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I could only access the first of paragraph of the article, but this recalls a line I bookmarked in The Long Haul, the memoir of a liberal arts school dropout wh
by klenwell 5y ago
I could only access the first of paragraph of the article, but this recalls a line I bookmarked in The Long Haul, the memoir of a liberal arts school dropout who ended up as successful trucker for high-end moving company criss-crossing America:
Municipal officials always seem to want auto assembly plants and call centers, but a real and lasting economic engine gets running when there's a university in town. As far as I can figure, the only places left in America that can be vibrant downtowns are college towns and high-end tourist towns. In the rest of the country the downtowns were hollowed out when nobody was looking.
HN discussion of book: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15310849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15310849
- justinator 5y agoMaybe. Living in Boulder, which has both a university and tourism, downtown got pretty gutted by COVID, and like probably everywhere, small local businesses are being replaced with chains (that was already happening). And it was already very difficult to live in the same city you work in (or really go to school in - people commute just to work on their undergrad), if you're in the service industry as you weren't given a living wage to do so in a city that's so expensive. That does take us to the present day problem of pressure from employers to actually do that. Not to be too finger pointy, but the influx of Googlers and similar ilk isn't helping with scarcity of places to live or the skyrocketing price of rentals and buying a home. Double so that Boulder has a very problematic occupancy limit of three unrelated people that may live in a house (even if that house has 5 bedrooms). These problems aren't specific to Boulder, but the Uni and tourism aren't shielding it from these problems. It's not assembly plants and call centers, but it's Uber driving and Amazon Prime delivery.
- BeFlatXIII 5y agoI wonder what the attraction to attracting call centers is caused by. My guess is that it’s a low-capital way to bring in lots of jobs. However, unless these are totally different call centers than the ones in my area, those are pretty much all jobs with low pay and high turnover.
- bachmeier 5y agoI've heard a few reasons for call centers being "desirable". Anyone can do the work. It's "real work", not the kind of stuff college graduates do. It's not dangerous. It brings in money from outside the area.
- conductr 5y agoAlso it's quick. Converting an old factory to cubicles and dropping in some phones takes a few weeks.
- treis 5y agoThe cause of dead downtowns is crime and schools. As crime came down and schools got better people flocked (and are continuing to flock) to cities.