𝙷𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚖𝚊𝚗@shagbark_hick
I hear this a lot, as if it's some kind of great scandal or hypocrisy. But frankly I find the criticism to be obtuse.
I moved to a place where they're giving away housing, and now live mortgage-free. We have no crime, no migrants, no ugly human monoculture, beautiful rural scenery, and endless wilderness.
When I moved up here (just a couple hours from where I grew up) I knew the place was dying. Went into this with full knowledge of the situation.
But between reading Twitter and talking to people IRL, I'd gotten the sense that there were droves of young people who:
1. Were angry about the high cost of housing
2. Wanted cheap housing
3. Wanted to get away from cities, crime, and migrants
4. Wanted to live a more rural, homestead-ish type life
5. Wanted to form religious communities, particularly Catholic communities, and revive dying Parishes
6. Were probably smart enough to figure out how to make a living without a conventional job
7. Were mad enough about their complaints with Main Street America that they might actually take action, move house for it, etc.
So I found a town with move-in-ready homes for sale under $50,000, in a fairly isolated rural area with next-to-no crime, favorable demographics, stunning scenery, no migrants, and a beautifully restored "trad Novus Ordo" Catholic Parish that was, up until recently, offering daily Mass and confession.
The town is actively dying, but I assumed that if I could find perhaps 5-6 young Catholic families who wanted to live mortgage-free, we could save it, and by having large families, we could eventually "take it over" Amish-style. Given how often I read complaints about the cost of housing, and how passionately people complained about that topic, I assumed this would be fairly straightforward to do.
My error was in assuming that when people complain, they actually want the problems about which they are complaining to be SOLVED. I furthermore erred in assuming that those complaining might be willing to take some pretty robust action in order to solve those problems, including moving to a town like this one.
If that were true, these dying towns in deep rural Northern NY would be some of the best value propositions imaginable. We have bridges, dams, storefronts, roads, town water, town sewer, library, Church, bars, wilderness trails, excellent trout streams, you name it. All up for grabs at dirt-cheap prices; just add young pilgrims and pioneers and we'd bring it back to life and set a fantastic example for rebuilding the American heartland.
It's still possible, too. But this is one of those ideas that ONLY works if you've got a half-dozen like-minded families who share a faith, work together, stick around, and are savvy enough to make a living in a place with no jobs. Sort of like the old frontier that many people pine for, except easier.
So I'm in "limbo" here. If we can find even 2-3 families who are interested in such a thing, we'd stay. Or perhaps if one of the larger towns around here appealed more (such as Tupper Lake or Ogdensburg) and a few families took a genuine interest, we'd move there.
But barring participation from at least a few young Catholic families, our options are either to leave or to stay out here alone, watching this place die.
And by the way, the death of this place is not something I'm overstating.
Median age is over 60. ALL the children move away. There are no jobs within 35min of here on clear roads; in winter, that drive might be 50min. We get hardcore winters. The school (largest employer in town) has lost over 50% of its students in the last 20 years. There is no tourism to speak of, and extremely unlikely that there could be as we're so isolated. The town is going broke and can barely keep the water system working. Taxes go up every year.
If the town is to be saved, it's really now or never. Same with many many dozens of similar towns up here. I thought I'd try to turn that around, and still think it could happen.
If the scandalous hypocrisy is found in trying to save a beautiful old piece of the American heartland -- I'm guilty as charged. The peanut gallery can laugh it up but I love this state and I don't want to see it die.
