Remember When

I was there, in W NY, last year and it
was depressing. The roads are bad,
half the businesses in the small towns
are boarded up, everything is in the
strip malls now. I wondered what
people do for a living because there
seemed to be no big industries.

Face, because you live there you probably
don't see all the ads on TV for the tax incentives
NY is giving new businesses. I believe
it's no state taxes for 10 years as well as
other perks. They're desperate, they
have taxed themselves to the brink of
collapse.

Face, maybe you could build one of those tiny houses, put it in the back of your property, move in, and rent out your house for a year?

Quote: Face

Something is going on. I know a guy, came from the UK. He was sent here to open a plant down in the Dunkirk area. Some sort of recycling; I know one thing they do is melt down TV screens to remove whatever is in them so they can reuse the glass. It's kind of a big operation. Additionally, I heard some solar company is coming to Buffalo and a few thousand positions were opening. It all just makes me wonder "what's the catch?" I figure it's gotta be some subsidy or something. Businesses flee NY. Maybe they haven't heard yet.

Some places get some activity. Buffalo has some kind of tablet computer plant going. GEICO went there. But Buffalo is the big city. There are always a small few things happening. But having lived in other places, hard to explain, but the mentality is different. People just accepting how bad it is.

Quote:

I don't completely understand, because I only know here. But I can tell when I talk to people that something is wrong. So many of my classmates making so many moves - one is going to be featured on Vanilla Ice's home improvement show. He makes things out of concrete, like bathroom vanities and kitchen counters. Real high class stuff. He's just about to head to Hawaii for an install. But even regular grunts seem to find this here or that there. I guess that in part added to my positivity when I told the casino to go pound sand. I'm capable, I'll just find something else... and we all know how that's been going.

I will use the example I always use, my own job search. In Rochester if you were out of work 3 interviews was a big week. You might be telling people when you only had one. In Phoenix in one week I had 19! One offer came within an hour of the application, another time the phone rang less than a minute of when I sent the email. 19 in a week--I had to for real put in 8-10 hour days of applications and interviews.

Quote:

That blurb about the heroin is real, too. They just found another dead in their home about 3/4 mile away from me. Lost a classmate and a cousin within 20 days of each other back around June. Guy I used to manage at the truck stop last month. It's just about weekly when either someone you know or a friend of someone you know falls to it. Bad times here in WNY.

Heroin is the silent epidemic in the USA. It is the suburban housewife drug of choice for now. Once thought of as a ****** drug it is now quietly mainstream. Out west where they have tar heroin I bet it is even worse.

Quote: AZDuffman

Heroin is the silent epidemic in the USA.

Somebody forgot to tell the last couple generations that heroin has always had a particularly bad reputation in all recent usages of the century. And well-deserved, IMO.

Maybe it wouldn't if people were buying known and consistent dosages.

Quote: AZDuffman

Heroin is the silent epidemic in the USA. It is the suburban housewife drug of choice for now. Once thought of as a ****** drug it is now quietly mainstream. Out west where they have tar heroin I bet it is even worse.

In 2013 alone, more than 8,200 Americans died of heroin overdoses. Most of them took that as a deadly combination with other drugs — most often cocaine. The death toll has skyrocketed in recent years. It's up from 1,800 in 2001, according to a report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/07/07/420874860/heroin-use-surges-especially-among-women-and-whites

I had no idea!

Quote: Evenbob

I was there, in W NY, last year and it
was depressing. The roads are bad,
half the businesses in the small towns
are boarded up, everything is in the
strip malls now. I wondered what
people do for a living because there
seemed to be no big industries.

And J-town, at least the outskirts, is sort of happening. Well, at least happening for these parts. Southern Tier Brewery sure had no problem coming to be and being worth $1XX,XXX,XXX. And the Chautauqua wine region is world renown. The lake brings in a lot of summer people, and there's a lot of history there. Home of Lucille Ball ;) I suppose I would consider it "the best of the worst". That's the very outer rim of what I would consider my territory. I surely wouldn't trek there daily for no $10 an hour, but I would if the price is right. Sad to say that area is about as good as it gets, and you've been there. That's our best.

