People of lemmy, would you live in a rural area? Why or why not?
Grew up in the middle of nowhere. No bus. No shop. No pub. It was hell. Left home for the city at the first opportunity and will never go back. I don’t want to be dependent on a car ever again.
Honestly I feel like I’m going in your direction just want from middle of nowhere Vermont to Florida for college and man its nice not having to pack water and food to bike 30 miles up and down mountains I’m still amazed by my determination as a kid to get anywhere on bike fr I continued doing that even after I got a car
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I’m torn between affordable land and going to ideological war with rural neighbors.
That was my thought too. I’m guessing you’re American. Rural Americans are especially bigoted for some reason. I’ve been to rural areas in other countries and they’re not this bad. People openly stare at you in rural America if you’re not white.
Not quite, but it’s very similar. I have an old friend that lived for a couple decades in a VERY progressive, urban area, recently moved closer to me in a smaller town, so I went to see him and, while we are definitely still friends, there were some very dangerous conversation topics covered (carbon climate, EVs which are easy to get me going on). It’s like a conservative brain worm infected him sometime in the past few months, very strange.
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Yeah, sure, he “corrected” towards believing more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is good and that “leftists” were responsible for starting a bunch of local wildfires.
Ahhh yes, the most galaxy brain of galaxy brain political ideologies.
Enlightened Centrism.
If you’re rural enough, there are no neighbors.
I grew up rural, lived in a few cities as an adult, and currently live in the biggest town near the area I grew up. I can get to most anything I need within 10 minutes, with more options an hour away, and three major cities within two hours.
I was able to buy a three story (7 bedroom) house for less than 100k.
The biggest downside is that most people in my area are racist homophobic Christian Republicans. I can blend in well enough as a white man, but I can definitely see why many people would not feel welcome here.
I would and do. It’s quiet and peaceful, I have forest all around me, no traffic, cost of living is lower.
Rural meaning wilderness, yes.
Rural meaning farming communities, no.
I currently live in a small city surrounded by wilderness. Transit could be better, but there’s tons of culture I can walk to and I can escape to solitude in 15 minutes and it’s divine.
This weekend I’m going to PAX. Last week I saw Japanese Breakfast. Next week I’m seeing John Oliver do standup. Went to a Mariners game last week too. Got Sounders tix coming up, and hockey starts soon.
Rural is nice for a weekend. Urban is where the action is.
Sounds like urban is where the money’s spent 😋
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Absolutely. The beauty of nature is incredible, and being able to enjoy it is important to me. Not to mention there’s not as many people around to mess things up, make things loud/dirty, or be crowded by.
Moving to a rural/secluded area has been the best thing ever for my mental health. My commute is gorgeous and there’s nothing better than waltzing around outside naked in the sunshine.
there’s nothing better than waltzing around outside naked in the sunshine.
Oh my goose. It’s been so long since I did this but this brought back memories.
I just did the naked bike ride through a major American city.
I do and have for most of my life. I lived on an island where my SO and I were the only permanent residents for 8 years.
I have lived in the suburbs of a couple of large towns/small cities for some years too - and in the centre of an all-but-city and although there is some convenience in those, I’d choose rural any day. The peace, proximity to nature and the ease of getting out for enjoyable walks beats convenience every time for me.
I feel like “Would you move to a rural area?” and “Would you live on a private island?” are completely different questions. 😂
A) - it wasn’t private - it was a nature reserve and I was the warden and B) - I kinda intended this in an “…and I EVEN lived on an island…” way.
Just to clarify, I’m from a European country
Nah, I’d rather just live in towns that are well connected to cities (like bus stops going to that city) while also having rural areas not too far from there
In the US these would be suburbs that are shit holes of land management and zoning.
agree, the problem with the US equivalent how is much less walkable is, everything planned far appart, without sidewalks or bicycle lanes
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What does traffic have to do with living in the city? You don’t drive when you live in the city, the traffic is from people in the suburbs coming into the city - you’re already here there’s no reason to drive. 
Traffic has a lot to do with living in the city. I’m about 6 miles away from major destinations downtown. I mostly work remote, but when I go into the office, it’s about 7 miles away in one of the suburbs.
“What about the bus?” you might ask. Well, around here that’s kind of a sick joke. It works OK for commuting – but it turns my 15 minute drive into an hour on the bus with at least one transfer. And what if I’m trying to go to a party that a friend is hosting in the suburbs? In many cases, I’d have to arrange to stay overnight because bus service to that area just stops until morning.
I think it’s funny that someone downvoted this comment, it’s spot on.
That very much depends on the city. I live in Los Angeles. It’s giant, and most people have to do quite a bit of driving. My personal commute is only 15 minutes by surface streets, but almost everyone I know has to take the freeways. My doctor is 15 miles, and traffic can change that from 20 minutes into an hour and a half.
So much walking, but in a good way. I used to work for the city doing IT work and would walk between most city buildings blocks apart, would put in like 7 miles a day.
The city has too much traffic but you like walking…
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I live in a city (sf) and I’m usually walking or occasionally bus/train. Traffic rarely affects my day-to-day life.
I think that’s the connection they’re pointing out, anyway - colored with my own experience of course.
Even for not drivers traffic is anoying. It’s loud and takes way to much space. I like living in the city, but in the last few years I got realy anti cars. They have nothing to do in cities. If you live in rural areas ofcourse you need one, but the second there is a good public transport grid cars shouldn’t be allowed to drive there.
Oh by no means do I disagree.
I meant- in a practical sense, my travel is not impeded by car traffic.
There are a lot of aspects of it that really appeal to me, but I’d miss the shit out of using a bicycle as my primary means of transportation and having everything relatively close.
To be fair, this largely depends on the country you’re in. Appreciate that the bike is going to be pretty useless in somewhere as car-centric as the US, but I’ve lived in rural areas in the EU where the bike was quite enough.
I live in the US and my bike is my primary means of transportation, not rural though: When you get more remote, everything of significant distance is highways and it’d be super dangerous trying to ride a bike or even an ebike. You’d need a motorcycle at minimum.
Yes, sorry, that was the point I was making (albeit poorly). Rural US is an impossibility unless you have a car.
Unless you’re a 15 year old me who just has a shit ton of stamina water bottles and a even more shit ton of determination to get to a city so I can throw myself around a roundabout
I live in a town of about 2000 people. It has a grocery, a liquor store, and a hardware store. It’s rural enough. I would never live anywhere I can’t walk to get a bag of chips. Rural sounds good until the power goes out in a snow storm and your lane way is 7 miles long and the plow guy ain’t coming.
If you have a 7 mile driveway, and the plow guy isn’t you, you fucked up.
Contingent on fiber internet and having a four-wheeel-drive vehicle, yes.
Snow’s a bitch and so is DSL. Other than that, the solitude would be rad.
The DSL thing is a bit of a myth nowadays. The rural area around where I live has better internet than the city.
Then you live in a pretty recently upgraded area. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/1184726217/rural-states-likely-to-benefit-the-most-from-funds-to-improve-broadband-access
I have a feeling the reason the internet is so good in MS is because they are more concerned with doing literally anything else besides giving us drinkable tap water.
And, you know, there’s a whole planet that exists outside of the US…
Just like the areas that exist outside your little rural area. It’s almost like either of us shouldn’t make blanket statements.
Except that acknowledging that the world exists doesn’t constitute a blanket statement…
I have starlink. Better internet than I ever had in town. We should be getting fiber any day now too.
No, I’ve done it before. It’s awful being dependent on a car to go anywhere, there’s less to do.
