So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[V.C. Brunswick]

Noise Pollution

One is the neighbour kid's BMW which sounds like a B-17 taking off whenever he comes and goes. I can hear it all the way in my bedroom as if I was standing next to it. And the other source is the nearby school whose PA system is so loud I can often hear it as if I'm right there in the schoolyard and I live about a quarter mile from the school.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Noise Pollution

One is the neighbour kid's BMW which sounds like a B-17 taking off whenever he comes and goes. I can hear it all the way in my bedroom as if I was standing next to it. And the other source is the nearby school whose PA system is so loud I can often hear it as if I'm right there in the schoolyard and I live about a quarter mile from the school.

But, if things are going worse, He would argument with BMWs blue-white propeller-emblem.

 

[Fading Fast]

There are a few "name" artists with galleries -- one of them died last year after being bitten by a tick, which is a hazard if you live here -- but most of them have generically nautical names -- Harbor this, Coastal that, la de dah, you get the idea -- or inscrutable hip-edgy black-turtleneck names that make little sense except to the namer. We've become the trendiest art town in the state over the last fifteen years or so, but I'm unconvinced that this translates into any particular benefit for the rest of us. The caliber of the art itself isn't particularly stimulating, but I'm more of a socialist-realism/WPA-mural kind of fan than the kind of stuff I see around here.

"died...after being bitten by a tick," I'm aware of lyme disease and one-off stuff, but how common is this? Did he ignore symptoms / not see a doctor as things got bad?

I remember that I reflected in an earlier post that I shared Tony B's surprised that you had 37 galleries. I know you noted some were pretty small affairs, but still - wow. You know your community, but doesn't that - at least - bring in some other business - cafes, theater goers ("let's go to the art gallery dear and, then, take in a movie"), etc., and some tax dollars (sales tax, property tax, etc.)?

It seems that it should - but hasn't - lead to a self sustaining model where the art galleries generate foot traffic and visitors that support / lead to the opening of other businesses - food, small hotels, etc. - which then makes the city more of a tourist destination, etc.

IMHO, Portland, via the "Old Port," basically did this in the last two to three decades. I was there in the early '90s and there were a few run-down hotels and a few artsy, trendy stores / restaurants, but the town, overall, was depressed. But over the ensuring years, the number of art galleries, fancy furniture stores, restaurants, etc. increased as new inns and hotels kept opening. The city seems (at least when I was last there several years ago) pretty vibrant now - at least compared to the early '90s.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's some spill-over, but doesn't seem to live up to the hype based on what I see. Most of our patrons are local regulars -- our best month for attendance is January, when the art scene is dormant. The arty-types who come up in the summer seem to stick their heads in the door, say "what's this place all about," nod their heads when I tell them, and move on. They must spend money somewhere, but they don't spend it with us.

And I don't know who else they spend it with, to be honest. The attrition rate for restaurants here tends to be rather alarming -- they tend to open amidst a lot of hype and then fade away and finally close with no hype at all. We have the big new Super Deluxe Boutique hotel that opened last year, amidst much zoning chicanery, but it's too early to tell if that will last. The Brunswick Rooms, on the other hand, the skid-row-type flophouse just down the block from the Super Deluxe, has been here since the 1970s and seems still to be flourishing.

There does seem to be a lot of AirBnB going on, judging from the loss of rental housing stock for year-round locals. Too many landlords are grabbing for the fast buck, kicking out long-term tenants, and turning their places into upholstered hidey-holes for the Touristi. This is generating a lot of community anger, and a backlash is fomenting.

The tick incident was just that sudden. The warmer winters of the last decade or so have led to an explosion in the tick population. The artist in question died of "Powassan disease" about six weeks after being bitten by a deer tick. I used to love the woods, but I won't go near them anymore.

