People of lemmy, would you live in a rural area? Why or why not?
I’m torn between affordable land and going to ideological war with rural neighbors.
I would and do. It’s quiet and peaceful, I have forest all around me, no traffic, cost of living is lower.
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.
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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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
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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.
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.
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.
No, I’ve done it before. It’s awful being dependent on a car to go anywhere, there’s less to do.
I currently do, I can’t stand larger cities. Too much traffic and pollution. Too many people and crime.
I live where people go to vacation, to get away and relax. Nothing better than this.
I grew up in what was a rural area that suburbanized as I got older. Even then, it would still be around 15-20 minutes to get anywhere by car, including the grocery store. There wasn’t much to do that didn’t involve church, so if I wanted to do something like go to the movies it would be about a 30 minute drive with good traffic. Where I’m at now is in the middle of a moderate size city, where I can walk to restaurants and bars, and I can get to several grocery stores or movies or the mall within 10 minutes. I like living in the city better, I don’t want to live far away from stuff anymore.
I already do, I live on a back road that sees maybe 20 cars a day. I have a beautiful view. I’m an hour away from a large town with everything in it, so I’m close enough to any of that when I want it, yet I’m far enough that my cost of living is low. The town with a school, grocery store, hardware store, bars, clinic, etc is less than 10 minutes. 4 bigger towns with more jobs and more store options are 30-35 minutes with hospitals as well.
I can walk out of my house and be in nature almost instantly. I don’t have to drive anywhere.
Yeah I can’t call and have food delivered and I can’t walk to any shops but I consider myself in the perfect balance of remote and having access to what I want/need. Unless I go to a nursing home, my only move from my current house will be from it to six feet under.
Same boat here. It’s absolutely amazing.
Only if its in a blue state. I dont want desantis or some other nutbar trying to turn the state into a shithole.
