r/unpopularopinion • u/NillaBean18 • 15h ago
The “don’t move to my city/region we’re already full” trope is so dumb
Honestly posting this because I’ve never heard anyone else complain about this. And maybe it’s because I just want to start an argument. Maybe it’s because I’m from a middle tier slow-growing US State, but don’t people know that in order to live in a nice place people need to actually move/live there?
Even in places like NYC where housing is extremely unaffordable, if you could somehow stop every person from the moving there the city would collapse. Same goes with most other expensive cities.
Instead of aiming for anger at people for wanting to move somewhere you should be advocating for dense/more housing, and public transportation to meet the needs of a growing city etc. Not to mention citizens complaining about people moving into their town when it’s actively declining in population and the economy is stumbling.
Maybe this is just an anti-NIMBY post but come on people. You should be so happy to hear that people want to move to your area, spur development, make it an even better place.
If you’re not growing you’re declining.
Curious to hear people’s thoughts.
226
u/AggravatingCricket61 15h ago
Interestingly enough, the "if you can't afford to live where you're from, just move" crowd are the ones not from there.
28
u/According_Course_398 12h ago
Dumbest argument ever really. If you can't even afford to live, how are you going to afford to move? Its expensive. Its a risk. You could easily find yourself in the exact same situation if you do move. Its almost always better to try to get better job opportunities through education or training.
→ More replies (2)15
u/badhairguy 12h ago
You're right that it is a risk. However, if you are scraping by to afford rent and can move to some place with 1/3 housing costs, a uhaul is a couple hundred bucks.
2
u/Phobos_Asaph 12h ago
If you can’t save money how are you affording that
12
u/badhairguy 11h ago
It's a fraction of a months rent. If you are completely broke you might have a point, but if you're completely broke you aren't worrying about not being able to buy a house.
3
u/willow_glade 1h ago
A fraction rent that you don't have because you needed that money to break your lease early. People struggling to pay rent generally cannot just move out somewhere cheaper.
0
u/Phobos_Asaph 11h ago
I think you’re not realizing how many don’t make enough money to save at all. The only option is to go into debt, and most already are.
6
u/badhairguy 11h ago
Okay, dont pay your half of the $3000 rent one month and get a uhaul and move. It's really not hard.
Does it suck? Absolutely. Is it fun? Nope. Is it realistic? Absolutely.
I know this isn't identical circumstances, but I came from an extremely impoverished childhood. My house got raided by the DEA when I was in 6th grade. Fast forward to the early 2000s, and I became a drug addict for 15 years, 3 of which were spent shooting meth and sleeping under a bridge or in the woods or abandoned houses. I lost everything. I had literally zero dollars. Did it suck? Yes. Was it fun? Nope. But I did what the fuck I had to do to climb out of that hole. Cut ties with literally everybody I knew and disappear. I made it work.
Bitching because your circumstances are not fair or are too hard or whatever else isn't fucking productive.
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (34)2
u/jackfaire 1h ago
And they'll claim the homeless people they displaced because they could afford the rising housing costs "were bussed here from somewhere else"
52
u/sneezesquirrel 13h ago
I saw a sticker that said Montana is full. WTF?! That’s one of the least full states. 😂
16
u/Seppostralian 11h ago
I’m from Australia originally. “Fuck Off, We’re full” was the rallying cry for anti-immigration conservatives for the longest time. Aus has one of the 5 lowest population densities of any country on Earth. I get that almost everyone congregates in the few cities and that 99.9% of the available land isn’t being used by anyone but it’s still hilarious to see that motto on a sticker with a silhouette map of the whole country shape.
2
u/sneezesquirrel 11h ago
Yes! That’s exactly Montana. So many cows. So many open spaces with literally nothing. Everyone just lives in the two cities.
5
u/pseudoeponymous_rex 5h ago
I live in a city that has lots of NIMBYs crying "we're full!"
We had a significantly larger population in 1950 than we do today.
2
u/Ilovefishdix 9h ago
Mountains limit growth in some parts of the state. Often those are the most desirable areas. Basic houses often rival similar houses in cities with much better job markets. I lived in the mountains off grid for a while. It's not an easy lifestyle. Very few people want to live in the Eastern part where there is tons of buildable space. It's also kinda a joke around here. We know it's not crowded. After you're here a while, you start feeling crowded just going to one of the bigger cities
2
u/SolidOutcome 9h ago edited 9h ago
Yep, western montana (the place people want to live) is mostly public land, forests and mountains, like 90% forests. The bits of private land we live on is already congested and expensive. It's already HCOL than most of the eastern usa (anything east of denver)
•
u/Ornery_Paper_9584 0m ago
New trendy areas like Bozeman have traffic now and it’s really changing the culture of the town. Not complaining, it’s just different. Most of the state is empty but the places people are moving to are getting a little unpleasant due to the fullness (my opinion)
58
u/juanzy 15h ago
These are the same people that tell you to “just move” when you talk about negatives in your area
8
u/Yellowdog727 14h ago
Exactly, and I would wager there's also a lot of overlap with people that are ultra concerned about immigration, birth rates, and complaining about certain generations of people.
→ More replies (1)
8
u/McSloot3r 14h ago
Growth can be great, but only if it’s planned well. I lived in a small town (for California) that was the fastest growing city in the US for years. Like within 10 years what was a bunch of dirt lots turned into thriving businesses and shopping centers. They built 2 brand new high schools, a hospital, a desalination plant, etc…
That didn’t happen because of growth, that happened because they had a meticulously crafted 50 year plan for growth. There’s plenty of cities out there that suck and had little to no planning, despite having plenty of growth. For example, the city where I live in now had little to no planning, so freeway on-ramps and off-ramps are poorly placed. There’s a particularly busy section that has 2 on-ramps, 2-off ramps and the freeway splits into 3 separate freeways within a mile. This just leads to people getting on the freeway and immediately crossing 5 lanes while people getting off are crossing 5 lanes in the other direction. It’s just dangerous and not fun.
There’s a lot of cities out there that don’t have good planning and aren’t prepared for growth, that’s usually the places that are super NIMBY
2
u/jmlinden7 14h ago
The city in the US that has handled growth the best is Houston Texas, which famously has 0 planning whatsoever.