 

[Fading Fast]

There's some spill-over, but doesn't seem to live up to the hype based on what I see. Most of our patrons are local regulars -- our best month for attendance is January, when the art scene is dormant. The arty-types who come up in the summer seem to stick their heads in the door, say "what's this place all about," nod their heads when I tell them, and move on. They must spend money somewhere, but they don't spend it with us.

And I don't know who else they spend it with, to be honest. The attrition rate for restaurants here tends to be rather alarming -- they tend to open amidst a lot of hype and then fade away and finally close with no hype at all. We have the big new Super Deluxe Boutique hotel that opened last year, amidst much zoning chicanery, but it's too early to tell if that will last. The Brunswick Rooms, on the other hand, the skid-row-type flophouse just down the block from the Super Deluxe, has been here since the 1970s and seems still to be flourishing.

There does seem to be a lot of AirBnB going on, judging from the loss of rental housing stock for year-round locals. Too many landlords are grabbing for the fast buck, kicking out long-term tenants, and turning their places into upholstered hidey-holes for the Touristi. This is generating a lot of community anger, and a backlash is fomenting.

The tick incident was just that sudden. The warmer winters of the last decade or so have led to an explosion in the tick population. The artist in question died of "Powassan disease" about six weeks after being bitten by a deer tick. I used to love the woods, but I won't go near them anymore.

Take hiking in the woods out and you've taken one of Maine's nicest attraction away, but no argument here - I'd rather not die from a tick bite.

 

[tonyb]

Noise Pollution

One is the neighbour kid's BMW which sounds like a B-17 taking off whenever he comes and goes. I can hear it all the way in my bedroom as if I was standing next to it. And the other source is the nearby school whose PA system is so loud I can often hear it as if I'm right there in the schoolyard and I live about a quarter mile from the school.

I feel your pain.

I once lived quite near an elementary school. The principal lady was BFF's with the PA system. She just loved getting on that thing, especially at the beginning and ending of the school day. The suspicion is that she was insecure as to her own status among the kids and the adult staff and faculty there, so she took every opportunity to remind everyone of just who was in charge.

 

[tonyb]

There's some spill-over, but doesn't seem to live up to the hype based on what I see. Most of our patrons are local regulars -- our best month for attendance is January, when the art scene is dormant. The arty-types who come up in the summer seem to stick their heads in the door, say "what's this place all about," nod their heads when I tell them, and move on. They must spend money somewhere, but they don't spend it with us.

And I don't know who else they spend it with, to be honest. The attrition rate for restaurants here tends to be rather alarming -- they tend to open amidst a lot of hype and then fade away and finally close with no hype at all. We have the big new Super Deluxe Boutique hotel that opened last year, amidst much zoning chicanery, but it's too early to tell if that will last. The Brunswick Rooms, on the other hand, the skid-row-type flophouse just down the block from the Super Deluxe, has been here since the 1970s and seems still to be flourishing.

There does seem to be a lot of AirBnB going on, judging from the loss of rental housing stock for year-round locals. Too many landlords are grabbing for the fast buck, kicking out long-term tenants, and turning their places into upholstered hidey-holes for the Touristi. This is generating a lot of community anger, and a backlash is fomenting.

The tick incident was just that sudden. The warmer winters of the last decade or so have led to an explosion in the tick population. The artist in question died of "Powassan disease" about six weeks after being bitten by a deer tick. I used to love the woods, but I won't go near them anymore.

A buck is a buck, I suppose. Still, an economy built on tourism is different in kind from one built on, say, agriculture, or manufacturing. People desire recreation, but they need food and certain manufactured goods.

Airbnb and the like are here to stay, although state and local restrictions are long overdue in many jurisdictions. In some locales, property owners are converting entire apartment buildings, one unit at a time, into what are essentially hotels.

A close relative opened a vacation rental agency in her home in a resort community 15 or 20 years back. It wasn't long before she bought a storefront downtown and worked out of there. She sold the business to an international firm for quite a chunk a year or two ago.

