Is your small town losing it's charm? Why?

Answer 1

Too much traffic and tourists.

Answer 2

Because Walmart came in and the downtown died. The locally owned drugstore, grocery store and clothing stores were forced to close---they couldn't compete.
Also my small town is in Michigan and the economic situation has been terrible here for several years. The only decent paying factories have closed or drastically reduced their rate of pay and benefits. Since there are no jobs that pay a living wage the youth all leave as soon as they can. People left are those living on pensions which doesn't make for much of an economic base.
It does have a beautiful beach and the town is trying to develope a tourism industry, but again, those are low paying service jobs and don't add much to the economic base except for the few who own the hotels/motels/restaurants.

Answer 3

It sure is. Honda has built a large production facility in our area. Before they came along it was a quiet, quaint little community. Now the developers along with Honda's suppliers have moved in & are buying up the local farms for residential & comercial development. They are offering up to ten thousand dollars an acre for the land & a lot of the farmers who are nearing retirement are taking advantage of the opportunity. Our quiet rural roads are now laden with huge semi's & construction equipment at all hours of day & night. Some of the land being purchased is not scheduled for development for several years & in order to avoid paying huge taxes the developers are tearing down the houses & barns & leaving the land dormant. Many of these are the original homesteads in the area & have been family owned & operated for decades. To add to the blight, the main streets in the surrounding towns have become virtually abandoned as the likes of Walmart, MacDonalds & Home Hdwre. have built large malls on the outskirts of town. The politicians, like every where else have closed their ears to the concerns of the people & spend most of their time kissing corporate butt. All in the name of progress. Honda has created very few jobs in this area despite the growth. A recent published report from Honda states that 85% of the people they employ are from outside of this area which is a direct contradiction of their original promises.
What once was a scenic horizon is now factories & sub divisions. Our children now attend class in portable classrooms that take up most of the school yard space. Our roads are falling apart because of the heavy truck traffic. Last but not least the quaint little main street stores & shops are closing because they can't compete with the Big boys. It's changing our culture & our heritage all in the name of progress. So the next time you see a Honda don't think of it as a nice practical automobile. Rather think of it as a vehicle that is manufactured by a company that has virtually raped our countryside & stripped us of our innocence all in the name of corporate greed!!!!!

Answer 4

Where I come from, the small towns are merging together...'growth' has been the mantra, filling up with pockets full of tract homes, lots and lots of people moving in, developers have been having a field day. Consequently more traffic, faster traffic, 'small town' feel is going going gone...2 lanes into 4,
Wal-Mart on every corner...you don't have to travel anymore, just wait long enough, and Everytown will come to YOU...

Answer 5

Actually it is--2 years ago we got a Super Mal-Mart....now we're getting a Wal-Mart distribution center.
I have nothing against them, but they tend to bring commercial sprawl---and I'm a block away in what USED to be a peaceful tucked-away neighborhood.

Suddenly there's a Wendy's, a Blimpie's, a Papa Murphy's, a Quiznos, a Menard's and 2 banks within 2 blocks.
I'm sure the liquor stores & gas stations are on the way.
(sigh......)

Answer 6

Small towns are losing their people to larger cities. The American population is increasingly living in the country's largest cities.

Answer 7

It hasn't yet but when Home Depot moves in with its many deliveries and day laborers our town will go down hill fast.

Answer 8

Yes, because building developers insist on selling off land in small little pieces and putting huge houses on them just so they can make more money.

Answer 9

When we live in planet of apes.
What do we expect the apes to do?
Look aound at our communication problems?
When you raise an issues they say it is sensitive.
When we want to hilight the blunders and slip-ups with human errors.
They want to continue in living in misery surviving and running on batteries in planet of apes.
Look at the children why we always have to "Wind me up and let me go" in planet of apes.
Should try and decode this lyrics "it's up to you"

Answer 10

I think so.
I moved from the city. They are blaming others like me as well as Walmart. But they have mixed feeling because now they are getting employment.

Answer 11

Yup and it's cuz of all the new folks moving in. If we could just kill 'em off faster than they move in we could git back to having a normal town again.