4 ms·

It's kind of funny to me that for a long time the people in cities looked down on rural people and life and touted the benefits of living in close proximity. Wh

It's kind of funny to me that for a long time the people in cities looked down on rural people and life and touted the benefits of living in close proximity. When COVID hit, we saw a mass exodus from the cities and now people don't want to return.

rottingchris 3y ago
People who live in cities are not a uniform hive mind. Some people left but the vast majority stayed.
- ajmurmann 3y ago
  "People who live in cities are not a uniform hive mind" We need more of this! It seems so much of our public discourse is worsened by putting people and their opinions into firm groups, then assuming that anything anyone in that group ever says is a core believe of that group and then vilifying the group for that believe.
coffeebeqn 3y ago
Most office workers didn’t have a choice before. The jobs are in the city. A handful of software companies were fully remote but most businesses are still stuck in the industrial model of work
- fullshark 3y ago
  It really is so outdated, this commitment where you spend 40 hours a week at your machine on the assembly line, pulling the right levers to produce products to sell. Some knowledge workers really are spending 90+ hours thinking about the various problems the company has and how to fix them. Of course some are lazy and just play politics to get ahead/avoid the axe. It's all so nebulous understanding who actually provides the value, at least when you have a 10000 foot view of the organization.
  - eru 3y ago
    Luckily, the economy has companies of all shapes and sizes. So if the (supposed?) overhead of office politics gets too large at big organisations, they can be outcompeted by nimbler outfits. If existing laws and regulations allow competition, that is. Some sectors are severely locked down.
heyjamesknight 3y ago
Is that "mass exodus" really that sticky though? At least in NYC, rents are back up above what they were pre-pandemic. Nobody I know can find an apartment.
- gotaran 3y ago
  NYC’s population is still below pre pandemic levels. . Exorbitant rent prices there are due to multiple factors, but population increase is not one of them: https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/8/4/23819420/why-is-nyc-rent-so-high https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/8/4/23819420/why-is-nyc-rent-so....
  - jeffbee 3y ago
    Yes but this is not really exodus. What happened at the onset of COVID was that the domestic migration out of coastal megacities continued apace, and the international migration into coastal cities abruptly stopped. You have to look at both flows to understand the population process.
- eru 3y ago
  Isn't not being able to find an apartment more of a function of rent control than anything else? In eg Singapore rents are also up, but finding an apartment is just as easy (or hard) as ever. You just have to pay up.
kelnos 3y ago
I stayed in my city and don't plan to leave. I'm not the only one, by far.
jeffbee 3y ago
Every clause of your post is false. There was not a mass exodus from cities during COVID. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/12/16/in-2020-fewer-americans-moved-exodus-from-cities-slowed/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/12/16/in-2020-f... Urban people do not look down on rural people. It’s the opposite. Rural people are the most likely to hold negative opinions about people who live in other situations, and urban dwellers are the least likely. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/how-people-in-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities-see-each-other-and-say-others-see-them/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/how-peo...
- civilitty 3y ago
  The contempt rural people have for urban dwellers is palpable if you ever spend any substantial time with them. God forbid if you’re from California cause then you might as well be Satan’s spawn come to harvest their children for adrenochrome.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - jeffbee 3y ago
    In cities, not one single person has ever felt the need to stop their vehicle, roll down their window, and shout a homophobic epithet at me. Outside of cities, this seems to happen regularly. When a rural person comes to town, do the local urban people take a moment to shout something derogatory at them? If that happens I have never seen it.
- thereddaikon 3y ago
  That second source doesn't support what you said at all. I think you need to reread it. The conclusion I'm getting from it is that people, regardless of where they are from generally think the same about people from other areas. They assume they are able to understand other's situations but don't think others are able to understand theirs's.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
watwut 3y ago
Somehow I constantly see rural fans bashing cities and city people for no reason in contexts unrelated to any of that ... while rarely the opposite. I do prefer to live in a city and would not want to live in rural place, yep, mostly due to proximity to things. Both pre and post covid.
losteric 3y ago
I live in the city, 20 minute bus to office location. Love the city, urbanism, density. I'm one of the ardent never-RTO crowd, leaving a 9 year tenure.
tekla 3y ago
It's kind of funny to me that rural people are so dependent on a international system of gas/diesel production that they can be priced out of being able to get food without significant Federal Govt intervention during price shocks
- seanp2k2 3y ago
  Don’t forget the water subsidies and the fact that many are living on land that their family got for free through homestead acts if they’ve had “the farm” in the family for a few generations. Talk about government handouts.
footy 3y ago
I live in a city and I want to work from home. I'd never want to live in a rural area, the benefits or urban life are orthogonal to my career.
eru 3y ago
Some people like living in cities, some people like rural living. If we let the people who like to live in cities bunch up closer together (by legalising more density there), the rest of us have more space in the rest of the country. It's a win-win situation.