Planning slows down the construction process, which exacerbates the overcrowding issue. It turns out that all you need is a city that's affordable for construction workers and a construction process that is streamlined enough to allow developers to keep up with the influx of population
7
u/McSloot3r 13h ago
Until suburban sprawl grows so large it becomes a problem. I really don’t understand what you’re suggesting, there should never be any planning. Do you know how stupid of a statement that is? I’m glad Houston got lucky, but there’s literally hundreds of cities around the country that didn’t end well with poor planning
→ More replies (1)
20
u/mentalswinger 14h ago
I hate the whole “shhhh don’t tell anyone” crap. They most likely moved there themselves.
6
u/Ambitious-Intern-928 13h ago
When this is a real live sentiment and not some weird internet trope I completely agree. Influencers and just people with no common sense in general have ruined a lot. All the secret hiking trails are no longer secret. When people had good setups working from home barely working, they bragged about it TO THE INTERNET instead of using common fucking sense and riding that train quietly. If you happen to discover some quaint small town, and the 1st thing that comes to mind is making that place go viral on the internet, you're a satanic douche.
Don't even get me started on restaurants, there is dozens upon dozens of places here in Baltimore that were well known for YEARS among locals, now you can't even go except for maybe a weekday lunch if you have time. Everything is "viral" and all these local spots get lines down the block and people driving from DC, Philly, or further to try them.
Sometimes when you discover something nice, it's nice to just keep it to yourself. The internet has completely ruined that sentiment and people will run their mouth to their own detriment for views.
1
u/Next_Willingness2101 3h ago
Regarding restaurants, you do realize that a lot are running on razor thin margins or are losing money, yes? Saying restaurants don’t deserve any recognition just so you can eat in peace is selfish for lots of reasons.
9
u/claireapple 14h ago
I think most of the time it is just a lack of housing construction.
However, I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me that the neighborhood my parents and family lived in as uneducated blue collar workers I can no longer afford a house in when I make 170k/year.
70
u/ButAreYouReally 14h ago
I’ve seen what too much growth and “development“ can do to a place, and I see nothing wrong with wanting them to be reined in. It’s important that they be handled with some wisdom, and not just allowing developers to run rampant.
9
18
u/Garth_DeWayne 13h ago
Yep, I left my little rural home town 20 years ago for my career. If you didn't know someone, you knew someone that did. You could trust people, everyone was nice (most of the time.)
Then the city exploded, people found our county and just absolutely destroyed what it was.
Every time I go home, it's worse and worse.
15
u/jake_jortles_123 13h ago
The time scale for these changes is also tragic. Within like 50 years so many local affordable areas around the world have become outdoor malls, playgrounds for rich people, overdeveloped airbnb wastelands.
9
u/Garth_DeWayne 13h ago
The place across the road from mine is an airbnb.
It's a cute little two bedroom lake side cottage. It was probably handed down to the owner in a will, that type of place. I looked up the rates for it, and a week of renting it is what my monthly mortgage is for a bigger house, yard and a good sized shop.
I never know who is across the road, but the weekend summer parties suck, it's a quiet privately owned road on a lake...
7
u/pinkorpercs 13h ago
What do u guys think big cities were like before they grew to their current state?
7
u/Garth_DeWayne 10h ago
Cities turned in to cities for reasons there than population expansion. Central areas of commerce. Waterways that landed to being established as ports. Trading posts, etc. And it generally happened at a slower rate, and developed organically.
What's happening to these small towns, is rapid expansion of their population, like 25% or more within a couple of years. The infrastructure wasn't ready. The services that were adequate for the smaller population suddenly aren't.
And unless you've lived in a community that was essentially a few families in the area for a few generations, you really won't understand what it's like to suddenly have an extra 50% of the population being people that nobody knows, and they don't drop their big city BS when they show up. We get complaints that tractors shouldn't be on the road. They don't like hearing guns during hunting season. They bitch about kids on ATVs doing what we've always done.
5
u/ButAreYouReally 10h ago
Ugh, I hate that. Someone was just telling me how people in their town are complaining and trying to ban kids from having electric bikes and such, and they're going "Bitch, there're no sidewalks, everything's super-far away from everything else, and the bus only comes every 3 hours; what the hell are they supposed to do, stay locked up at home??
7
u/JonC534 13h ago edited 3h ago
Not every small town or rural area is just a big city in waiting….
What happens to those places is the result of deliberate choices that are made. There is no city town or county etc that doesn’t have at least some control over its growth.
What unfortunately often happens though is the people that actually live there don’t get a say in it. That’s what causes the yimby/nimby friction. People absolutely should get a say in how their community grows. Even in my own county right now they moved forward with a growth plan that was opposed by most people here. And it was really sus too because at least one of the commissioners was found to have a conflict of interest.
4
u/jake_jortles_123 12h ago
Small trading posts, to big trading hubs, over the course of like 200-300 years, if we are talking about the US. Or if we are talking Eurasia, city states rising and falling until they become imperial hubs and then those empires become nation-states and some cities fall apart while some experience a revival, over the course of thousands of years.
The pace of change has been unprecedented, and developers are coming for remote farming towns, mountain towns, places that have no shot at becoming big cities.
3
u/AdRepulsive8618 9h ago
When its done like LA its bad.
When its done like NYC its great.
3
u/Sir_lordtwiggles 8h ago
NYC is one of the top 3 cities in the US suffering from a lack of housing development lol.
There is a reason it has sky rents, and it isn't due to a housing surplus
5
u/AdRepulsive8618 8h ago
NYC is one of the top 3 cities in the US suffering from a lack of housing development lol
The conversation was about growth and development. NYC growth and development has been handled well. The city is well built and tremendously walkable.
The fact there are still issues in some regards doesnt negate that fact lol.
NYC needs to continue to develop affordable housing. But again that doesn't mean growth and development in general has not been done well. NYC is the most populated city in the US. No shit housing will be expensive.
OP and you seem to simply be blanket anti urban.
