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I just got back from a visit with family in Cumberland. It's the epitome of rust belt. What used to be a thriving manufacturing area has become an abandoned ser
by j_m_b 2y ago
I just got back from a visit with family in Cumberland. It's the epitome of rust belt. What used to be a thriving manufacturing area has become an abandoned service-sector economy with low-wage jobs. Property values are dirt cheap, even for nice houses. There isn't much nearby, you have to travel hours from Pittsburgh to even get there by plane. Tales of theft of items like power tools from relatively remote farms are common. It doesn't look quite as bad as videos I've seen of poorer parts of Appalachia, but it's pretty close. I don't know how they will be able to afford this as the tax base has all but left and Cumberland is trying to pinch every penny they can to afford their over-compensated government staff. It's a pretty sad state of affairs, this seems more like a last-ditch marketing effort.
- dccoolgai 2y agoWhen the railroad was the internet, it was really the Silicon Valley of its day. Really makes you think.
- samstave 2y agoMaybe youre not familiar with Qwest Communications? Man does SV have stories to tell that will be lost to us old BOFH ilk: Qwest communications came about when the railroad realized they had rights to the easement lanes on either side of ALL their train tracks, that allowed them to basically do anything they wanted with that strip of land. So Qwest Communications was born to run fiber along all the tracks and built a huge fiber infra. There was a huge scandal with the telecom giants, and Qwest's CEO was convicted: --- Dossier: Qwest Communications Creation and Early Years - Qwest Communications was formed in 1996 as a spin-off from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. The railroad company had been granted easement rights to lay fiber-optic cables along their tracks, which Qwest leveraged to build a massive fiber-optic network. Fiber-Optic Network Expansion - Qwest used the easement rights to lay fiber-optic cables along the railroad tracks, expanding their network across the western United States. This strategic move allowed Qwest to: - Reduce costs: By utilizing existing railroad easements, Qwest avoided the need to purchase or lease land for their fiber-optic cables. - Increase efficiency: The railroad tracks provided a direct route for fiber-optic cables, reducing the need for detours and minimizing signal degradation. Scandal and Conviction of CEO Joseph Nacchio - In 2005, Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio was convicted of insider trading and sentenced to six years in prison. The scandal involved Nacchio selling millions of dollars' worth of Qwest stock while aware of the company's financial struggles. Scale of Fiber Plant - Qwest built an extensive fiber-optic network, spanning over 190,000 miles across the United States. This massive infrastructure enabled Qwest to offer high-speed data and voice services to customers.
- fragmede 2y agoYou missed the part where the Qwest refused to participate in illegal surveillance and the NSA destroyed the company for it. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/10/qwest-ceo-nsa-punished-qwest-refusing-participate-illegal-surveillance-pre-9-11 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/10/qwest-ceo-nsa-punished...
- samstave 2y agoSorry - Yeah - actually I regret that as I have a humongous amount of /r/conspiracy history in my head - and I forgot that was the real reason.
- mgerdts 2y agoThis sounds a lot like the story of Sprint (Southern Pacific Railroad INTernet?). If I were less lazy I bet I could find the story where this part of Sprint morphed into Qwest.
- dirtyhippiefree 2y agoReply to mgerdts: The acronym is actually Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecommunications according to NPR. https://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162963607/sprint-born-from-railroad-telephone-businesses https://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162963607/sprint-born-from-ra...
- hosh 2y agoI had been thinking about looking at history from the lens of information technology. China is an interesting example, in that it was so well ahead of the curve until around 1700s. In the 1800s, when telegraphs were connecting the Western world together, the Qing dynasty China would not have been able to participate unless pictographs could be encoded as easily as letters (let alone the century of uprisings, rebellions, and civil war). But look at Tang Dynasty China. The Silk Road was a part of a global trade network reaching through the Middle East, and into Africa, along with maritime routes from India. It wasn’t just trade goods that travelled. Ideas — religious, cultural, technological, flowed along the network. But they travelled only as fast as trade goods. I think it is when information is able to flow faster than the physical items that, we might find some insights about what is going on now.
- dfedbeef 2y agoI have good news re: information flow rates
- thephyber 2y agoCategorical mistake. A rural community based on a single industry is always high risk for economic sustainability. Silicon Valley is has cities older than the USA, was grown by the gold rush, the early movie studios, the defense industry (plus some world class universities), NASA contractors, microelectronics, etc. The most recent iteration is software startups. Cities are always more resilient than isolated rural communities because they are inherently more diversified in both economy and workforce.
