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JaxBratt t1_jcv99gr wrote

Vermont does not “NEED” to grow and accommodate a larger population. Some may WANT it to.

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czo79 t1_jcvaerv wrote

Seriously. The whole reason Vermont is special and is what it is today is because anyone with a brain left and went west after John Deere invented the steel plow, and there's never been much of a reason to come here since. You have to love it. But we've also avoided a lot of the worst of endless growth and boom and bust economic cycles. I'm afraid the future is bleak, and there's probably not much that can be done about it.

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SmoothSlavperator t1_jcyeh0r wrote

Skip ahead a few years. Its the post war era.

The stone industry contracted and VT heavily resisted infrastructure upgrades to allow other industry to fill the vacuum (Interstate 92 anyone?). Skip ahead a few decades and we have a brain-drain problem since anyone with a skillset leaves to regions that offer jobs in the skillset. You can't open a business without importing your own employees since none of the locals have the skillsets to be employed and you're stuck in a death spiral of strip malls and dollar stores that looks more like the midwest than new england. Burlington only survives because it has the captive-college thing the Boston has going on but like Boston, the cost of living is going to drive grads out but with a smaller population, it will be less fault-tolerant. The church street derelicts are just the beginning.

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Necessary_Cat_4801 t1_jd4cmvf wrote

This is already happening. Hiring in Vermont is an absolute disaster and theres plenty of reason to expect it to get worse and no reason to expect it to get better.

If the current gentrification trend continues its hard to imagine how VT will staff anything relying on local labor in ten years, if not sooner.

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[deleted] t1_jcw79v2 wrote

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ResponsibleExcuse727 t1_jcwixfw wrote

Will go back to old fashion work force housing. Forcing us locals to live in company owned houses to serve the wealthy. Musk is doing it in Texas it’s only a matter of time before someone finds this as the “solution” to the housing crisis up here.

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[deleted] t1_jcw572y wrote

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[deleted] t1_jcw7m2j wrote

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[deleted] t1_jcwhukg wrote

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Necessary_Cat_4801 t1_jcxreco wrote

Yeah, there is no fixing this. VT's future is as an exclusively wealthy place and this is obvious to anyone willing to see it. Housing prices have absolutely no relation to wages here.

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dmccullum t1_jcxmj2u wrote

Vermont has the second worst homelessness crisis in the nation, so yes we need to grow to accommodate people unless we’re okay with just letting disadvantaged people get chewed up and spit out on the street.

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Snatchwranglerr t1_jcxs9ji wrote

Pssst…. I don’t think you’ve seen California lately.

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dmccullum t1_jcy2mb7 wrote

California is the only state with a worse homelessness crisis than Vermont…and it’s because they have even worse housing availability than Vermont.

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Necessary_Cat_4801 t1_jcy42fa wrote

They have a higher vacancy rate, meaning more available housing, and it's more affordable than here if you consider wages.

California is one of the only blue states that is warm year round, that's why it has so many homeless.

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The_Barbelo t1_jd7q0zg wrote

Other red places also buy the homeless bus tickets to California, and the only reason they won’t ship them off here is exactly what you said. Clearly from this thread we can’t even agree on stuff because there are a few harsh realities Vermonters are unwilling to face and no one knows what the solution is. Someone here asked me why I just don’t move out if I don’t like it, to a more “walkable” place. It isn’t that simple, I didn’t feel like I need to justify myself to him but you know exactly what the problem is so I’ll tell you…I was homeless for 6 months during Covid. With a job/ decent income because of the crisis, and we weren’t the only displaced family…what I didn’t tell that guy who has since deleted his responses to me.. is that my husband and I ARE working on moving out. We just have to save up where money (a difficult thing to do in Vermont) And you bet I have some pretty harsh criticisms for how a lot of people are in Lala land here. I love this place, a lot…I just can’t keep living here and have a passable quality life anymore.

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Necessary_Cat_4801 t1_jd908sz wrote

That's it. Even this sub is all posts about pretty snow or dogs playing in snow or "vermonting", whatever that is.

The reality is lots of people, even those making good money, are on the edge of homelessness because they're living in a dumpy VT rental that could fail inspection at any time.

The quality of life here for people who aren't making at least six figures is really, really low.

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The_Barbelo t1_jd9crcu wrote

Yes. Thank you. I’m glad there are a few here who understand.

I’ll put it into perspective for other people…I make as much as an X-ray technician. In most other states I’d be living pretty comfortably. Here… I’m living low class. I can save about $200-$400 a month, unless we have an emergency, like my dog contracting lime or car repairs…Then there goes a bunch of it. To move out we need to pay an awful lot. First, last, and security of the new place on top of a moving rental, enough to pay a few months of rent while we find jobs, enough for a few months worth of food for 2 grown adults, two cats, a dog. I have multiple health issues, including type 1 diabetes. I need a few months worth of meds and an emergency supply.

I can not stand when people aren’t willing to see things from the perspectives of those who are struggling, forgotten, and downtrodden. My mother acts like this, she’s getting everything payed for by my stepdad who makes a good amount…and she’s in Lala land about the world. I’m pretty fucked up because of her… And this thread proves to me exactly what Ive noticed about certain Vermonters offline.

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Paid-Not-Payed-Bot t1_jd9csey wrote

> getting everything paid for by

FTFY.

Although payed exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:

  • Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. The deck is yet to be payed.

  • Payed out when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. The rope is payed out! You can pull now.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.

Beep, boop, I'm a bot

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