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Comment by bombcar | Hacker News Reader

Many people would consider a suggestion to live in the Midwest as about the same as a suggestion that they spend the rest of their life living in a decrepit sewer system.

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Fine by me; there's plenty of natural beauty and life style that would be utterly ruined by a massive influx of tech bro outsiders.

In the last year or two a locally-famous lighthouse went up for sale and was bought for cash by some guy from silicon valley. Instead of being turned into an attraction, or a house, or hell even an Airbnb spot, it remains untouched much to the chagrin of the locals. I guess the new owner can't be bothered to come out here and just liked the idea of bragging that he owned it.

I’m sure they had some plans for it, but a little thing called COVID detailed most plans. Who knows, maybe the owner isn’t even with us anymore and their heirs are still figuring things out.

I am confused: you are simultaneously complaining about the tech bros ruining the natural beauty and style but are then unhappy that this particular tech bro didn't do a bunch of development on this lighthouse?

I hope they never think otherwise.

Every time the Midwest comes up on this site, you get these laughably stupid takes that it's some bombed-out shithole with no jobs other than crime, and where people kill minorities on sight. At least once every couple weeks, there will be a decently sized comment thread about how it's economically desolate and morally evil, and that no sane person would ever move here.

My only response to that is please don't ever stop believing that. Stay away. Don't come crush the housing market with your $200k+ FAANG salary so you can tut-tut the people that live here about how racist, sexist, classist, etc. they are despite having never actually talked to one of them in your life. For those that got dealt a bad hand in life, there is at least a chance for them in the Midwest. If keeping that chance alive means that somebody living in a coastal city thinks my community is human garbage, so be it.

Maybe you should try to understand why certain kinds of people (of, perhaps the non-white kind) would not want to move into an insular community?

Maybe if they visited, they'd find their assumptions to be unwarranted racism.

It isn't as diverse as some other parts of the country, but there's groups of people from all over the world. Within a 2 hour drive from me, you'll find enclaves from Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Mexico and others.

If not wanting to live in an enclave as a nominally second-class citizen is racist, then I don't know what to say. Let's not deny reality here, that's really what you end up being if you try to interact with the main racial group in a rural area, or at least the vast majority of them. It doesn't matter what race this happens to be, it's how people work.

I know an Englishman who lives in an Indonesian village (not an enclave). He is constantly reminded that while his presence is cherished, he isn't, and never will be "one of them." He still loves it, though, so there's that.

Most of the tightly closed enclaves are by choice (refugee communities tend to stick together harder than others, from what I can tell). Obviously, not everyone lives in an enclave.

What on earth makes you think they are second class citizens? They vote, attend school board meetings, own homes and live just like anyone else.

As an immigrant, individualist and severe introvert, I'd probably never be "one of them" anywhere anyway, why bother? I suspect that stuff is overrated anyway.

If you’re not very wealthy, and you’re living on the west coast, you’re a second class citizen there too. At least in Minnesota the rent is lower.

I went into an experience living in Wisconsin with exactly this viewpoint and was sorely disappointed at the shear amount of selfish, entitled, prejudiced behavior that exists only in these lands of strip malls and spoiled nature. I’m saying this so the next person reading your post isn’t swayed. And to those people: many of these towns are dead. They died long ago with the small farms and factories. The Houses are priced to sell.

I have been sorely disappointed by the shear amount of selfish, entitled, prejudiced behavior I observed in Bay Area, so what? The exact nature of prejudice may be a bit different, but it's still very much around here. OK, the difference in the Bay Area you pay 20x for it, I guess.

Have visited. The constant microaggressions are exactly what I expected.

Do you have black or Hispanic friends or colleagues that you know near you? Have you asked them about their experiences with race where you live?

Yup. We've discussed it a fair amount, as we also frequently talk about the news. One friend in particular has lived in a half dozen states, mostly in large cities but also smaller communities, and now lives here because it is where he wants to be. He was stabbed in a metro area by a skinhead. This illusion that big coastal cities of super expensive housing as a mecca of love and diversity that exists nowhere else is just that.

Have you tried being trans there? No? Okay then.

There are plenty of "non-white" kind of people in the midwest. Jeeze the racist stereotypes of the midwest is laughable

In my neighborhood I would say at minimum 25% of the home owners are non-white families, if not more.

Exactly. The racism and class prejudice is so blatant in this discussion it’s pretty wild.

Bunch of representative bias anecdotes, mostly be people who don’t live there, or haven’t in 20 years.

And yet, if the same environment were to be encountered in another country, it would be “culture”.

Spoken like a coastal elite. I’ve lived on the east coast, Midwest, and Cali. The Midwest is no more insular than anywhere else I’ve lived.

Insular? Now San Francisco isn’t that bad.

And you'll get the politics and the religosity of the bible belt to boot.

There's a few islands of sanity here in the midwest, primarily around college towns. But... prices have doubled since 2016, at least in my area.

We're closing on a house. $375k. I'm one of the lucky ones. Like, super lucky. But it sold back in 2016 for $170k.

I am willing to bet that if those places had well paid jobs easily available, people would start to move in.

For all the cultural likes and dislikes, mass of people is generally moving when they have pragmatic reason to do so.

And yet, it's only these coastal "livable" towns that I've ever seen somebody defacate on the sidewalk. In the midwest, at least people are potty trained.

40% of U.S. residents can be described as "coastal" so you're painting with a pretty broad brush.

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