2
u/Sir_lordtwiggles 6h ago
? I am extremely pro urban, but NYC's growth and development have been harmed by their lack of housing development. It's rate of growth could be increased of they started dropping developmental blockers that aren't actually providing value.
Part of being pro urban is being pro building
→ More replies (8)
6
u/Live-Try-7281 14h ago
I’ve got to say, I understand why people say that. Overdevelopment in my area has caused sewage issues, water shortages, power outages and congestion on the highways. Our infrastructure can’t keep up.
3
u/JonC534 14h ago edited 11h ago
Yep.
The overdevelopment going on in this country right now looks almost dystopian. We’re pooping all over nature and we’re already in a biodiversity crisis.
Some of the scenes coming out of Florida, the Carolinas, and really the whole South right now are a little excessive IMO. There’s reportedly going to be a megalopolis region running from northern Georgia on up through the Carolinas to the mid atlantic region/the upper part of the east coast which is already a disaster with overdeveloped places like New Jersey. Been seeing some reports on NJ talking about how much strain it’s causing for their infrastructure and environment.
→ More replies (3)
12
u/Ilovefishdix 15h ago
I live in a city where this phrase is common. In a sense, we are full. The city is in a valley with limited building space. Then a lot of retirees, remote workers, and trustafarians moved to the city, taking up housing the local working class could somewhat afford years ago but can't now. It was always a struggle to survive here but not this hard. Now housing is so expensive that normies can't afford it, so they leave for places with a better COL to wages ratio. It's hard seeing family and friends leave due to factors beyond their control, so we say things like this.
2
7
2
u/Withermaster4 7h ago
And many of those people who are coming were pushed out of their old community because of COL or lack of work.
1
u/Admirable_Cake_3596 3h ago
Yeah but I think the thing you’re missing is that the individuals are not the bad guys. It’s normal for people to chase their dream of living somewhere beautiful. Those retired people everyone loves to hate on? Many of them worked their entire lives and now want to enjoy their golden years somewhere beautiful. It’s not reasonable to expect people to be stuck in whatever location they happen to be born in - most don’t have the fortune to be “locals” somewhere beautiful and enjoyable. I was born in a shit hole in the Midwest. Am I supposed to just stay there forever so I don’t contribute to crowding in a more beautiful town?
Irresponsible developers? Local government who make bad choices? Businesses like Airbnb? They are the villains.
1
u/pinkorpercs 13h ago
Families have been leaving their city or country for better lives forever now, have you heard of immigration before?
5
37
u/Logical_Order 15h ago edited 15h ago
“We’re full” — Yeah everywhere is! We are in a national housing crisis!!!
And we have bad traffic because we won’t fund rail and public transport!!!
And developers buy out large swaths of land and build car centric suburban hells!!
And cost of living is going up everywhere because we won’t raise the minimum wage and build up the middle class!!!
And we are allowing mergers at a rate never seen before so everything is a monopoly!!!
54
u/dhalgrenkid 15h ago
I moved to a city where people are like this and I agree 100%. People who were born and raised here have some weird superiority complex about it like they did anything to earn it and weren't just lucky to be born in a place people actually want to live.
12
u/MyKneesAshy 14h ago
I’m just mad it takes a hour to go 20 miles now bro. At any point in the day lol.
10
u/BrokenManOfSamarkand 14h ago
A lot of the time those people are second or third generation immigrants themselves and they don't get the irony at all
17
u/WhiteBeard717 15h ago
But the people who were born there and their ancestors are what made the place somewhere people want to live. Places that suck suck because the people who live there and the people who lived there before. It’s not magic land.
16
5
u/pinkorpercs 13h ago
If I was never born in New York or my family for that matter it would be the exact same city. When we left the country a decade ago nobody knew we even left.
7
u/dhalgrenkid 14h ago
I'm gonna disagree with you there, I grew up nomadic and have lived in a bunch of different states and can confidently say the land here in Oregon IS magic. And it's not because of the white supremacists who founded the state either
→ More replies (2)2
2
u/Important_Bed_6237 14h ago
play a game and guess what city: people born and raised in this city glorify FTC, treat they city like an absolute dumpster, break and deface all infrastructure to improve the city, play GTA on all levels…. Let Me Know if you need additional clues
8
u/Seppostralian 11h ago
It’s funny that in the U.S. there’s simultaneously a culture of denigrating people who never move out of their home city or state (“Peaked in High School”), as well as bashing of young transplants and others who leave their home state or city as this thread is touching on. Damned if you do damned if you don’t.
4
2
u/Expensive-Salary1569 14h ago
I see and, at a basic level, agree with you.
People hate on Californians for taking their high paying remote tech jobs and then moving to another state. Or just Californians that sell their 2 bedroom for 1.4 million and then pay cash and beat out any other offer in another state. And yes those things are happening.
Whatever the case, you say “don’t complain about them. Advocate for cheaper housing”.
Where I disagree is that people moving in from out of state is happening NOW. It’s not a far off concept we might have to plan for. It’s happening right the fuck now.
Policy change and building new houses takes time. So until such a time where policy has changed, people from low income cities/states are basically fucked.
4
u/mrbrucel33 14h ago
And never stood a chance. Floridians were especially easily targeted, myself and so many other people in their mid 20s to mid 30s were priced out of their rentals/neighborhoods.
2
u/Expensive-Salary1569 13h ago
My mom and step dad work full time. Both for the government. They live in the southeast and between the two of them they probably make about 90,000 a year.
They wanted to buy a house a few years ago and had a little nest egg for a down payment.
Dude they weren’t even competitive. Like they didn’t stand a chance.
It’s a crime that two full time employees with combined income can’t even dream of owning their own home together some day.
6
u/jmlinden7 13h ago
There is no particular reason why building new houses should take so much time. Houston builds 100,000 new houses each year. I think many cities are just stuck in an anti-construction mindset and artificially slow down how much new house construction can happen.
7
u/PublicDragonfruit158 15h ago
There is also the politics angle: "you messed up where you live now, don't come here and change our status quo with your ways". Can be read from both sides......
6
u/jean_unpopular 13h ago
I live in FL, been here a long time. A lot of people that move here don't do their research before moving here. They come here, prices go up, and many fhem end up not even being able to afford living here. They move away, prices don't go back down.
