OT: Yards and yard work

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

Yeah, our mayors around here are all about "growth".  They want to "grow" the cities.  I guess they're after more tax dollars.  But more people mean more need for housing, more destruction of wild areas,  more use of resources, more fire/police needed....

And when will it stop?  When does all this growth stop?  Because if it doesn't, we end up with a fully paved planet.  And if it does, nobody is prepared to deal with more of a steady state - ALL budgets are based on such "growth".

I have pondered this for decades.

[Frank B.]

Yeah, our mayors around here are all about "growth".  They want to "grow" the cities.  I guess they're after more tax dollars.  But more people mean more need for housing, more destruction of wild areas,  more use of resources, more fire/police needed....

And when will it stop?  When does all this growth stop?  Because if it doesn't, we end up with a fully paved planet.  And if it does, nobody is prepared to deal with more of a steady state - ALL budgets are based on such "growth".

I have pondered this for decades.

https://nationalland.com/blog/how-is-land-used-in-america-a-look-at-u-s-land-ownership/

Interesting article, the key point for me is that developed land in the US makes up 5.74% of the total.  Some friends and I had a debate about this, but it was all about local fears of development and I understand that.  They clear an area down the street from you to develop a housing tract or put in a shopping mall with parking it is personal and we get upset about it.  However, we are all mostly living in a home on land that was cleared for that purpose and we drive to the mall and park in a parking lot that was also cleared for that purpose. So can we deny that for others? Or how much is too much?

I recently read John Sandford's latest book, "Toxic Prey" which is a fictional account of a small group of people who had concluded that the earth was dying as a result of overpopulation.  They took an existing virus that was ten times as fatal as covid but not very contagious and "merged" it with the measles virus which is one of the most contagious.  They had a plan to take it to airports all over and and release it for maximum spread.  Their goal was to kill off half the population on earth.  Frightening book.

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

5.7% now, and how fast are we growing?  And how much of the total land is even livable?

That doesn't change the fact that we don't, overall, add wild lands and environments.  We take them away.

Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" novel starts from the same premise.  Definitely frightening.

[noelH]

One issue up here is apparently "better" paying jobs. It is assumed that means manufacturing and resource extraction. In the past it was. Historically the towns in this area were manufacturing and resource extraction based. Population was denser than today. But then things changed. Most the timber was cut. Mills started closing down. All the commercially profitable  brownstone quarries closed. Over fishing and invasive significantly reduced commercial fishing. DuPont closed down. Populations dropped. Boom times were over. Slow evolution to tourist based economy.

Doubt if they can attract any "better" paying jobs envisioned by some. Decades ago Sony considered a CD manufacturing facility. They ended up selecting an area in the Pacific NW. Doubt if it is still around. A high tech company looked at establishing a manufacturing facility up here. One issue was lack of local workforce that could fill the companies need. I think they selected a site somewhere in S.D. Doubt if that company is around. They did R&D and manufacturing components for Blackberry,Nokia, Motorola.... Imagine the economic impact in an area with such a small population when a major company closes down.

It seems like every other major  Federal agency has a significant presence here. USCG, USDA, BIA, USGS, .... Then add the State and Local government employees. "Better" for some are manufacturing, resource extraction.  Not what some consider the "low" paying service sector jobs. They note the housekeeping, food, yard service tourist based workers that tend to be seasonal and lower paying v. the small manufacturing, skilled trades.  Have a feeling nothing unique to most other rural areas of America. It is just the way rural economies are.

Plus side of our tourist based economy has been. Never really any boom times, but never really any big bust times.  During the recession. Little impact on the number of tourist. During the Pandemic it was a mini-boom time. Maybe why at least in the City of Bayfield the population significantly grew, median household incomes exploded along the median price of a house.  Spill over to the rural areas close to town.

[noelH]

Waiting for Elon to build a XAI facility in the town across the Bay. Guessing it would create "good" paying jobs. Green washing, granola city. The town that has an undersized waste water treatment system. End result has been too often raw sewage and storm water run off into L.Superior.

The probably under utilized giant coal, tire, and wood chip power plant that has been on the lake front since 1916 could be a source of electricity. Also sending coal dust and in the past by products of the burnt coal into the Lake. Today they spray the piles of coal, wood chips, and/or shredded tires with something that smells like vinegar to control the dust or maybe spontaneous combustion. Most of the current power production is probably heading south along the high powered transmission line running from the plant. Guessing plenty of reserve generating capacity based on the variation of exhaust coming from the stacks. We joke it must be real hot in Chicago when all the stacks are exhausting whatever.

I'm a NIMBY. A XAI plant would be out of sight and out of mind until the whiff of power plant exhaust hits us. Right now unless the town does a sewage dump you only notice a light dome in the distance from their excessive use of night lighting. My Bortle 2 night sky is now Bortle 3.  Mostly due to that town. Population is shrinking, but it is getting brighter at night.

[Norm L.]

Small money likes rural. Big money likes urban as there are customers to justify investment.
Big money also likes minerals. Or cheap land that produces money. Pasture, particularly on Federal land. Timber.

Little can get by without water supply. There is a lot of land but finite amounts of water. I remember way back the oil rich but dry countries were working up plans to calve ice bergs and tow them "home" for fresh water. Desalination may be expensive but there is a lot of saltwater. Except the Great Salt Lake.

Then there are the builders and their buyers of coastal and flood plain homes. Their problem is too much water. And being permitted to build along beaches or rivers that had past histories of flooding or storm surge.

I have a friend Naval Architect who retired and built a home on a shoreline. He is analytical. (I've mentioned him here before on his work with AC boats and the winning Stars & Stripes.)

He studied weather histories, on hurricanes that hit the area, then had a scary and expensive amount of soil brought in so his home was raised. He has his own well and generator system (he's put so many into boats it's a given). The home was built to high hurricane standards. The only downside is if he is still there after a storm but there are no stores or hospitals for months.

Water giveth and water taketh away.

[noelH]

Yard work never ends on the 40.  Today a bit of deforestation to enhance global warming though a few grams less of carbon dioxide utilized by the trees knocked down.  Also, added exhaust from the ancient ICE chainsaw.
Ended the session by flooding the motor. Two ways of "easily" starting a flooded 2 cycle chainsaw. 1. Close the choke fool (how I flooded the motor) and hold down the throttle to max while pulling and pulling the cord. 2. Just quit and eventually open up the case to access and pull the spark plug and pull, pull... Someone noted you can also just remove the air filter and open up the butterfly valve and I have forgotten the next step...

I just quit and went into the house for a hot cup of tea.  Now here and ignoring the problem. That is even easier or lazy?