NYT Article aboutthe "Suburbanization" of Mountain Towns

[Tippster]

Pretty interesting...

August 13, 2007
Off to Resorts, and Carrying Their Careers
By JOHN LELAND
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Time was you could tell the urban refugees in places like this: corporate achievers who quit the rat race to open a bed and breakfast or a candle shoppe.

Jim Moylan represents a new tribe in this bucolic mountain town, named for its loud sulfur spring. Mr. Moylan, 59, is a lawyer who specializes in securities and commodities work. When he moved from Chicago in 2003, he did not downscale his career for the small town, keeping his secretary and associates in Chicago and his clients around the country. He conducts his practice by fax and e-mail, just as he did in Chicago.

In Steamboat Springs, Mr. Moylan dug into local affairs, joining three city committees, the Rotary Club, his church finance council and the editorial board of the daily newspaper. “I just wanted to get involved in the community,“ Mr. Moylan said, sitting in a bookstore/wine bar off the town’s main street.

As technology enables people to live and work wherever they want, increasingly they are clustering in resort playgrounds like Steamboat Springs (pop. 9,315) that have natural amenities, good weather — and, now, lots of people like themselves.

In places like Nantucket, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Teton County, Idaho, the migrants are creating hybrid communities, implanting urban incomes, tastes, careers, ambitions, restaurants, cultural activities and networking opportunities into small towns that until recently could support none of these, and for which there has been little planning and still no consensus.

“You are seeing a transformation of rural communities,” said Jonathan Schechter, executive director of the Charture Institute in Jackson, Wyo., a nonprofit organization that studies small recreational towns.

Into quiet resort spots the migrants have come, laptops on their knees: fund managers from New York, software developers from California, consultants, proofreaders, engineers, inventors. “The same processes that led to the suburbanization of the United States after World War II,” Mr. Schechter said, “are now producing a virtual suburbanization in places like Jackson or Steamboat Springs.”

From 2000 to 2006, population in the 297 counties rated highest in natural amenities by the United States Department of Agriculture grew by 7.1 percent, 10 times the rate for the 1,090 rural counties with below-average amenities, the department reported.

In towns that once emptied after the ski season or the beach season, these “location-neutral” migrants are complicating the traditional dynamic between tourists and locals. Here as elsewhere, average homes have become unaffordable for teachers, firefighters and others — the people who created the good schools and community closeness that newcomers said drew them. The rate of change “is causing a whiplash,” Mr. Schechter said, “because the towns don’t have the political and economic systems in place to deal with them.”

Routt County, which includes Steamboat Springs, is one of the first places to identify these new émigrés as a source of economic growth and, paradoxically, community stability. A 2005 survey found that as many as 1 in 10 year-round households was involved in a location-neutral business. Unlike retirees and second-home buyers, who are also roosting in vacation towns, they send children to the local schools. “Without kids, you don’t have a community,” said Scott Ford, a counselor at the Small Business Resource Center at Colorado Mountain College.

Cloistered in home offices, isolated from the local economy, location-neutrals are often invisible even to one another, except when they appear on local committees.

Many work as hard as their urban counterparts, often juggling commitments in several time zones, but can step from their offices to a hiking trail or mountain stream.

In Steamboat Springs, a pawn shop and loan store amid the expensive restaurants on the main drag illustrates the growing inequality in a region that produces few middle-income jobs. Each day 1,500 workers commute to Routt County from neighboring Moffat County, an hour away. Meanwhile, the airport, once filled with tourists, caters to people in business suits.

“You’ve seen changes in politics,” said Carl Steidtmann, the chief economist for Deloitte Research, who moved from Brooklyn two years ago. “The county tipped Democratic in the last election. You see the tension in the City Council. It went from being pro-business-and-development to more conservationist.” He added, “Twelve years ago, not everyone you met had a Ph.D. or was from New York. There are still a lot of locals here, but that aspect is changing.”

Peter Parsons, 45, who runs a microchip design company in Boulder, Colo., a city of 92,000 about three hours away, moved here five years ago to raise his three children in a small-town environment, keeping the company in Boulder. “It’s a real town,” Mr. Parsons said of the appeal of Steamboat Springs. “If your kids are running around, adults will see them and call you.”

He has kept a Boulder telephone number and does little to remind clients he is not in the city. “I wouldn’t have been able to come here with my family if it meant opening a coffee shop,” he said.

To combat isolation, he volunteered at the school and at church, and briefly moved from his home office into a town-run business incubator “in order to meet people,” he said. Now his office overlooks the ski slopes and is a short walk from a fly-fishing spot; computers vie for desk space with hand-tied flies. He still has to persuade associates that he has not slowed down or retired.