My little operation is much more modest. (My desire for riches isn't nearly so strong as that of the above mentioned family member.) We have an accessory dwelling unit (aka a "mother-in-law" apartment) in our basement here. It's entirely self-contained -- bathroom, kitchen, separate outside entrance, etc. We've had it listed on Airbnb since late last year. So far, so good. It isn't exactly hassle-free (money rarely is), but it's going better than I had expected.

There are a thousand or more hotel/motel rooms within a one-mile radius of this place. Another hotel, a 350-room Hampton Inn, will break ground later this year. A 450-some unit apartment complex is now under construction on what had been a vacant 15 acres. Attribute this mostly to proximity to a major freeway and a new light-rail line.

There's no denying that what we're offering is a basement apartment. But it's among the more well-appointed basement apartments you'll likely ever see. Or so say the guests who have left their feedback on the Airbnb platform. (Both sellers and buyers review each other on the Airbnb platform. I declined a request to book the space on account of unfavorable reviews.) We offer a better value than what can be had at those nearby commercial lodgings. And we generate tax revenue for the city and state.

In our case, no housing for locals is taken off the market. A shirt-tail relative from Seattle was slated to move into that space, but he backed out at the last minute. Unless the renter were a relative or close friend, I wouldn't wish anyone to be in that space on a permanent (or indefinite, anyway) basis.

 

[Nobert]

"died...after being bitten by a tick," I'm aware of lyme disease and one-off stuff, but how common is this? Did he ignore symptoms / not see a doctor as things got bad?

I remember that I reflected in an earlier post that I shared Tony B's surprised that you had 37 galleries. I know you noted some were pretty small affairs, but still - wow. You know your community, but doesn't that - at least - bring in some other business - cafes, theater goers ("let's go to the art gallery dear and, then, take in a movie"), etc., and some tax dollars (sales tax, property tax, etc.)?

It seems that it should - but hasn't - lead to a self sustaining model where the art galleries generate foot traffic and visitors that support / lead to the opening of other businesses - food, small hotels, etc. - which then makes the city more of a tourist destination, etc.

IMHO, Portland, via the "Old Port," basically did this in the last two to three decades. I was there in the early '90s and there were a few run-down hotels and a few artsy, trendy stores / restaurants, but the town, overall, was depressed. But over the ensuring years, the number of art galleries, fancy furniture stores, restaurants, etc. increased as new inns and hotels kept opening. The city seems (at least when I was last there several years ago) pretty vibrant now - at least compared to the early '90s.

Dying of Lyme, probably depends on your overall health and age in general. I have a couple of friends with it, one is quite young but she still has to deal with all these bizarre symptoms that medical science doesn't know what to do with and doctors and insurance companies that don't even acknowledge it (That's right...insurance companies. Can ya even believe it?)

As for Portland, the balance long ago tipped, as far as whatever artsiness imparted to the city. It is now gone sliding the other way, like I gather Williamsburg, Brooklyn has. Run down area, then hipster/artist enclave then overrun by rich jerks like everywhere else. The art galleries total have gone down in number since I lived there (1995-2013) and, more importantly, the diversity has been lost. Used to be you had everything from sophisticated realism to recent MECA grads amking things out of styrofoam cups and spray paint. Mostly, now, it's what looks good in a hotel lobby.

The city is now mostly inhabited by people who only like the kind of culture you can stuff in your mouth. It's gotten quite the reputation as a "foodie" town. We'll see how long that lasts, now that almost nobody can afford the ballooning rents on a cook's or waitstaff's salary. They're even getting priced out of SoPo and Westbrook.

Sorry if I seem bitter, but there's a reason I no longer live there, and it wasn't my idea.

 

[Fading Fast]

Dying of Lyme, probably depends on your overall health and age in general. I have a couple of friends with it, one is quite young but she still has to deal with all these bizarre symptoms that medical science doesn't know what to do with and doctors and insurance companies that don't even acknowledge it (That's right...insurance companies. Can ya even believe it?)

