. You may burn a lot less gas doing a lot less traveling, if you can slow your life down, stockpile a tiny bit more, so that you're not doing daily shopping trips, grabbing take out, or grocery runs. WalMart killed local businesses, now Amazon is killing WalMart, and you're saving even more gas.
One thing that drives people away from such places is sheer boredom. Dating prospects can be terrible. For years, most people with brains moved to the big city to escape that. Also, you have to leave to attend college, and then to apply what you learned, you need the sorts of jobs that are only available in a big city. It was and still is hoped that the Internet can equalize things. But we have the telecoms oligopoly screwing small towns, refusing to serve them or let them set up their own services. I was appalled that my grandfather's home town, still small today, not only doesn't have broadband, but not even decent cell phone service. Couldn't get a signal anywhere in town. My relatives there are stuck with dialup.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @11:36PM
The only thing cities have going for them is sheer volume. If you have low standards and just want to fuck, have at it.
In the city, it is hard to find somebody suitable for raising a traditional family. You'll waste so much time on dating apps unless your profile picture has you wearing a MAGA hat and holding a deer you've shot. With that, you filter out an additional 99.99% of the city people.
It's not easy if your expectations are: Both people will be virgins until marriage. Soon after marriage, there will be kids. The woman will be a full-time mother, and the man will support his family. A home will soon be purchased, preferably with a yard.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mmcmonster on Saturday November 11 2017, @04:07PM (1 child)
I've got friends that are nearing retirement age. They want to move to a rural area and are looking at some of these so that they can actually afford a place. (Money is tight for them, as is for many others.)
They've settled on Alaska and have been visiting there a couple times a year for the last couple years. They like the seclusion and the weather and the lack of taxes isn't too bad. They hunt and are used to taking care of all their needs on their own. Your mileage will certainly vary. I know I could never live there.
(Score: 2) by Adamsjas on Saturday November 11 2017, @10:50PM
Tough place to live on an retirement income.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday November 12 2017, @04:24AM
Guessing there's some sort of rural redevelopment grant at work here.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Monday November 13 2017, @05:45AM
As a side note, Baltimore is considering a plan to sell off a large numbers of the blighted properties for $1 each. Aplan that was done in the mid-1980's (I think, but am too lazy to look up) with some success
The fact is, Baltimore's issues are far more systemic. They are a few years behind Detroit for the blight, and giving Chicago a run for their money as the murder (per capita) capital of the country.
The only thing that keeps it running is the constant dump of taxpayer dollars into the city by the rest of the state. It sucks. I keep thinking how great the rest of Maryland would be without the $$ suck that is Baltimore City.
Nuke it from orbit... It is the only way to be sure.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @12:49PM (5 children)
And the answer is nope. And considering that you have to pay FIC on the money, (1/3rd off the top) the state is paying the fed a hell of a lot more than it is paying you. Which tells you how badly these municipalities are run.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 11 2017, @02:30PM (4 children)
Any money you make in Baltimore will be stolen by mobs of unruly Blacks, who will also play the knockout game with you on a daily basis.
They should rename it Balti-no-more!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @03:29PM (3 children)
How much do they pay you to leave town?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @03:42PM (2 children)
How much you got?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @08:33PM (1 child)
I've got a banjo and I'm not affraid to use it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @12:31AM
A banjo and a watermelon can bring peace to Baltimore.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @07:28PM (3 children)
Reviving small-town America is important. We shouldn't let the middle of our country become a wasteland full of collapsing old buildings.
An extra benefit would be reduced housing costs in places like San Francisco. Well, maybe not a benefit to current landlords.
We could do this by providing tax advantages to companies for each job which is above the median income in a troubled location. Consider a location to be troubled if the population density is below both the 80-year historical maximum and 500 people per square mile. Population density ought to be calculated with a weighted average that accounts for commute distance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @12:35AM
Companies will claim the townies lack skills and import the usual Indians and Pakkies to get the tax break. Meanwhile, Main Street smells like urine and curry. As usual, only the corps win.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @03:07AM
Most corporations don't pay income taxes to begin with. (Which is why the news talks about corporate tax rates so much, instead of actual economic indicators like inflation) The only ones that pay much in the way of property taxes are either in real estate or heavy industry, and that is not who these incentives apply to.
There are a lot of reasons to be skeptical. But the best I've seen was a case where a guy moved to a small midwest "all american town", and decided to build a small vacation getaway. The town tried to fuck him out of tens of thousands of dollars on a zoning permit, all while basically photocopying his plans and using them in a marketing campaign declaring that they were going to build a great new "city vacation center" or some such... with HIS zoning fees.
It is an old game called "fleece the foreigner". The moral of this story is: If your going to do business with whores, negotiate up front and never follow one into a dark alley. The "bush" in "bushwhack" does not refer to foliage.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Sunday November 12 2017, @11:58PM
Its frustrating that we haven't yet solve the transport problem in the modern world. Even here in Australia, we have so much land and yet the rat race has everyone congregating in the big cities creating over inflated prices due to lack of supply yet there's plenty of beautiful prime real-estate in the rest of the country but the lack of efficient transport in-out of the city is compounding the concentration of the urban sprawl.
Maybe AR/VR will solve the physical presence requirement one day as an alternate means to the solution rather than solving it by efficient transport.