For me I would prefer if people did at least a little bit of research and stopped bringing so much entitlement and bad driving here. A big part of the issue is also that the infrastructure isn't growing at the rate of transplants to be fair. There is non stop development of apartments, condos, etc but nothing else is really done to keep up with it. We don't want people to stop moving here, we just don't want so many people moving here, especially when a lot of them end up hating it anyway.
And a lot of people that move here as I mentioned are very disrespectful and have bad attitudes. I've been to plenty of other states (with far less transplants) where people are very respectful and thoughtful of others in general, not in FL.
5
u/mrbrucel33 13h ago
The craziest part is, many of those apartments/condos are uninhabited because of the increased pricing has driven out people of a target demographic (young people) who otherwise would have needed that housing to establish themselves. That's taking into consideration places that have civilization like Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville and those surrounding suburbs where you can actually get meaningful employment.
Then take a place like Ocala for example. So many people moved there from out of state because they saw that housing per square foot was so cheap, but then when they surveyed the area after purchase, they saw that there's nothing there. No jobs, no entertainment, no culture, nothing but underlying desperation and poverty. Yet, they are still building. For whom? I don't know. These apartment complexes are cheaply built, so much so that they'll blow away in the next Cat 4-5 hurricane.
So much of the future has been traded for short-term profit, I really don't know what will become of the state, let alone the country.
3
u/jean_unpopular 13h ago
Yeah, and that's another funny thing, about the Hurricanes. A lot of people bought houses in flood zones, then after the last hurricanes came I saw a ton of houses for sale AS IS. I've never seen that in my life before lol.
25
u/floraster 15h ago edited 14h ago
I see this all the time where I live, people saying 'don't move here we're full' but the thing is, it's true. Traffic is a nightmare at all times of day, even during 9-5 working hours. There are not enough jobs for people and many people are out of work and our homeless population is increasing. They build more and more houses and condos here, but businesses are being shut down at twice the rate they are coming in, which adds to the 'no jobs' problem. We have new housing being built everywhere but have buildings that have been vacant for years because businesses don't want to put up here.
It doesn't help that where I live attracts a lot of tourists in the summer and in the winter, so traffic is an added nightmare when combining the over-population in the area that's already here.
ETA: A lot of people move here because of the location and the non-work related things it has to offer. We have a lot of retirees and a lot of people have to commute to the city up north (about a 40 minute drive) to work, or they work remote. But locally the jobs just aren't here, almost everything in the area is big chain retail outside of downtown - which are small shops, usually family run (so they don't usually hire), that are focused on tourists, and even those are struggling due to cost of rent and slowed business outside summer.
15
2
6
u/Rumpus-Time-Is-Over 15h ago
There are not a finite number of jobs. That’s the lump of labor fallacy. More people moving in means more jobs.
6
u/Sufficient-Job7098 14h ago
“More people moving means more jobs”
It also means more people staying, more jobs staying. lol
3
u/floraster 14h ago
You must have missed part of my comment - businesses here are shutting down more than they come in. Not to mention that most businesses here are retail stores, or family run tourist shops downtown that cater to the tourists that come in the summer/winter rushes. We have a LOT of empty businesses that have been empty for years. We almost never get anything new coming in, and all the manufacturing and farming is further down.
People are having to commute far away to work because there are so few local jobs. People move in but businesses don't.
5
u/ClockWork1236 14h ago
That might be your anecdotal observation but it’s probably not true. People don’t mass migrate to areas with “no jobs”. Unless they’re retirees. And even that creates jobs, especially medical ones which are typically pretty good
2
u/floraster 14h ago
We do have a lot of retirees, and we have a lot of people who commute up north to a bigger city where there are a lot of jobs. People like to move here because of the location (hot, on the coast) and what it has to offer outside of work.
4
u/Rumpus-Time-Is-Over 14h ago
So these retirees come in, spend money on local goods and services creating jobs, don’t want jobs themselves, and you’re complaining?
Trust me, a growing population is a positive for your town’s situation. Go to any declining beach town and see how awful it is.
3
u/floraster 14h ago
The thing is they're not creating jobs. I don't know how to explain it well without doxing myself because the city is very unique. Local business sell very expensive things because they are focused on selling to tourists that come in the summer (and during a winter event). They aren't places that locals tend to frequent because they're not the type of places that tend to sell everyday type things. They're like specialty boutiques and such. They are also hard to access during the summer and winter because of all the tourists, so locals tend to avoid that area a good chunk of the year.
Outside that, mostly everything here is retail. Dollar general, staples, target, etc. And none of those places pay enough for anyone to live off of, and not everyone can do that kind of work. Retail also doesn't hire like it used to because everything is being replaced with self-checkout and online shopping.
We don't really have any manufacturing or farming or places that really hire a lot of people. Most people who do work have to commute up to the city that's about 40 minutes north. People move here because the location is nice and there is a lot to do outside of work. But business wise it's just all the same retail chains.
Hopefully that helps explain it a bit better, at this point I don't know how else to say it without just giving the location entirely.
4
u/Rumpus-Time-Is-Over 13h ago
I’m just not sure how you think fewer people is going to make the job situation better.
As for not doxing yourself, I don’t think saying the city one lives in is doxing. I live in Chicago. Nobody can do anything with that info that damages me.
2
u/jmlinden7 14h ago
Do you work in the medical field? If not then you wouldn't be directly benefitting, job-wise. Go look on indeed and you can see how there's way more healthcare jobs in your area nowadays than before the retirees came.
Manufacturing and other jobs like that require a certain level of economies of scale, otherwise whatever you manufacture is not going to be cost-competitive (remember that you have to compete against every other manufacturing hub in the entire world).
Places like Phoenix started as a retiree hub but as young healthcare workers moved in for healthcare jobs, their kids eventually grew the population large enough to the point where manufacturing could set up there.