As for Portland, the balance long ago tipped, as far as whatever artsiness imparted to the city. It is now gone sliding the other way, like I gather Williamsburg, Brooklyn has. Run down area, then hipster/artist enclave then overrun by rich jerks like everywhere else. The art galleries total have gone down in number since I lived there (1995-2013) and, more importantly, the diversity has been lost. Used to be you had everything from sophisticated realism to recent MECA grads amking things out of styrofoam cups and spray paint. Mostly, now, it's what looks good in a hotel lobby.

The city is now mostly inhabited by people who only like the kind of culture you can stuff in your mouth. It's gotten quite the reputation as a "foodie" town. We'll see how long that lasts, now that almost nobody can afford the ballooning rents on a cook's or waitstaff's salary. They're even getting priced out of SoPo and Westbrook.

Sorry if I seem bitter, but there's a reason I no longer live there, and it wasn't my idea.

As you can tell from my posts, I was nothing more than the occasional visitor (on business or mini-vacation like a long weekend), but saw the arc that you did (although, as an outsider, I didn't notice anywhere near the nuance that you did).

I, too, wonder at why it seems that as these areas "gentrify" or whatever it's called, they seem to get ten-times the restaurants and other food places - do all rich tourist do is eat?

Lizzie has brought up the concern that her city will price itself out of prosperity - i.e., the rents get so high, the people who do the work can't afford to live there. In NYC, most of the service professionals (electricians, plumbers, etc.) don't live in the city (certainly not the expensive parts), but come in from the outer boroughs or (no kidding) NJ, etc. But Lizzie's point (if I'm misrepresenting it, it is not intentional) is, in part, that smaller areas like her town don't have surrounding areas to draw upon for these services. I understand that.

However, then at some point, the wealthily will move out because if, God forbid, they can't get someone to fix their lights or plumbing, they'll move and the rents will go down. That said, all that can take a long time - years or even decades to play out - and the infrastructure and circumstances that made the town vibrant at lower rents years ago, might no longer be in place to support it again even if rents do come down.

 

[ChrisB]

"died...after being bitten by a tick," I'm aware of lyme disease and one-off stuff, but how common is this?

Lyme can cause damage to heart valves, and at least one person as died as a result, but this is exceedingly rare. Due to the vague symptoms, it can be a tricky thing to recognize. I have had it several times, only once did I have an elliptical rash, the classic sign of Lyme. 3 to 4 weeks of Doxycycline will usually suffice to cure it. Unfortunately, you do not develop immunity to it, so you can always be infected again. Deer ticks are plentiful where I live, and as I work in the woods on weekends, it is a matter of time before I get it again in spite of taking precautions. Everyone in my family has had it, including the dog.

You might say that Lyme disease "ticks me off".

 

[Stearmen]

Noise Pollution

One is the neighbour kid's BMW which sounds like a B-17 taking off whenever he comes and goes. I can hear it all the way in my bedroom as if I was standing next to it. And the other source is the nearby school whose PA system is so loud I can often hear it as if I'm right there in the schoolyard and I live about a quarter mile from the school.

I get to hear Reveille, retreat and taps every day thanks to the new and improved PA system at our local Air Force base. They are at least 5 miles away. First time I heard reveille, I started to get out of bed, then I realized, hay, I don't have to if I don't want to!

 

[LizzieMaine]

As you can tell from my posts, I was nothing more than the occasional visitor (on business or mini-vacation like a long weekend), but saw the arc that you did (although, as an outsider, I didn't notice anywhere near the nuance that you did).

I, too, wonder at why it seems that as these areas "gentrify" or whatever it's called, they seem to get ten-times the restaurants and other food places - do all rich tourist do is eat?

Lizzie has brought up the concern that her city will price itself out of prosperity - i.e., the rents get so high, the people who do the work can't afford to live there. In NYC, most of the service professionals (electricians, plumbers, etc.) don't live in the city (certainly not the expensive parts), but come in from the outer boroughs or (no kidding) NJ, etc. But Lizzie's point (if I'm misrepresenting it, it is not intentional) is, in part, that smaller areas like her town don't have surrounding areas to draw upon for these services. I understand that.

