resettling the Highlands

["Rob Cohn" <robc@hfx.andara.com>]

 

ah yes, back to the rural areas through technology...quite a theory...

 

    we have been workshopping this theory in Nova Scotia...we are intimitely familiar with Scatterings, as opposed to Clearances (although the Brits initially did a pretty thorough job with the Acadians back in 1755). The #1 export of Atlantic Canada has long been human beings...

 

    Since we embarked on a technology program in our rural areas, the traditional jobs in fishing, coal mining, and steel making have disappeared. The net result, aside from any intention, is that Halifax has grown in a decade from 35 to as much as 45% of the provincial population, and towns are still going down the tubes.

 

    I have one simple observation that to my mind explains this: Technology jobs are the domain of the young and the restless and the technologically apt. Generally, these are younger people. They want lights, and music, and people, and energy, and action that is found only in the cities.

 

    The people who are actually returning to rural areas (in not insignificant numbers) are:

 

1) People who moved away sometime in the past 30 years, have kids, can find skilled work or start something. They sell their $400,000 home in the bigger cities, buy something on the water for 50, put in a deck, a garden, 4 more rooms, and an extra garage for the 4-wheel drive they'll need half the year to get out of the driveway - and they're set. The kids get decent education and not too many people shoot at them...randomly at any rate...

 

or

 

2) People over 60 who come for a quieter life, to be around family, to be in a community, who come basically, to die in peace...

 

 

    so my thesis is that positive effects of technology on rural population trends are more than a generation away...

            (barring an act of God, or really really good marketing)

 

            and all I'm saying is don't hang your hat on repopulation...it is a worthy goal, but it is down a long road...

 

           But I have looked at several spots in this province and thought: what a splendid place to build a city...

 

                                    thoroughly enjoyed all of the weekend's discussions,

                                                                                                        rob

                                                                                                        halifax