[Rupert]

I seldom think past today.....but I intend to enjoy today immensely! Not much past today.....I plan to do the same thing tomorrow, if tomorrow comes around.....My wife makes wonderful plans...I just live today....works great for me, I know tomorrow or next year, or twenty years will never be better than today.
Regards!

What's for today.....lunch with my Dolly, for starters!

[reeftool]

I did generalize somewhat on my opinion of Vermont but I don't think it is off base. I'm over there quite a bit, have co-workers who live there and commute and hear their complaints. When discussing the issue of the arts community and it's effect on local economys, it's not just an issue of Vermont either. When we first moved to this area, we lived in Saratoga Springs, NY. In 1976, it was one of the cheapest places to live in the greater Capital District. We rented an apartment on Beekman St. on the west side of town which was considered the "slums" in those days. Saratoga became a draw for the "artsy" crowd. It was cheap to live and the summers were full of tourists who would readily spend money on art. We moved out of the apartment to a mobile home in Greenfield but the neighborhood stayed a "cheap" place to live. A lot of artists moved into Beekman St., living upstairs and opening up small gallerys to display their paintings, ceramics, etc. It became known as the "Art District". The little neighborhood pubs and lunch counters are now upscale restraunts and many of the artists who established the neighborhood can't afford to live there and now although their work is on display in the now "upscale" gallerys that line the street. Property values rose to where we now have settled in Corinth, about 15 miles to the north. Still reasonable and low taxes but in the last year guess what? Artists are opening up gallerys in the old Village storefronts downtown that have been vacant for years.

A couple of years ago in a fishing article about Lake Champlain in Field and Stream, the writer described the Vermont side as "Scandivanian like villages where people wear Birkenstocks and drive around in Volvos. The NY side is like Bulgaria, where people drive rusted out pickup trucks and fine eating establishments have signs out front that say Welcome Bikers." I don't have any problems with seeing an area improve but eventually the character of the area changes. The speculators move in and start buying the place up and snobs take over and the people who made the place what it was move on. Maybe thats the way it's supposed to be.

[Ratmagiclady]

I don't have any problems with seeing an area improve but eventually the character of the area changes. The speculators move in and start buying the place up and snobs take over and the people who made the place what it was move on. Maybe thats the way it's supposed to be.

In an *expanding* economy it's pretty natural. At least without some kind of rent control to moderate the process. All that rampant speculation changed the picture: the rents would start getting really jacked up on what the real estate people were seeing as 'the next hot arts place' *before* much of a scene got established, for instance, which'd tend to strangle the golden goose before she really started laying. What's a problem with a lot of struggling town centers losing out to the 'big boxes' is that in a market that really collapsed, and is no longer based on this idea of infinite expansion in a realistic sense, ...the rents on some of these near-empty town centers aren't actually going down. When the rents a big property owner *isn't* getting become a write-off, they are content with this picture, but it means that nothing brings the 'character' back.

Hence it can become gentrification, ...just a particularly nice *mall,* may be what they have in mind, rather than a real living town center.

If there's lots of money coming in from, say, affluent ski tourists, then you can still have lots more of that gentrified stuff, though if the working classes aren't doing so well, then there's more likelihood they'll get squeezed out of said centers. For my purposes, at least there's money flying around. I have various contingenies somewhat gamed-out, in that regard (In some respects I have crap-for-business sense. In others, like adapting to local 'big pictures,' I count myself pretty good.) Since we simply won't be able to go where we can't afford to live, it'll mostly be just a matter of finding some niches. )

[reeftool]

I'm certainly not knocking Vermont or Saratoga. They are nice places. But artists need to make a living and have a roof over their heads. Very few artists are able to make a living from their art. They need jobs that provide enough to survive on. In going back to the beginning of the thread, I am living in a nice small town with a house I can afford. I'll be 60 this year. Part of what has upset my "plan" has been esclating expensives. While I had hoped my daughters school and the house would be paid off and I could at least semi-retire ( I'm restless, I have to work or do something), I now have to keep going until I'm 69 or 70. Can I keep repairing trucks and refrigeration units on the night shift for 8-10 more years? I don't know. Thats the problem with "plans". Of course if I had not planned, some of the events of the past few years would have put me in bankruptcy. If I was 10 years younger, none of this would be a concern. When you hit my age, time is not on my side. A co-worker who is a couple of years older than me just had his knee blow out on him last week. He might be done.

[Ratmagiclady]

I'm certainly not knocking Vermont or Saratoga. They are nice places. But artists need to make a living and have a roof over their heads. Very few artists are able to make a living from their art. They need jobs that provide enough to survive on. In going back to the beginning of the thread, I am living in a nice small town with a house I can afford. I'll be 60 this year. Part of what has upset my "plan" has been esclating expensives.

Yeah, that's definitely very real and definitely a pity that anyone should have to go through it. I pretty certainly couldn't keep a roof over my head with art, even if I was really that good, ...not from a standing start, certainly. If sweetie can keep a modest roof over our heads, though, and we can really pool resources, then there's a whole lot I can do. I kind of live slowly, which doesn't make the rent any cheaper, but keeps other expenses down.

Not all artists/crafters/etc, of course, have that kind of option. (But it's one reason why I've an eye to helping found some kind of loose co-operative kind of situation. Something about *community* rather than just paying the bills.) It's really a very interesting thing how standoffish 'townies' come to respect people you wouldn't think they'd accept, ...if those people show respect up front.

The line some homesteaders hear in some of those small towns when someone comes trying to stir them up is, "Yeah, they're freaks, but they're *our* freaks. Hands off."

In college towns, especially, there's a certain element of 'Are you gonna stay put, or what?' (one reason I resent having to move, all the time: been through the process quite a few times already, only to have to leave cause of some other factor.) Hel, *I'm* quite conscious of being afraid to get attached where I am, ...cause *I* want to get committed to somewhere. Speaking of age creeping up, there's aspects of life that I'm like twenty years behind on. Sometimes in some respects, I feel like a twenty-year old trapped in a body that's 70. 'Nuffa that, you know? Eccentric townie it is. )