However, then at some point, the wealthily will move out because if, God forbid, they can't get someone to fix their lights or plumbing, they'll move and the rents will go down. That said, all that can take a long time - years or even decades to play out - and the infrastructure and circumstances that made the town vibrant at lower rents years ago, might no longer be in place to support it again even if rents do come down.

The other part of the gentrification crisis is that gentrifiers *demand* more services than the local tax base can support. People who move here from Connecticut, for example, are often shocked that there's no municipal trash pickup. "Wait, you mean I have to HAUL MY OWN GARBAGE???" Or they see that there's no street light on their block and they DEMAND that one be installed. And so on and on. It all adds up. Those of us who've grown up in the area don't expect these kinds of services -- we've always hauled our own dump, and don't think there's anything odd about it, and we're used to very little lighting away from the downtown area, because that's how it's always been. But the gentrifiers pitch a fit because the area is not exactly like the place they've supposedly moved here to get away from, and those demands contribute to the pressures that force local working people out.

As to foodieism, it does certainly seem to be a defining factor in the lifestyle -- and also appears to be the quickest possible route to the poorhouse for people who try to support it, given the number of restaurants that open and close here in rapid succession. You'd think people would learn, but you can't swing a two-by-four without hitting a hip young sous-chef just out of culinary school who can't wait to start selling Contemporary Comfort Food to the touristi.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I live out on the New Mexico desert. My nearest neighbor is more than half a mile away. It's isolated, but there is a certain comfort in having a clear field of fire in every direction. I can see visitors coming from a long way off. The nearest town, Estancia, is 2 miles north. I just went in to pick up my mail and they're filming a movie there today. For days the set dressers have been fixing up the town to look like a ghost town (not much of a stretch for Estancia). It's some post-apocalyptic thing and it's supposed to be a place where it hasn't rained in like 30 years. Their bad timing - a winter storm blew in yesterday with a lot of rain, but they're shooting anyway. This is the third or fourth movie shot in Estancia in the last couple of years, but I guess the town badly needs the money. Almost everything has closed down in the last 20 years except for a couple of eating places, two convenience stores and a combination hardware-feed store ranch supply establishment . Oddly, it's the county seat so we have courthouses, admin buildings and county sheriff's HQ. It's not a tourist Mecca, as you might imagine.
I'm unsociable enough to like it.

 

[Nobert]

For days the set dressers have been fixing up the town to look like a ghost town (not much of a stretch for Estancia). It's some post-apocalyptic thing and it's supposed to be a place where it hasn't rained in like 30 years. Their bad timing - a winter storm blew in yesterday with a lot of rain, but they're shooting anyway.

This reminds me of when they shot a scene of The Preacher's Wife in my town. It was a winter, ice skating scene in the city's main park, but due to an unseasonable thaw (as happens a lot here in New England) they had to make fake snow and try and not look the whole thing look like a late-winter, soggy mess. Since the whole park was closed off, causing me to reroute my trek to the supermarket, this tickled me a bit. I still haven't seen the movie.

 

[Fading Fast]

...As to foodieism, it does certainly seem to be a defining factor in the lifestyle -- and also appears to be the quickest possible route to the poorhouse for people who try to support it, given the number of restaurants that open and close here in rapid succession. You'd think people would learn, but you can't swing a two-by-four without hitting a hip young sous-chef just out of culinary school who can't wait to start selling Contemporary Comfort Food to the touristi.

NYC has always been a foodie city, even back in the '70s and '80s well before the current "foodie-ism" took off. And the death rate of restaurants / cafes / etc. has always been insanely high. Doing this from memory, but something like 90% fail within 3 years.