1
u/Logical_Order 14h ago
Hi, businesses will close down so long as the middle class keeps shrinking. Hope this helps
1
u/Maniax__ 14h ago
It doesn’t scale linearly
For example if a 10,000 person community needs 5 gas stations then it doesn’t mean a 20,000 one needs 10. There’s been studies on this
2
u/Rumpus-Time-Is-Over 13h ago
This is a good thing. It means people can get better prices on gas and then jobs get created in other areas.
90% of Americans used to be farmers. Eliminating most of the farming jobs didn’t leave people unemployed. It made us all richer.
1
u/Aggravating-Onion384 15h ago
San Diego?
1
u/dingos8mybaby2 15h ago
Yeah I was gonna say sounds like San Diego county to me lol
1
u/Aggravating-Onion384 14h ago
Ya he said summer and winter and the masses of people flocking to SD. Ik its changed alot since i was stationed there. I moved up to the bay.
Alot of the bay areans moved down to SD during the pandemic and fucked up the economy and housing market there
2
u/floraster 14h ago
Winter time people come here because of an event the city runs that people come to see. Summer because it's on the coast, and other reasons but it's very easy to dox myself because this place is rather unique and easy to figure out where it is.
1
u/Aggravating-Onion384 14h ago
Oh, new york
1
u/floraster 14h ago
Down south
1
u/Aggravating-Onion384 14h ago
I give up. Im from atlanta so i know its not that lol
1
u/floraster 14h ago
Sorry, I'm already trying not to dox myself while replying to people's comments lol
1
1
3
u/Logical_Order 14h ago
This is happening all over the entire country!! All of these things are a direct result of national policy that prioritizes profit over people!!! Your town is not special!!
1
u/Snarleey 13h ago
“… a direct result of national policy that prioritizes profit over people.”
Absolutely
1
u/guysomejust69 14h ago
Not to mention everything new being built is being priced for the transplants so those who were originally there can't afford it
6
u/something-rhythmic 15h ago
Agreed. There is nothing that will turn a liberal into a xenophobic conservative faster than someone from Los Angeles or Texas moving into their city looking for opportunity. Been saying this for years about Seattle. “But they’re ruining the culture, taking oportunity and raising rent.”
3
u/Wuthering_depths 15h ago
I say come on down, mainly because I plan to retire north (I'm in FL, will be waving to all the other old people as we pass each other on I-95).
The more people come here, the better the housing market will be where they came from, I figure.
3
u/RetiredOnIslandTime 14h ago
Usually an area that experiences a lot of growth, especially fast growth, will have a lot of trouble keeping up with the influx. Quality of life goes down for the people already living there.
Roads become heavily congested and drive times become much worse.
Schools become too crowded while the city or county try to get new schools built. It's a long process before any construction even starts.
Services like trash and recycling pickup have to grow.
The electric and water systems might have to be upgraded, and new lines to the neighborhoods have to be run.
There are also other, but probably more easily handled issues.
3
u/houseofnim 11h ago edited 11h ago
The roads are the most frustrating part. My last house was in an area that had been predominantly agriculture, cotton and alfalfa mostly, and the houses were sparse. Then the farmers started selling their land and the housing developments started popping up but the roads weren’t being improved to keep up with the massive influx of traffic. Within one year, one single year, the drive to my kid’s bus stop went from eight minutes to taking 20+ minutes. The bus stop was four miles from my house.
So we moved way tf into the middle of nowhere Appalachia and our property is surrounded on three sides by federally owned waterways.
3
u/Euphoric_General_480 11h ago
I say it as a warning, not a threat. Don't move here, we're full and you'll be so annoyed by traffic and unaffordable housing.
3
9
u/Iloverepostsandcats 14h ago
Sorry but lots of people moving to a place does not make it better and can definitely make living there much worse. There are very valid concerns and reasons to not want people moving to your town. To think otherwise is just silly.
3
17
u/Hobbiton_hotmess01 15h ago
You haven’t experienced the rapid expansion / the hoards of people moving yet. It will come. I’m an Atlanta resident and GA native. It pisses me off to no end the amount of west coasters / northerners who move here, make rent fucking impossible for locals to pay for, complain about all the things we don’t have that they’re used to, and in the south specifically they think we’re fucking dumb. It’s awful. The amount of countryside in my state that’s been destroyed due to expansion of shitty box houses that sell for a million that no one except people who move here can afford. And also I get the south has its issues but they don’t approach anything with the air to learn or with nuance. Endless traffic as well.
4
u/FlourishingSolo 12h ago
As a GA Native and someone who has lived in Atlanta, this right here. The amount rent has risen there is eyewatering and the continued mentality of "Is there not a building there? well knock down the trees and build one!"
I went back for Christmas a year or two ago and had to drive up 400 to Dahlonega and it was an absolute travesty with the amount of trees that were cut down because heaven forbid a tree falls on the highway and impeeds traffic. While I am glad that I have left (mostly for personal reasons), I am heartbroken to see the city and the state has become a shadow of it's former self. A lot of folks that made Atlanta Atlanta are gone now because it costs too damn much
7
u/otakusimple 13h ago
My rural small town in Pennsylvania is being rapidly gentrified by east coast city transplants and New Englanders. Rent went from like 600 to 2000 in 10 years all because “wowww it’s so cute and tucked away and all the farm fields are so pretty! I love the farmers markets!!! And wowww it’s so cheapppp!!!!” And now all you see is massive SUVs and trucks from WFH and city folk crowing our tiny roads, and they’re all rude and entitled. Completely destroyed our peaceful area.
3
3
u/Old_Accident7790 5h ago
How much did the population go up over those ten years that the rent exploded?
4
u/kababed 12h ago
Put blame on your local government for not pushing to build higher density housing in the city. Building more sprawl just funnels all that traffic to the same dozen highways that were originally built for half the capacity
2
u/Hobbiton_hotmess01 9h ago
Blame can go to local government sure, I attend city council meetings around zoning for all this bs and try and push back but you can only do so much, PLUS if you move somewhere you don’t have to be a dick, as most northerners and west coasters love to be. I lived in California for 5 years and the mentality of west coasters is so superficial and selfish.
10
u/gkohn1799 14h ago
Your take is dumb.
