I always kinda wonder why anyone thinks they have the right to live in San Francisco (or Bel-Air or Tulsa) at their preferred price. Because why again?

Crid gets to the nut of it.

I live where I live for several reasons. One is that this is where I am employed, the second is that I can by 1800 square foot of brick & masonry home for $150K.

Besides, it is in the city/county's best interests to keep home prices high. Otherwise, they might see a reduction in real estate taxes, such as they get. For reference, you can ask Gulf and Bay Counties in Florida how much revenue loss they will suffer because improved homesteads are now unimproved lots piled high with debris.

Nolan obviously wouldn't know a free market if it fell on his head. But if you read far enough, he does mention the part that government policies play in creating the situation.

And in a way, his "housing policy failure in a free market" statement has a point. "Adult dorms" are the kind of solution the market comes up with when regulation cuts off better ones. He just doesn't realize that the facts he cites argue for more freedom rather than more regulation. But hey, that's leftists for you.

There has been a constant push for higher standards: larger lots, nicer houses, no sheds out back, no cars up on blocks, no chickens, minimum sq ft per person. The idea is to make the town "nicer". But the result is that it becomes illegal to be poor. Another effect is due to high land prices and lots of regs: it only makes sense to build big (ie expensive) houses.
In the real world, poor people need cheap housing. This has in the past been provided by tenement housing, old neighborhoods, and small houses on small lots. But all of these things are not favored by progressives.

I've never met a would-be home buyer who confused his desires with his rights. But I've read lots of libertarians who set up straw men doing just that. Sigh.

"I've never met a would-be home buyer who confused his desires with his rights."

Come to a land use meeting in Venice, kitten.

"I've never met a would-be home buyer who confused his desires with his rights."

That only means that you really need to leave your bubble. Even in places such as the Virginia suburbs outside of DC, where land is at somewhat less of a premium, this is very much a thing.

Your rent would put you in a 5/4 with 3-car on 5 acres over here.
But you are welcome to continue describing how wonderful California is.

Your rent would put you in a 5/4 with 3-car on 5 acres over here. But you are welcome to continue describing how wonderful California is. ~ Radwaste at October 19, 2018 10:07 AM

On the other hand, she's close to LA. You're close to Augusta, Georgia - "no place to be," according to the song. Then again, LA has a number of less-than-complimentary references in song, too (city of "belching buses / And broken bones.")

It all depends on what you want out of where you live. Cities offer nightlife, culture, and diversity. OTOH, they also offer crime, crowds, smog, and traffic.

Country living offers wide open spaces, fresh air, hunting, fishing, and solitude. OTOH, the chances your neighbor has ever travelled outside a 10-mile radius of town is low.

"Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside."
"New York is where I'd rather stay. I get allergic smelling hay."

“Fine with it if it is no where near the house they bought dirt cheap in 1989”

It’s like Carlin said. “NIMBY”.

Country living offers wide open spaces, fresh air, hunting, fishing, and solitude. OTOH, the chances your neighbor has ever travelled outside a 10-mile radius of town is low.

"Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside."
"New York is where I'd rather stay. I get allergic smelling hay."

Conan the Grammarian at October 19, 2018 12:20 PM

Some places you can have both. Proximity to a big city, and the amenities there, with low crime, fresh air and rural pursuits within an easy drive. Small cities like Fort Collins Colorado, and Rock Hill South Carolina offer lots of both. Especially with the advent of Amazon and HD TV I dont regret living a hundred miles from Denver.

Not much that I need or want there, except their airport.

My neighbors are all well traveled. Most of them have second homes in Arizona for the winter.

We aren't exactly ignorant Hicks from the sticks. Spent the last week in Tokyo. Too bad you werent here.

Isab,

You and your neighbors do not live in a small town. Nor are the towns you described isolated small towns.

Rock Hill is 30 minutes south of Charlotte, a bedroom community of that larger city.