Not unlike your movie theater business that makes money on concessions, the truly successful restaurants (with one-off exceptions) make their money on liquor, period. A local French bistro in my neighborhood that pre-dates the foodie fad that is not pretentious, that is a true local's place just closed after 30 years because they could only get a beer and wine license (they are too close to a school - even well-intended regulations and laws have consequences to honest people).

The owners said that food was always a near break even event, wine and beer kept them afloat and they only survived this long as their lease was long and reasonable, but with that up, the new lease and their last attempt at a exception on the liquor license turned down (cause all the school kids would pile into the French bistro for booze - come on), they closed down.

I think running a restaurant is like teaching or being an actor - more people want to do than the market can support, so many struggle just to survive. And it's such a passion for people, that they won't quit and move on to something more lucrative, so they scratch out a living however they can. Many years ago, I dated a girl who turned down a very decent paying job as a catering manager in a large NYC hotel to take a job at half the pay working in a smaller Italian chain of, basically, quick lunch and take out because she felt "too removed from the food experience" as the catering manager. The non-monetary rewards are worth it I assume; otherwise, people would make other choices - like all your hip young sous-chefs.

 

[Zombie_61]

I live out on the New Mexico desert...I just went in to pick up my mail and they're filming a movie there today. For days the set dressers have been fixing up the town to look like a ghost town (not much of a stretch for Estancia)...

My home town of Whittier, California, has been used for more than a few movies and television shows over the years. As one crewmember once told me, it was because of the way the town had grown over the years--one area developed in the 1930s, another in the 1940s, another in the 1950s, and so on, so they didn't have to do much to make those neighborhoods look like they did during those eras.

On the other hand, as I was leaving for work years ago I drove past a local dry cleaner and saw a crew performing what appeared to be some form of construction on the two sides of the building facing the street (it was/is on a corner lot). When I returned home from work that evening I discovered they had built a facade over the building, transforming it into a "local burger joint". Now, I had worked a full eight hour shift, had a one-hour lunch period, and traveled about two hours to and from work. That's 11 hours, and I have no idea when that crew started or when they finished because they were still there when I returned home and the next day the facade was gone and the business was once again a dry cleaner. Bring it, build it, film it during the day, film it at night, tear it all down and haul it away. Between the time, labor, and materials, I can't begin to imagine what that transformation cost the production company. And what did they do all of that work and spend all of that money for? A three-second establishing shot (i.e., a brief scene that informs the viewers that the characters are now at this burger joint) for a sitcom on ABC.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Same here. They spend days transforming the town totally, shoot for two or three days and I drive in the day after and you can't tell they were ever here. That's what makes having your town for a film location so attractive. They come in, they spend money while they're in town, then they're gone and all is back to normal.

 

[Fading Fast]

My home town of Whittier, California, has been used for more than a few movies and television shows over the years. As one crewmember once told me, it was because of the way the town had grown over the years--one area developed in the 1930s, another in the 1940s, another in the 1950s, and so on, so they didn't have to do much to make those neighborhoods look like they did during those eras.

On the other hand, as I was leaving for work years ago I drove past a local dry cleaner and saw a crew performing what appeared to be some form of construction on the two sides of the building facing the street (it was/is on a corner lot). When I returned home from work that evening I discovered they had built a facade over the building, transforming it into a "local burger joint". Now, I had worked a full eight hour shift, had a one-hour lunch period, and traveled about two hours to and from work. That's 11 hours, and I have no idea when that crew started or when they finished because they were still there when I returned home and the next day the facade was gone and the business was once again a dry cleaner. Bring it, build it, film it during the day, film it at night, tear it all down and haul it away. Between the time, labor, and materials, I can't begin to imagine what that transformation cost the production company. And what did they do all of that work and spend all of that money for? A three-second establishing shot (i.e., a brief scene that informs the viewers that the characters are now at this burger joint) for a sitcom on ABC.

Helps explain why even "small budget" movies can run into the tens of millions of dollars.

 

[ChrisB]

People who take two spaces to park their Mercedes because they are afraid of getting it scratched.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Be terrible if something happened in spite of their precautions.