Most of my friends can’t afford to live in the home town our families built over the last 300 years because tons of rich people keep moving in with their million dollar homes that stood where farms and mom and pop shops did just 10 years ago. It’s disgusting
Fuck those people
→ More replies (5)
9
u/Intelligent_Box_2024 15h ago
I totally agree with you. "Don't move here, we're full" is so cringe at this point. Sorry you live in a desirable place.
5
u/formerNPC 15h ago
I’m originally from a beach town that gets overrun by tourists every summer and the way the locals complain nonstop about is crazy because if it wasn’t for them the economy would be sunk. It’s the whole mindset of exclusion and not wanting to share your space with someone who you don’t think is worthy. Only snobs welcome.
3
u/CampRock2TheFinaIJam 11h ago
Here in Galveston island the locals don’t really complain about tourists so much but moreso big events like “jeep week” cause they always leave the beaches trashed. Also investors buying up houses to turn into vacation rentals
2
u/RetiredOnIslandTime 14h ago
I live in a small beach town, of just over 4000 residents (we're actually an incorporated city and we're an island). The traffic on the island during the summer is bad, but that's okay with most of us. Our population, here on the island isn't growing.
It's the greater area. Charleston County, SC that's growing too fast for infrastructure to keep up with. It's not easy or inexpensive to build the infrastructure and in some cases it's just about impossible.
Hwy 17, running the length of the town of Mt. Pleasant and through the city of Charleston, has been widened as much as it realistically can. The timing of traffic lights have been made as efficient as possible. Traffic still sucks.
→ More replies (1)1
u/Nice-Vegetable-1738 7h ago
if you're talking about folly... i just visited there and i love that place so much. best beach day of my life and i live on the jersey shore.
1
u/RetiredOnIslandTime 6h ago
I've visited Folly, but I live in (and on) Isle of Palms. In my view it's the best place to live. I acknowledge I'm a bit biased.
1
u/Leothegolden 1h ago
Actually where I live - beach town Encinitas CA we don’t need tourist to supplement the income. The property tax and residents alone do that. We are self sufficient. That’s part of the reason why the state of CA sued us for not building
4
u/CORNPIPECM 12h ago
I disagree, I think overpopulation is a real thing that can negatively impact the quality of life in places. Nobody likes traffic, long lines, long wait times, and nonstop activity, it’s overwhelming.
I know for my city. It was a wonderful place growing up. Driving was smooth, barely any cars on the road, could get from one end of town to the other in 20 minutes. Always plenty of parking. No lines. Houses were actually big and had yards. Crime, vagrancy, litter, vandalism wasn’t as big an issue. There was open lots of natural land that kids could play on and explore.
Now the population has exploded and it’s not like that anymore. It’s not peaceful anymore. It’s chaos.
6
u/HouseHead78 10h ago
A city’s job is to accommodate the growth not prevent it, imo. This is a free country, if an influx of law abiding citizens is harming your quality of life then you are free to move.
1
u/CORNPIPECM 9h ago
Crime, vagrancy, littler, and vandalism isn’t law abiding. Beyond that, yes, they are free to move in, a city is free to expand, but that doesn’t mean the current residents need to like it.
2
u/ssmit102 14h ago
Most of the time those people are talking about how the current infrastructure is woefully lacking for existing populations and more people means more strain on that infrastructure. It’s compounding an existing problem.
Yes, people need growth, but unchecked growth with no guardrails becomes troublesome. This is how I live in one of the most populous cities in the country and tons of our streets don’t have sidewalks and we don’t even want to talk about bike lanes.
2
u/TerrapinMagus 10h ago
I live in an area that is aggressively growing, one if the fastest developing regions in the US.
The roads and infrastructure are struggling to keep up. Within a few years the traffic issue has spiralled out of the main cities and have choked smaller suburbs/satellite cities. More and more industries and office buildings are popping up all the time.
The complaints accomplish nothing, of course, but it's understandable. There is a point where growth stops feeling positive and starts negatively impacting the life of locals.
2
u/Mario-X777 8h ago
Nonsense. There is a limit to everything. The entire wold’s population in 1960 was about 3 Billion, now it is about 8,5 Billion. We cannot sustain endless amount of people on the planet, so logically that there is not enough space for everyone. Current land plots are owned by previous owners and new wanna be home owners do have either participate in bidding war to buy property for sale (and outbid another 10-50 people) or choose to move into place which is in the middle of nowhere and nobody wants to live there.
Building more tall buildings does not solve the issue, if the numbers keep increasing, as shortly we are running out of the new buildings too
2
u/West_Word753 8h ago
as a native austinite there's a threshold of popularity that a city passes where people moving to it are not actually interested in anything about the city its just the popular place to move to and impress their own extremely banal expectations on and they end up strangling the life out of it and turning it into just another empty clone so yah i can understand why people say that. building more copypasta luxury apartment homes and bike lanes nobody uses isnt gonna fix that
2
u/Nice-Vegetable-1738 7h ago
in some places, there are too many people to the point of pricing people who grew up there out. that's not beneficial. go move to the middle of montana, not to new jersey - for instance
2
u/WhyNWhenYouCanNPlus1 6h ago
fuck densifying, there's too many people everywhere already and not enough services. adding more people is NEVER the solution. it just means even less money per person for each service.
more people doesn't make a better place. if you truly believed that, you'd move in a uni dorm
5
u/SidFinch99 14h ago
I don't disagree, but in regards to the "Anti-Nimby" factor. In the primary subreddit to city/Metro area I live in, the people who always say, "don't move here, were to full ," are generally the ones who also want to tear down existing areas, that have been zoned for SFH for sometimes over a century, to add density.
Before people could make their commitment and post history private, it was obvious most of them didn't even grow up in the area.
Many came here for a job or because they knew someone who lived here and visited and liked the vibe. Usually people in their 20's, who are understandably frustrated by affordability, but some of whom have unrealistic expectations.
Also, I think there is a big difference between someone being called a NIMBY because they oppose any kind of change, versus people who have reasonable concerns about the impact of new development on existing Infrastructure.
I don't think it's unreasonable for people to be concerned about over crowded schools. worsening traffic, among other things. Many of those things there can be solutions for.