“We have big discussions about what it means to be a local,” Mr. Parsons said of his fellow location-neutrals. “Some people snub anybody who hasn’t been here a long time. And some people think they know everything when they haven’t been here long.”

The Routt County Economic Development Cooperative has embraced the new tribe as an asset, especially to an area with no strong industry other than tourism. Location-neutrals tend to volunteer heavily in civic organizations and local government. County interviews with 61 location-neutral businesses found they held 120 volunteer positions.

But their enthusiasm has not always rubbed long-timers the right way, Mr. Ford said. “If they haven’t bonded with the community,” he said, “they begin with the ‘You people’ speeches: ‘What you people don’t understand is...’ When they start that, it’s almost impossible.” Sometimes disputes spill out in the local newspaper or its blogs, where old-timers and newcomers point fingers.

Thomas Miller-Freutel, a partner in a directory-assistance startup, knows this chasm firsthand. Though he has lived here since 1990, first as owner of the Steamboat Inn, he sometimes struggles to balance his fast-paced work life with the small-town community.

“I have to switch gears from what I was doing in other parts of the world to sit down and be productive as a community member,” he said. “You have to be careful not to say, ‘Look, I deal with people all over the world and this is how it’s done.’ You have to change gears in a small town.”

For Bill and Stephanie Faunce, who run a marketing company for cable operators, small-town life often means starting work at 7 a.m. and quitting at 11 p.m., but with breaks to hike, ski or be with their two young children. Their goal in coming here was not to slow down but to eliminate urban distractions and pressures.

“There are no stressors here,” said Mr. Faunce, 43. “In L.A., it took 90 minutes to get to the office, so we had a Mercedes and a Land Rover. Now we drive a Suburban. In three years we’ve put 15,000 miles on it.”

[truckeelocal]

Note that folks moving to a ski town is a whole lot better than them simply buying a second home. They're more invested, and generally get more involved, in the community. Also they tend to be a more conservative NIMBY lot which is what's needed to counter the developers who just sold them their home. Plus they can afford to move when the town gets over developed and over gentrified.

[Meadow Skipper]

This line really caught my attention:

Here as elsewhere, average homes have become unaffordable for teachers, firefighters and others — the people who created the good schools and community closeness that newcomers said drew them.

It all seems sort of sad, but likely inevitable. Makes me think of "The Milagro Beanfield War."

[slim]

This line really caught my attention:

Here as elsewhere, average homes have become unaffordable for teachers, firefighters and others — the people who created the good schools and community closeness that newcomers said drew them.

It all seems sort of sad, but likely inevitable. Makes me think of "The Milagro Beanfield War."

That line is pretty loaded. As TruckeeLocal pointed out, the problem isn't people who've brought their careers to town, the problem is second home owners. Besides "Locals" love to bitch about increasing home prices and the unaffordability of the market until it's time to sell their house. I don't see them taking a price cut to sell to a teacher or nurse.

Local is a garbage term anyway that a lot people seem to wear as a badge of honor:

“We have big discussions about what it means to be a local,” Mr. Parsons said of his fellow location-neutrals. “Some people snub anybody who hasn’t been here a long time. And some people think they know everything when they haven’t been here long.”

Then again, I'm biased as I'm a "location-neutral" living in Tahoe.

[Steven S. Dallas]

Then again, I'm biased as I'm a "location-neutral" living in Tahoe.

Die, yuppie scum.

[slim]

Die, yuppie scum.

Seriously.

[sea2ski]

Makes me think of "The Milagro Beanfield War."

Yeah, the Milagro Beanfield is kind of how the world works. I've even seen it where I live. In less than six years, the crack house across the street and some nearby apartments get torn down to be replaced by million dollar condos. Now I've seen my taxes go up to match the increase in the value of my place.

[Meadow Skipper]

That line is pretty loaded. As TruckeeLocal pointed out, the problem isn't people who've brought their careers to town, the problem is second home owners.

Second home owners are just part of the problem - I don't think that mountain towns get better as the middle class (like teachers and firefighters) get priced out. I prefer living near teachers and firefighters. I like middle-class (for lack of a better term) neighborhoods better than high-end ones, at least as long as they're located in mountain towns. I'm aware of the possibility of previous displacement issues and the irony involved.

Besides "Locals" love to bitch about increasing home prices and the unaffordability of the market until it's time to sell their house. I don't see them taking a price cut to sell to a teacher or nurse.

True enough, but that doesn't make it less of a negative impact to the community. What I said was that I found it sad and probably inevitable.