And at 165,000+, Ft. Collins is more a small city than a small town. It’s also home to CSU, bringing it a much more diverse population than it might ordinarily have.

I-thought-chickens-were-hip-these-days.

Sorry-broken-spacebar.

“You and your neighbors do not live in a small town. Nor are the towns you described isolated small towns”

I do live in a small town. And I was raised in one of 2300 people. It was 75 miles to a bigger town, and that town had 40,000 people and was a hundred miles to Denver.

A lot of my friends and relatives from my home town are millionaires. Large scale farmers and ranchers, bankers, doctors, and lawyers.

The Rocky Mountain west is not exactly Appalachia. But no one with the internet is really isolated anymore.

Way too many exceptions to prove your rule Conan.

You can live in the Bronx, or Queens and never set foot in Manhatten for anything cultural. You might as well be in the middle of Kansas, but chances are good, if you are like half my law school classmates in New York you can’t even correctly identify Kansas on an unlabeled map.

Most of the people I went to school with still live within 10 miles of each other and most of them have never left their home town . . . of Dallas. The mobility levels of people in large cities is highly overestimated.

The Rocky Mountain west is not exactly Appalachia. But no one with the internet is really isolated anymore.

Not if they don't choose to be.

My sister lives in a small town in Colorado (1,300 people) - closer to Denver than your Fort Collins; close enough, in fact, that she works in LoDo. And it's a pretty provincial little place. The town has one grocery store, one pharmacy, and one restaurant. People go away to college and, if they come back, they generally stay there for life.

It's difficult to leave even a small farm for any length of time and the majority of people there live on small farms. My sister and her husband have to hire a farm sitter just to have a weekend away - someone to feed the sheep and chickens and let them into and out of their pens/coops.

There are many small towns in North Carolina that used to be mill towns. Now, they're trying to be tourist towns or bedroom communities to the larger cities (Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh, etc.). The people in them are still mostly life-long residents who used to work in the mills. They're trying to keep their towns alive with flea markets, coffee bars, live music venues, antique shops, leaf viewing, beds and breakfasts, etc. - trying to be college towns without a college.

California's full of small towns like that (Santa Maria, Orcutt, Benicia, Martinez, etc.). The blue collar and agriculture jobs went away and only retail jobs replaced them.

Even with the internet, white collar industries tend to cluster in or near major cities. So,, white collar workers tend to live in cities where their industry is located - easier to get and switch jobs there. to meet and network with others in the industry, and to have friends and neighbors who are in sync with your lifestyle.

I lived in one of those dying California towns, close enough to San Francisco that I commuted to The City for work. The town itself was a blue collar town with a cluster of unionized shops. It is difficult to reach by road or light rail and survived due to the railroad, the waterfront, and being the county seat.

Now, it's trying to be a tourist town, building up the downtown area to attract hipsters with coffee shops, antique shops, vintage clothing shops, bars, ferry service to SF, etc. Outside of occasional jaunts to San Francisco, Oakland, or Walnut Creek, most residents spent their lives there. Older houses, available for less money than new ones in the Bay Area's overpriced real estate market, are attracting new residents and revitalizing the town's aging population profile.

To be honest, I kind of miss that little town. It was not very cosmopolitan and was pretty insular - the same clique ran everything, but living in the suburban parts of a major city, one does not have that unique identity a small town offers. We're Charlotte, but so is the rest of like-named 300 square mile patch of Mecklenburg County.

Further south, with 380,000 people, Bakersfield is the ninth largest city in California and the 52nd largest in the US and it's still a pretty provincial place. Set in the Central Valley desert and almost solely dependent upon the oil industry and agriculture, with no major university or attraction to bring in outsiders, it's fairly isolated. The "very unhealthy" air quality and blistering summer temperatures (118ºF) don't help. CSU-Bakersfield, the only significant university in town, and a commuter one at that (10,000 students), offers only one doctoral program, an EdD.

Almost half of Bakersfield's population is Hispanic (45.5%) and that's growing rapidly as the city's culture and climate are attracting immigrants from Mexico and Central America. That immigration is creating a mostly-homogenous cultural dynamic there.