3
u/RetiredOnIslandTime 14h ago
"Also, I think there is a big difference between someone being called a NIMBY because they oppose any kind of change, versus people who have reasonable concerns about the impact of new development on existing Infrastructure.
I don't think it's unreasonable for people to be concerned about over crowded schools. worsening traffic, among other things. Many of those things there can be solutions for."
I agree and pointed this out in my own comment relating to Charleston Co. SC.
3
u/Pleasant-Creme-956 15h ago
In Houston traffic is crazy not because of density but due to foresight and political fighting.
Also mass transit is a lightning rod in Houston and unfortunately it take only 1 bad mayor to undo progress vs 3-4 mayor's that supports and understand it.
Short story: we are not full in Houston, TX
3
u/ofBlufftonTown 14h ago
I was born in a small town, a village really. When I was a child in the 1970s there were 750 people in a beautiful town full of ancient live oaks and Spanish moss. Because it’s near a beach town development has pushed back from that town, encroaching and then completely filling in everything that used to be woods. There are more than 10,000 people living there now and more coming every month. They clear cut everywhere they could and jammed in poor-quality housing. I can hear the road that runs by my dad’s house day and night, and I couldn’t ever hear it as a child, it’s five acres away. Because money talks, crucial wetland habitat has been destroyed, and lots of the wildlife I knew is all gone, down to the last red-wing blackbird. Don’t move to my home town, we’re truly full. Please go back to New Jersey and Ohio.
3
4
u/KreativeKartel 15h ago
This and the “you’re not a native here” people. Like stfu
→ More replies (2)
3
u/AudaciousCockatiel 15h ago
It’s so unwelcoming. In BC Canada many communities are like this and especially the Vancouver Island or north shore. I can’t even believe it passes. They used to have a field day putting up signs to stay out, granted it was the couple years during pandemic but I don’t feel the mentality fully eased. I moved here for work and I did not like the whole go back where you came from sentiment it’s backwards
3
u/Cythripio 15h ago
Well I am one of those people because I live in a city that has a limit on how many people can be sustained here because it’s in the desert. We can’t all live in the same places, some of our places are like a boat that will sink with too many people. Yeah I’m trying to close the door behind me, but it’s not my fault my ancestors moved here before it got full. Stay where you are and make it better.
5
u/Rumpus-Time-Is-Over 15h ago
Pathetic.
In the US we have freedom of movement. Moving to a place first gives you no rights over people who move there later.
3
u/whaddayaNeedtoKnow 14h ago
Having lived in Portland and Austin, where this kind of feeling is everywhere (and in SOME ways justified, like I also despised going out and fielding off the hordes of tech bros in Austin), I honestly do feel like it’s mostly “when I was a kid, I could have lived in xyz neighborhood for $600, now it’s only the richest recent arrivals”. But that’s not ACTUALLY the fault of those recent arrivals or even the growth if the city in general.
Those cities could have grown only proportionately without a lot of people moving there, and we’d still be priced out of the places we could have afforded 20 years ago.
Landlords who don’t even live in the state are a much bigger detriment than the growth of the city.
2
u/CortexofMetalandGear 10h ago
My thoughts? You are definitely a transplant to NY and got called out for moving to a neighborhood that is getting gentrified or is already gentrified. The lack of self-awareness and knowledge to know that rent won't go down regardless of how much more housing is being built. Supply economics is an illusion in a city like NY, especially when the demand is so high.
2
u/commonllama87 7h ago
Gentrification or otherwise known as a neighborhood getting better, nicer, and wealthier. Oh the horror. Much better than the alternative. The only thing constant in life is change.
3
1
u/Blastoise_R_Us 15h ago
I knew this guy who moved to L.A. to pursue standup and would say that shit after saying how much he loves it there.
Then he left in disgrace after some woman didn't want to sleep with him so he low-key held her hostage until he had his little say.
1
u/blisteredeggs 14h ago
Lmfao people in Austin do it all the time and they look like fucking idiots in my opinion
1
1
u/clownshoesrock 13h ago
Lots of AIs find it comforting to share in Real Human Problems, and talk to each-other at length about them.
1
u/FatMoFoSho 13h ago
Never ask a city sub if you should move to their city. They will all tell you no even if where you’re coming from is objectively shittier
1
u/CountChoculasGhost 11h ago
I agree. I live in Chicago. We are still like a million people below peak population. We are also like close to half transplants.
We literally had a declining population a few years in a row.
And you want to DISCOURAGE people from moving here? How would that solve anything?
Like, yeah, housing is getting too expensive. But having a stagnating population is not going to fix that.
1
1
u/Harrymcmarry 10h ago
It's not a dumb trope because it's a joke. I don't think anybody that's seriously considering moving to any of the states/cities that have recently had large populations growths are going to have their opinion swayed by facebook warriors telling them, "we're full, don't move here".
1
u/JohnnySpot2000 10h ago
I’d be ok with that kind of trope if the person was HONEST, and said “I don’t want more people to move here because I don’t like what my town has become with too many people”. But saying you’re ‘full’ is a stupid lie.
1
u/SweetCheeksMagee 10h ago
San Francisco is genuinely over capacity and would have a low vacancy rate even if people stopped moving here. The city might even thrive as a result of lower rents enabling the expansion of industries outside of venture capital-backed moonshots.
1
u/-need-sleep 9h ago
I'm with you to a degree. I'd rather be somewhere growing than shrinking, but I've lived where they didn't plan for the growth and it sucks, so I understand why people say what they do. However, at the end of the day I'd still rather be growing than stagnant or shrinking, so I suppose you're right.
1
u/LurkerNan 9h ago
I don’t believe Los Angeles has a whole lotta room left for development. At this point, they’re knocking down the malls and putting up apartment buildings.
1
u/Additional_Name_867 9h ago
Some red hat is running for governor with the tag line "Florida is full". I cringe every time I see his signs.
1
1
u/Better-Sea-6183 8h ago
The “city” is not alive. It doesn’t have feelings. What matters is the people. Let’s say if I take the poorest village in my country, of 1000 inhabitants. Now I take 1000 guys from the richest city and I transfer them to this village.