Then again, I'm biased as I'm a "location-neutral" living in Tahoe.

There you are.

[Meadow Skipper]

Yeah, the Milagro Beanfield is kind of how the world works. I've even seen it where I live. In less than six years, the crack house across the street and some nearby apartments get torn down to be replaced by million dollar condos. Now I've seen my taxes go up to match the increase in the value of my place.

Right, TMBW was about crack houses getting torn down and decent people getting better neighborhoods. Interesting defensiveness going on in this thread.

[truckeelocal]

Talking of irony I've heard prospective 2nd home buyers say they want to be close to town to be 'part of the action' without realizing that their actions compound to kill 'the action'. Sure each indivdual infrequently occupied 2nd home isn't the issue. But the pricing such that each house that goes onto the market becomes a 2nd home and the community slowly strangles.

But back to the original content - professionals moving in and telecommuting is a less bad option but still puts upward pressure on the home prices. Then again the local inventory is increasing and prices decreasing and whining increasing.

[slim]

Second home owners are just part of the problem.

In most of the Tahoe towns 2nd home ownership is around 70%... so it's a pretty big "just a part."

There you are.

At least I qualified my statements.

[Tri-Ungulate]

Right, TMBW was about crack houses getting torn down and decent people getting better neighborhoods. Interesting defensiveness going on in this thread.

More like The Nirvana Blues, I'd say.

[KQ]

Makes me think of "The Milagro Beanfield War."

Best fackin' book EVER!! HI-Larious (movie sux, IMHO).

Did you read the other two in the trilogy?

More like The Nirvana Blues, I'd say.

Can we hear it for The Magic Journey?

[summit]

80% 2nd home ownership here

it's really hard to buy a place to live when you are competing against all the rich people in the entire nation

2nd home owners price both the location neutral guys and the middle and lower class locals out

[Benny Profane]

This just kills me:

“There are no stressors here,” said Mr. Faunce, 43. “In L.A., it took 90 minutes to get to the office, so we had a Mercedes and a Land Rover. Now we drive a Suburban. In three years we’ve put 15,000 miles on it.”

I'd be stressed if those people moved next door to me.

[slim]

I'd be stressed if those people moved next door to me.

Why would that stress you out? Would you rather have this guy or a neighbor with a rusted out pick-up and engine parts in his front yard?

Both types describe my neighborhood pretty well and everyone seems to co-exist.

[mojorisin]

not having read the book, I liked the movie. guess a trip to the neighborhood library is in order

[Benny Profane]

Why would that stress you out? Would you rather have this guy or a neighbor with a rusted out pick-up and engine parts in his front yard?

Both types describe my neighborhood pretty well and everyone seems to co-exist.

You're right, the wife probably looks good in a swimsuit with the fake boobs and lipo, and they probably hold some good hot tub parties every now and then.

Where the fuck do you live? Engine parts? Can you get me some cheap meth?

[slim]

Where the fuck do you live? Engine parts? Can you get me some cheap meth?

You clearly haven't spent much time in South Lake.

[Benny Profane]

You clearly haven't spent much time in South Lake.

Only when 6 feet of snow covered the trash.

[KQ]

not having read the book, I liked the movie. guess a trip to the neighborhood library is in order

You're in for a treat - the movie doesn't even come close to capture the picture the author paints in the book. Enjoy!! I was "LOL" all the way through it.

[The Dad]

But back to the original content - professionals moving in and telecommuting is a less bad option but still puts upward pressure on the home prices.

Perhaps more pressure, since they will not be paying two mortgages and can deduct the interest, which frees up capital.

That said, it won't stop me from doing it if and when I can. Sorry.

[Raps]

hmmm interesting article tipp - kinda sounds like what i'm trying to do......definitely a lot more flexibility in the work-world these days

[rideit]

Things are changing in Teton Valley?

Who knew...

[Fuzz]

I am one of these location-neutral people who just made the move to Summit County (my wife however, will be working locally). Whether telecommuters are destroying the fabric of the community depends a lot on the mindset of the new arrivals. People say they want to leave behind the traffic, the stress, etc. But if they then proceed to recreate their old environment and all the associated headaches, then what's the point?

Also I'd like to point out that despite the people profiled in that article, not all telecommuters are rich bankers, lawyers, etc. Some of us don't make a ton of money, but are willing to make the financial sacrifice (in terms of higher housing costs) in order to live here.

On the issue of second homes, while second homes provide a lot of tax dollars for the local government, it seems such a waste. Second homes not only drive up prices, but they also hoard up available real estate -- people who could be living year-round and taking full advantage of the location are shut out by someone who is there only 1 or 2 weeks out of the year.