rottingchris 3y ago

People who live in cities are not a uniform hive mind. Some people left but the vast majority stayed.

ajmurmann 3y ago
"People who live in cities are not a uniform hive mind" We need more of this! It seems so much of our public discourse is worsened by putting people and their opinions into firm groups, then assuming that anything anyone in that group ever says is a core believe of that group and then vilifying the group for that believe.

coffeebeqn 3y ago

Most office workers didn’t have a choice before. The jobs are in the city. A handful of software companies were fully remote but most businesses are still stuck in the industrial model of work

fullshark 3y ago
It really is so outdated, this commitment where you spend 40 hours a week at your machine on the assembly line, pulling the right levers to produce products to sell. Some knowledge workers really are spending 90+ hours thinking about the various problems the company has and how to fix them. Of course some are lazy and just play politics to get ahead/avoid the axe. It's all so nebulous understanding who actually provides the value, at least when you have a 10000 foot view of the organization.
- eru 3y ago
  Luckily, the economy has companies of all shapes and sizes. So if the (supposed?) overhead of office politics gets too large at big organisations, they can be outcompeted by nimbler outfits. If existing laws and regulations allow competition, that is. Some sectors are severely locked down.

heyjamesknight 3y ago

Is that "mass exodus" really that sticky though? At least in NYC, rents are back up above what they were pre-pandemic. Nobody I know can find an apartment.

gotaran 3y ago
NYC’s population is still below pre pandemic levels. . Exorbitant rent prices there are due to multiple factors, but population increase is not one of them: https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/8/4/23819420/why-is-nyc-rent-so-high https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/8/4/23819420/why-is-nyc-rent-so....
- jeffbee 3y ago
  Yes but this is not really exodus. What happened at the onset of COVID was that the domestic migration out of coastal megacities continued apace, and the international migration into coastal cities abruptly stopped. You have to look at both flows to understand the population process.
eru 3y ago
Isn't not being able to find an apartment more of a function of rent control than anything else? In eg Singapore rents are also up, but finding an apartment is just as easy (or hard) as ever. You just have to pay up.

kelnos 3y ago

I stayed in my city and don't plan to leave. I'm not the only one, by far.

jeffbee 3y ago

Every clause of your post is false. There was not a mass exodus from cities during COVID. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/12/16/in-2020-fewer-americans-moved-exodus-from-cities-slowed/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/12/16/in-2020-f... Urban people do not look down on rural people. It’s the opposite. Rural people are the most likely to hold negative opinions about people who live in other situations, and urban dwellers are the least likely. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/how-people-in-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities-see-each-other-and-say-others-see-them/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/how-peo...

civilitty 3y ago
The contempt rural people have for urban dwellers is palpable if you ever spend any substantial time with them. God forbid if you’re from California cause then you might as well be Satan’s spawn come to harvest their children for adrenochrome.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- jeffbee 3y ago
  In cities, not one single person has ever felt the need to stop their vehicle, roll down their window, and shout a homophobic epithet at me. Outside of cities, this seems to happen regularly. When a rural person comes to town, do the local urban people take a moment to shout something derogatory at them? If that happens I have never seen it.
thereddaikon 3y ago
That second source doesn't support what you said at all. I think you need to reread it. The conclusion I'm getting from it is that people, regardless of where they are from generally think the same about people from other areas. They assume they are able to understand other's situations but don't think others are able to understand theirs's.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

watwut 3y ago

Somehow I constantly see rural fans bashing cities and city people for no reason in contexts unrelated to any of that ... while rarely the opposite. I do prefer to live in a city and would not want to live in rural place, yep, mostly due to proximity to things. Both pre and post covid.

losteric 3y ago

I live in the city, 20 minute bus to office location. Love the city, urbanism, density. I'm one of the ardent never-RTO crowd, leaving a 9 year tenure.

tekla 3y ago

It's kind of funny to me that rural people are so dependent on a international system of gas/diesel production that they can be priced out of being able to get food without significant Federal Govt intervention during price shocks

seanp2k2 3y ago
Don’t forget the water subsidies and the fact that many are living on land that their family got for free through homestead acts if they’ve had “the farm” in the family for a few generations. Talk about government handouts.

footy 3y ago

I live in a city and I want to work from home. I'd never want to live in a rural area, the benefits or urban life are orthogonal to my career.

eru 3y ago

Some people like living in cities, some people like rural living. If we let the people who like to live in cities bunch up closer together (by legalising more density there), the rest of us have more space in the rest of the country. It's a win-win situation.