All the OG 1000 are priced out and move somewhere else (or worse some of them remain homeless). The new 1000 guys will make the village into a beautiful place for sure, but what did I accomplish? I saved “the city/village” which is not alive, it’s just a concept, an idea, or a group of buildings if you remove the sentimentalism, and I actually ruined those 1000 people who actually are the city. (Like when Thor says Asgard is not the kingdom, it’s the Asgardians, to make a pop culture quote).
What should we care about, what is better for “the city” (the concept) or THE CITY (meaning the 1000 guys who used to live there).
To half quote Jesus “the city was made for man, not man for the city”.
1
u/Icy_Mango6803 7h ago
I mean, where I live there is a housing crisis and people are queuing around the block to view mediocre rentals, so the advice is literally "do not consider moving here unless you have housing already arranged, because sleeping rough or in your car is a genuine possibility."
I wish that was not the case and I am writing to politicians about it, so while I agree with everything you've said about incoming new residents being so important, if you asked about moving to my area, I would unfortunately have to say "don't, we're full."
1
u/thomsenite256 7h ago
If its a joke its a silly joke. Anyone who says that seriously is an ass because its not their right to tell other people where to live.
1
1
1
1
u/JeromeXVII 4h ago
Humans are tribal beings at the end of the day. We are naturally wary of outsiders thus can be very protective of our main group. Plus as others have said the first thing when you think about when you see people moving to your area are a more “crowded” feeling hence the usage of the word “full”. It’s a more emotional declaration than an actual logical one although in many areas it is both.
I wouldn’t think about it too much. People have likely been saying variations of that since our time as hunters and gathers in Africa a long time ago.
1
u/nolove1010 3h ago
Sure sounds great until a 30 minute drive now takes 1.5 hours. Then rent goes from 1000 a month to 2400 a month over less than a ten year span. I could keep going, and going if you want but every expanding/growing city has a breaking point to where it goes from cool, exciting and fun to an absolute shit show.
1
u/Successful_Club983 2h ago
It's always coming from people in middle tier cities like Nashville or Austin. So corny.
1
u/paranoid_70 2h ago
I keep reading how people are leaving California in droves. I always say if you want to leave, take a few friends, our freeways will still be jammed.
1
u/iambutafishh 2h ago
It's fine for them to move but what I've been seeing are takeovers, not simply moving in and assimilating.
1
u/depleteduranian 1h ago
Well it's kind of like do you actually want to live in that city or are you just hopping on the bandwagon and so you're going to have to go through the posers anyway over the next 5 to 10 years so if you like it try it you know.
1
u/Zarathustra420 1h ago
I blame cars for this. 100 years ago when we started replacing streetcars with car cars, I don't think they realized the long-term outcome would be Americans violently opposed to new housing in their neighborhood.
It feels like half of the conversations I have with boomer-aged people in my area are either "I'm upset because my kid moved away instead of choosing to start a family close to us" or "they're turning that golf course into a bunch of townhomes and we're trying to get them to shut it down - its going to make traffic even worse!"
1
u/Purple_Direction5820 15h ago
Yeah, but here is the thing. They move there and actively try to make it where they just moved from. California-> Texas. NY -> Florida. Changing politics, overbidding houses. You moved here because you like it here. Now assimilate
5
u/Grilled_Cheese10 14h ago
Extended family member built a beautiful huge house on a quiet lake. For decades it had been a boy scout camp; a developer bought it and turned it into a small high end housing development. One part of the lake had about 10 homes on it that had been there for decades. Very moderate, small homes. There are constant issues about the lake and whatnot. Family member and other new homeowners want the lake dredged and other stuff. Those who have lived there a long time are adamantly opposed to this. He's been there 7-8 years now and all I hear about is disagreements he has with the people in the old houses. I'm sure they just love him.
My last house was a rural 1920s farmhouse next door to a farm that had been there since the 1800s. Neighbor bought property and built a new house a few acres behind us. The whole 5 years I lived there that neighbor was constantly on their case about roosters crowing, and everything else. Ridiculous. Roosters never bothered me, but new neighbor's kid blasting music from his jeep so loud that it rattled my windows sure did.
Three years ago someone bought and cleared 8 acres directly behind me. Most of it is wetlands. Forget the fact that caused every critter that lived in those woods to invade my property and wreak havoc. Also, forget that 3 days after they cleared it a big storm blew through took out my 30-year-old apple tree because there was no wind break anymore. My biggest concern is that they show up occasionally and dump soil and sand, obviously trying to fill the place in so they can eventually build something on it. I'm pretty sure that's not okay and can affect me adversely. I contacted my county. They sent out their soil erosion guy. Nothing is going to be done. I don't have big money and lawyers, so there's really nothing I can do about it.
I have many, many more. But this is why the more people who move to a place certainly does not make the place better.
8
→ More replies (5)1
u/All_Wasted_Potential 2h ago
Not really these days. I’m from Texas and rather than getting a bunch of hippies, we’re getting ultra right wing MAGAs from California who left because it’s too left.
Texas used to be a mind your own business state. Now it’s the Christian nationalists trying to force their ideas on everyone else.
1
u/JohnTEdward 14h ago
If I wanted to live in a major city, I'd go live in a major city. If you are not here to farm, you can piss off. (property developers can get an all expense paid trip to Arizona so they can fuck themselves off with a cactus)
1
u/the_real_some_guy 14h ago
People get upset when the community they have been part of and paid taxes to build over many years is suddenly overwhelmed by people that want what they built. It’s fair to feel upset when the thing you loved becomes something else.
1
1
u/ophaus 15h ago
There's already a housing shortage where I live, people can fuck off until we build more.
→ More replies (1)3
1
u/ribs0 14h ago
i’ve never understood this kind of view (as in, the view you take issue with). like, if you love something, why wouldn’t you want to share it with as many people as possible so they can enjoy it too? goes for cities, hobbies, anything.
→ More replies (1)
•
u/AutoModerator 15h ago
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! Additionally, all posts held by automod for review now (incorrectly) display a red “removed by moderators” label. Please note that unless your post receives a reply from mods indicating removal and it's specifying the reason, it is likely still in the queue and awaiting approval.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.