Quote: EB

Face, because you live there you probably
don't see all the ads on TV for the tax incentives
NY is giving new businesses. I believe
it's no state taxes for 10 years as well as
other perks. They're desperate, they
have taxed themselves to the brink of
collapse.

I knew it had to be something. I'm kinda surprised they haven't hopped on the vice wagon, especially being as Blue as it is here. No casinos, no weed, what are they waiting for?

Quote: rxwine

Face, maybe you could build one of those tiny houses, put it in the back of your property, move in, and rent out your house for a year?

Lol, I've had my eye on those. Have you seen inside? There is no word to describe the use of space other than "amazing".



That's one hell of a fancy deer camp ;) I could easily do a month, I think I'd be fine over a year. But with the kid? Impossible.

Quote: AZDuffman

Some places get some activity. Buffalo has some kind of tablet computer plant going. GEICO went there. But Buffalo is the big city. There are always a small few things happening. But having lived in other places, hard to explain, but the mentality is different. People just accepting how bad it is.

In my case, it's not acceptance. This is all I've known. Think, I was born in '80. The glue factory I mentioned was already shutting down. The grain silos of Buffalo were empty. I do remember some activity at Bethlehem Steel and the coke furnaces; everyone around here remembers when Lackawanna smelled like fart every minute of every day. But it wasn't bumpin'. It was in its death throes already. Most of the work had already ceased.

I've never known Buffalo as a powerhouse. I've never seen the barges coming and going, or trains coming in around the clock, or had any steel men or Ford men in my family or in my circle. All I've known is dilapidated buildings. All I've known is tragic sports teams. I have been crafted since birth to recognize losing as life. I mean, really. I suppose that may play a part in why I'm so anti-urban. People may talk about vibrant this and inspiring that. To me, urban = filth. I even said it in one of my hockey reports, when we got lost in Detroit. People talk about Detroit as if its a disaster zone. When I went there, other than the names of the roads, I found it to just about mirror Buffalo. It felt completely normal to me.

Ranting again, lol. It's whatever. I'll find a way.

Quote: Face

In my case, it's not acceptance. This is all I've known.

Kind of reminds me of a Dolly Parton quote. When she was growing up she wanted to be like the fanciest lady in her town. That small town place was all she ever knew.

(The fanciest lady happened to be the town prostitute.)

Quote: Face

In my case, it's not acceptance. This is all I've known. Think, I was born in '80. The glue factory I mentioned was already shutting down. The grain silos of Buffalo were empty. I do remember some activity at Bethlehem Steel and the coke furnaces; everyone around here remembers when Lackawanna smelled like fart every minute of every day. But it wasn't bumpin'. It was in its death throes already. Most of the work had already ceased.

What you are saying is what I mean by "acceptance." It was always the same here. Always hope that some such and such would recharge the blast furnace and get the mill going. I think one place got their cold mill going again, that is is. (For those who do not know, a "cold mill" just rolls and finishes steel, with a blast furnace you can make it from scratch.) I could take you to places here that you have no idea why they stay around. Places named for coke batteries closed over 100 years ago. Who puts the word "Furnace" in a town name?

Quote:

To me, urban = filth.

Urban is coming back. The next generation wants dense living. The suburbs are what will die next.

Quote: rxwine

Face, maybe you could build one of those tiny houses, put it in the back of your property, move in, and rent out your house for a year?

You wanna come out here a build me one, Face? :)

fleastiff's inane comments on a variety of topics:

tiny house movement/teardrop trailers/etc. .. they even have some tiny house motels and tiny house campgrounds.

urban/rural/suburban? ... rural poor seems okay but suburban poor is distant from county offices and work halls.

Heroin overdoses and death.... real difficult to achieve most "overdoses" are really reactions to contaminants.

I don't know why rural people are selling heroin, the money is in the production and transportatios, not use of junk.