The Economy

One word: zoning.

 

There’s plenty of cheap land and homes in this country. It would just take a re-arranging of people’s priorities. If having a Starbucks on your block is worth paying an extra $20,000 year on housing, there’s not much I can tell that person. Have fun with that.

If owning a home, being part of a community are priorities, there are places out here to thrive. Americans aren’t taking us up on it. My wife is involved in bringing new families to our little town through the community foundation. We’ve got seven new houses going up in a new development, all under $350,000, with good engineering jobs at the new electric delivery truck plant we landed in need of being filled.

We’ll keep trying.

 

It's not just zoning.

[Edit] More accurately, the things other than zoning affect rents moreso.

 

Starbucks hasn’t been a limited to a bougie big city experience for a while now.



You want know the amenity that’s missing in the countryside that is dampening demand? Being openly LGBTQ and not catching crap for it regularly. Being able to live peacefully in an interracial marriage. Being able to practice a minority religion, or none at all. Being able to find potential dating partners not infected with Fox News brain. Maybe if you already have family roots someplace you’ll put up with it. Taking a chance on someplace new? Lots of luck.

 

Safe? Safe. Safe!

jfc

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/12/east-palestine-ohio-derailment-residents/

Days after a train carrying hazardous materials went off the tracks in northeastern Ohio, burst into flames and stoked fears of a “potential explosion,” authorities assured evacuated residents that it was safe to return to town.

More than a week after the derailment, Maura Todd is not convinced.

The headaches and nausea her family experienced at their house last weekend and the pungent odor that reminds her of a mixture of nail polish remover and burning tires told her otherwise, Todd said.

On Saturday, she was making plans to pack her bags and move away from East Palestine, Ohio, to Kentucky with her family and her three miniature Schnauzers — at least temporarily, Todd said.

“I’ve watched every news conference and I haven’t heard anything that makes me think that this is a data-driven decision,” Todd, 44, told The Washington Post. “We don’t feel like we have a whole lot of information.”

After the derailment, federal and local officials repeatedly told residents that the air quality was safe and that the water supply was untainted.

But more than a week after the Norfolk Southern train derailed — causing an explosion that sent flames into the air and a cloud of smoke across parts of the village, and leading authorities to release a toxic plume — residents told The Post that they had yet to see a full list of the chemicals that were aboard the train when it lost its course.


Rail union calling for tighter safety guidelines

 

um

Dead fish found in Leslie Run near East Palestine train derailment

 

I have become fascinated by Dixiehack's Starbucks map, especially by the four outlets in the U.P. and the little cluster in South Dakota near the Wyoming border. Each one a little story of capitalism.

 

Tyson busted a union in a little town near me after a bitter 18-month strike. Wages at the plant once supported families, but that didn't accommodate Tyson's profit margin. I've been boycotting Tyson for almost 20 years and will continue to do so.
As a final fuck-you gesture, Tyson closed the plant in 2021. A frozen-pizza manufacturer plans to reopen it this year, which is the first good news this town has had in a while.

 

"Inconvenience."

Wonder how far that $1000 will go.

And if by taking it, people give up the right to sue.

 

Add about three or four zeroes to those "inconvenience checks" and now we're talking.