Friday, March 04, 2022

Some ex-city-dwellers regret going rural; their complaints might be instructive for towns trying to lure new residents

A tidal wave of city-dwellers fled to rural areas during the pandemic, and while many adore their new lives, others say they have regrets. Some aspects of rural life aren't changing any time soon—good luck getting Amazon Prime—but other complaints might serve as a roadmap for small towns trying to lure in, and keep, new residents. 

Many New Yorkers who moved to rural areas said their experience in rural America has been positive overall. "But even the most enthusiastic transplants remarked on a raft of unforeseen drawbacks: pests, property damage, social isolation, automobile dependence and a scarcity of health care and child care providers — conditions that locals have grappled with all their lives," Julie Lasky reports for The New York Times.

A November report showed that the pandemic out-migration trend had reversed itself by July 2021, Lasky reports. That dovetails with a Pew Research Center survey showing that, while the pandemic has influenced where many Americans want to live, it hasn't really changed what they're looking for in a community.

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