Your example, Fort Collins, is not illustrative of small towns in general. With 33,000 students, CSU is a major university and a pretty significant draw for a diverse influx of people from outside the area, people from all over the world. That'll change even the most provincial town's dynamic.

However, to your point, "provincial" today does not mean what it meant even 30 years ago. The Internet has changed things, mostly for the better. Those "provincial" towns are not nearly as isolated as they once were. However, they're generally not terribly cosmopolitan either.

The mobility levels of people in large cities is highly overestimated. ~ Ben at October 20, 2018 7:32 AM

True, but cities, and university towns, do attract outsiders, bringing in new perspectives, experiences, cuisine, and culture. So, while your school chums may not be well-travelled or cosmopolitan, at least a few of their neighbors probably are.

If you have a wal-mart, (or a few of them) you’re probably not a small town.

I live ten miles from Fort Collins, grew up around here. I remember back when a person could use cruise control sometimes on the front range. No more.

Glad I grew up here when I did. I don’t think the likes of me when I was younger would thrive in the current environment. Great place for those with a lot of property.

Amy, your state is turning into a Third World country. Why don't you come to my state, Maryland? While it IS overrun with Democrats, the climate is decent, and we have a good Libertarian candidate for governor this fall. And yes, I'm supporting and voting for him, rather than the corrupt incumbent Republican, who is apparently running a corrupt scam charity.

Glad I grew up here when I did. I don’t think the likes of me when I was younger would thrive in the current environment. Great place for those with a lot of property.

Abersouth at October 20, 2018 1:13 PM

You need to go north about fifty miles. Access to all the amenities, and none of the taxes.

I am frequently on 125 heading south early Sunday morning. You can still use cruise control, but during the week, forget it.

When I attended CSU Fort Collins had 60,000 people. However, when I was born there, Denver only had a hundred thousand.

The-small-town/city/suburb-of-Boston-I-grew-up-in-is-really-nice-but-now-only-investment-bankers-can-afford-it.-Even-the-doctors-and-lawyers-have-been-priced-out.

On-the-other-hand-I-now-live-in-a-village-of-1200-people-half-hour-from-a-small-city-and-I-like-it.Much-more-mixed...the-kids-of-the-doctors-and-lawyers-and-farmers-and-artisans-and-cleaning-ladies-all-go-to-school-together.-I-feel-like-eveywhere-I-lived-in-the-US-was-extremely-segregated-financially-and-I-am-not-sure-that-is-healthy,and-may-becontributing-to-the-polarization

The-small-town/city/suburb-of-Boston-I-grew-up-in-is-really-nice-but-now-only-investment-bankers-can-afford-it.-Even-the-doctors-and-lawyers-have-been-priced-out.

On-the-other-hand-I-now-live-in-a-village-of-1200-people-half-hour-from-a-small-city-and-I-like-it.Much-more-mixed...the-kids-of-the-doctors-and-lawyers-and-farmers-and-artisans-and-cleaning-ladies-all-go-to-school-together.-I-feel-like-eveywhere-I-lived-in-the-US-was-extremely-segregated-financially-and-I-am-not-sure-that-is-healthy,and-may-becontributing-to-the-polarization

The geographic-financial segregation in the US is nothing new. It is largely driven by public schools. People try to buy into the best school districts for their kids and as a consequence they self segregate quite well by income. After you get past the child raising ages the income segregation starts to fall apart. It doesn't go away but things are far more mixed.

As for it contributing to political polarization, probably not. As I said it has been this way for a very long time. Secondly the financial differences between the two parties aren't that significant. Democrats dominate on both sides of the income curve. High income and low income are predominately democrat voters. Republicans dominate the middle. But there is a lot of both parties across the entire income spectrum.

The main geographic segregations are large enough they aren't really driven by income. The Democrats dominate in coastal cities. The Republicans dominate everywhere else.