- mturmon 2y agoExcellent point. Longnow.org has a lot of material about the resilience of cities over very long time scales (like, millennia). Here’s an example on the resilience of cities versus corporations: https://longnow.org/seminars/02011/jul/25/why-cities-keep-growing-corporations-always-die-and-life-gets-faster/ https://longnow.org/seminars/02011/jul/25/why-cities-keep-gr... Another example, from a longnow podcast, is the tendency of people to think of themselves as citizens of a particular city (I’m from San Francisco, I’m from Venice, I’m from Helsinki), perhaps even more so than a state/province or a nationality in some cases.
- tonymet 2y agoAnd makes you humble.
- rjsw 2y agoHow good is internet access there?
- tunesmith 2y agoThe brochure says "95% broadband", whatever that means.
- bee_rider 2y agoPresumably the last 5% is the bit that connects to your computer.
- CuriousCosmic 2y agoThat generally means most properties will have decent broadband/>25mbps internet, some will have ADSL <25mbps, and a few won't have internet or you'll have to run it to the property (costs a few thousand USD generally).
- speed_spread 2y agoThe missing 5% was stolen by copper thieves.
- xeromal 2y agoWith Starlink, this question is getting less important. Loads of my family in N. Georgia have started using it and it's crazy how much better it is than the local competition
- dfc 2y agoCumberland is equidistant (~2 hours) between Pittsburgh airport and Dulles.
- abduhl 2y agoI think this would be equitemporal rather than equidistant? Maybe isochronic? Isochronal? One of those…
- mdp2021 2y agoEquidistant in time. Edit: speak up, annoyant... "Distance" is "standing apart". It is not confined to space - in fact, the original meaning is that of "diverging in stances" (i.e. a quarrel), and the geometric one comes one century later. And there exist languages where speaking of "distance in time" is language in use - so, if in your neighborhood they don't speak this way, it is a problem of your neighborhood.
- klingoff 2y agoThey sound about the same, but "2 Hours to Dulles" would be the better name for the M Night Shyamalan movie.
- fragmede 2y ago2 Hours from Allegheny County would be a David Fincher flic.
- ApolloFortyNine 2y ago2 hours from a central hub I'd actually consider a plus. If you travel for work it's bad, but for any personal trip, skipping a connection is pretty valuable. Not just in time, but generally international / longer flights are higher priority, and are less likely to be randomly delayed or canceled.
- ghaff 2y agoI was on the far edge of relatively convenient airport access when I was working and traveling a lot (and, at some point, decided my employer was just going to pay for a private car whether they complained or not, which they didn't). Now I travel somewhat less but take fewer discrete trips so just pay my own transportation out of pocket.
- martinald 2y agoSeems like its 2hrs drive from Pittsburg and IAD airports?
- robotnikman 2y agoSounds like a place I wouldn't mind working if I can find a remote position again. I'm a big introvert, and I would like to move somewhere more greener (getting tired of living in the middle of a bland hot dessert)
- ghaff 2y agoAt some point, many people start thinking about things like access to good healthcare, various types of trades, ability to travel without it being a huge hassle, etc. Doesn't mean you need to live right around a big city but I doubt I would want every task or appointment to be a big undertaking.
- iancmceachern 2y agoHealthcare is huge. It's amazing how terrible access to good care is in many rural areas. It's something people often overlook but it's just so important.
- jen729w 2y agoHere in Australia people retire ‘down the coast’. For us that’s the stunning south of NSW. Look up Eden (yes, really, Eden). And then … they come back to the city. Because the older you are the more medical care you need, and there just aren’t enough doctors down there, or in any other regional area.
- killingtime74 2y agoMy parents are going to retire on the Gold coast for this reason. Quieter life but several big hospitals and Brisbane nearby
- whiterknight 2y agoAll the doctors want to live in LA and NY. This problem only gets worse as medical school, etc becomes more competitive and costly.
- scythe 2y agoThe area around Cumberland, mostly to the south towards Moorefield and Petersburg, WV, has a somewhat similar climate to the Tokaj region of Hungary, known for growing rare botrytized wines that sell for a fortune. I found this one day when I looked at the map of precipitation activity the US and saw an unexpected dry(ish) spot in northeastern West Virginia.
- alephnerd 2y agoThere's a decently sized saffron industry in that general region of the Appalachia and southern PA for the same reason.
- thelastparadise 2y agoNot to mention "incest" is a real word there. It is most definitely Appalachia, part of the dark underbelly. Drive down any number of the "hollars," and you'll see an active smokehouse, yard litter, and an (often abused) wife sitting on the porch. There are neighborhood kids endlessly circling the streets. An otherwise innocuous occurrence, however in this case the child is pushing 30 years old.