They also doing anything about the conservative culture that likely caused their brain drain in the first place?
It’s actually much less conservative than the surrounding areas. Though admittedly it only takes a stone’s throw to get into some pretty gruesome backwoods. The real issue is that there aren’t any jobs in the area. It’s too out of the way for tourism, all the factories have closed down, and the railroad just isn’t what it used to be.
So functionally they hand you money, you can’t find a job that pays your bills, so you leave and they’ve gained nothing. Or is the subsidy ongoing as long as they’re short on people (haha until the end of time!) Or is there something else in place to help keep people there?
Yeah. Seems pointless, but I bet they’re trying to attract folks with work-from-home jobs.
There’s a big migration of work-from-home folks out to areas where they can have bigger homes, gardens and such.
I think the theory is that whichever towns or cities attract these folks first will grow into long term preferred work-from-home destinations, using the tax revenue and voting habits of the first folks to move in.
It’s a gamble, but an interesting one.
Start with bringing in the fiber. I can deal without overnight delivery, a good sushi place or a brewpub, but I draw the line at fiber
Yep. I think high quality Internet roll-out will make or break some of these plans.
Why are we assuming all work from home jobs require fiber?
WFH jobs may not require fiber to the home, but if there’s no fiber infrastructure to support the overall traffic of the area then it’s just not going to work. Particularly when we’re talking about getting internet out to rural areas - fiber carries signal much further than copper, and can thus reach more communities.
Maybe I’m spoiled with fiber but I know I’d never want to go back, even just for video calls. Give how over-provisioned and glitchy most internet connections are, you do need a huge margin of overcapacity to get a reliable call in.
But yeah, as the other guy said, you’re going to need fiber to the town for more than a couple people. Even cable internet needs fiber to the neighborhood.
For WFH crows the town needs fiber, and in another post he stated the town doesn’t have that.
I can see your point and that’s what I figured they were trying to attract
I had fios in Cumberland. I don’t know if there are other choices though.
For WFH crows the town needs fiber, and in another post he stated the town doesn’t have that.
Did I? I don’t know if Cumberland has fiber options nowadays.
You posted a photo of Cumberland and said (at the time) fiber options were low
You sure it was me? I could have said that, I have memory like swiss cheese, but I can’t find any mention of Cumberland or fiber on my three profiles (Kbin, World, dbzer0)
This is explicitly for full-time remote workers.
As part of a broader effort to recapture some of the city’s former vitality, Cumberland is hoping to take advantage of the pandemic shift to remote work by giving $20,000 to 10 home buyers who promise to invest in those properties and become part of the community.
[…]
It’s really to attract people who will benefit your community,” said Cumberland City Council member Laurie Marchini. “It’s not a social services program; it’s to bring people in who are employed.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/30/cumberland-maryland-revival/
I think they’re hoping to attract remote workers from the cities. It’s a historic town in a scenic area, so it has that going for it at least.
You can only get the subsidy if:
-
You become a homeowner.
-
You have a job or self-employment in the area.
-
You stay there for 3 years. Or was it 5 years? Something like that.
So…Not the WFH crowd…
I think they count that as in the area, trying not to get megacommuters is the thing. I think.
In the area?
-
At least it’s something different from the disappointing status quo of dying towns in America. Still sad. Pictures of the town make it look like it’s a charming little place. Hopefully things can turn around for it.
I’d like to hear more about the backwoods you refer to as greusome!
Lord. Stone’s throw from the city limits and you can hear dueling banjos. No grocery stores for miles, but multiple churches. Yards filled with scrap metal. Animals either roaming free or chained up inside a small area all day long. Casual usage of the n-bomb.
Sounds like every yard between Cumberland and Keyser, to me.
It was the lose of jobs as industry moved away, a trend started after WW2.
The culture probably helped but it’s a much larger trend than people simply not wanting to live in a conservative town.
Basically how building new houses in suburbia works. Every new house is subsidized by the local government in the hopes that they’ll pay back enough taxes in the next 50 years before the pipes have to be replaced again.
Greetings from suburban Calgary, where we are currently both sprawling, and under a stage 4 water advisory for the month as our water feed main ruptured in June.
How much are the taxes? $20,000.
$21,000 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Why pay People when OBVIOUSLY they should be paying CORPORATIONS to SAY they will move in and then not! THAT’S FREEDOM! But THIS reeks of SOCIALISM!
I can’t get over how I’m learning about small town economic policies via a meme. Thanks for spreading awareness!
This Washington Post article talks about the policy and how other small cities are trying the same thing https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/30/cumberland-maryland-revival/
This is a new thing that smaller towns are trying to do to take advantage of an increase in remote work.
The meme is also misleading because it’s implying that this is something they’re giving to everyone that moves there for a limited time, when it is only 10 people. It’s also implying that there’s not enough people there to pay taxes, which doesn’t actually make sense because that’s not how taxes work. There would definitely be enough tax income if they didn’t care about the future of the town. What they’re trying to do is revitalize the area and trigger growth, and they need more income to fund that revitalization.
Friendly reminder that you can have a libertarian communist commune. Libertarianism is not a left-right political ideology.
“I am Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question.”
I read the book “A Libertarian Walked into a Bear” and I found the range of Libertarian attitudes interesting — there was at least one Libertarian in the book who explicitly identified as communist.
In my personal opinion, the core defining trait that makes someone libertarian is adherence to the non aggression policy. If they are capable of that then they are libertarian in my book. Even if I disagree on other aspects of their ideology.
But that’s the whole debate, isn’t it? What is and isn’t aggression?
I don’t understand where you’re getting a debate from. It’s pretty easy to summarize as. Don’t shit in the Common well don’t pollute the common air. Don’t trespass on your neighbor’s property. Don’t touch your neighbor’s things. Never resort to violence unless for self-defense.
Property is theft!
That’s an opinion. I don’t know where you found it but it’s an opinion.
Retirees. There are millions of workers in the DC/Baltimore area, looking for a cheaper place to retire. This is sort of in the area and much cheaper.
My ex-SIL frequently spoke about looking over the border into West Virginia as a place to buy cheap land for retirement, however her priority was access to breweries and being able to visit the city, but Cumberland is awfully far out for that
No, it’s to attract people with jobs. Explicitly.
I’m not sure why there’s all this guessing and pontificating going on in here, you can just look the story up.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/30/cumberland-maryland-revival/
Thanks for finding the link and posting it.
I see they do want employed people, but I still say investing community fiber would be a better draw for people who can work from home
How much is twenty thousand dollar dollars in USD?
At least 20
I grew up in a village called Cumberland that is growing in slow, moderated steps…
