It seems like you’re making a lot of assumptions about this community.
—They want to live in group houses
—They don’t want to drive or own a car
—They don’t want to live in places with cold weather
—They don’t want to live in places with Confederate flags or lenient gun laws
You probably know this community a lot better than I do, but to what extent are these known facts vs. assumptions? Would it be worth doing some surveying to verify them?
It’s possible that some of what you observe, e.g. people living in group houses and not driving, is a function of circumstance and cost of living rather than people’s true preferences.
(1) My guess is that not all of the people who currently live in group houses would do so if rent were lower and they could live close to their friends anyway. However, I do know quite a few people who actively prefer group living situations, and a prohibition on such living arrangements would be a big negative for them. You could plausibly get around this by e.g. just renting every unit in an apartment building. These are all reasons why these laws are a major consideration but not a dealbreaker.
(2) My main claims were that it’s really difficult to build community in sparsely populated areas, and that driving cars is dangerous. I think these are both pretty well-supported, and that they matter a lot regardless of anyone’s personal preferences around driving / owning a car.
(3) Mostly anecdotal. I personally don’t mind cold weather, but it is kind of annoying to have to be shut in your house for half the year. And I think even those of us from cold climates have acclimated to California’s temperate weather, such that it would be somewhat unpleasant to go back.
I did start trying to make a survey on this sort of info once, and for me it quickly became unmanageably big, like it would have had over a hundred questions and would require lots of iteration loops with users. I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out how far from a major city people would be able to live, with lots of questions about earning, earning potential, openness and ability to do remote work, etc.
Probably someone else will figure out a clever smaller survey worth making though. (I’d be happy to give comments on any draft surveys people make.)
It seems like you’re making a lot of assumptions about this community.
—They want to live in group houses
—They don’t want to drive or own a car
—They don’t want to live in places with cold weather
—They don’t want to live in places with Confederate flags or lenient gun laws
You probably know this community a lot better than I do, but to what extent are these known facts vs. assumptions? Would it be worth doing some surveying to verify them?
It’s possible that some of what you observe, e.g. people living in group houses and not driving, is a function of circumstance and cost of living rather than people’s true preferences.
(1) My guess is that not all of the people who currently live in group houses would do so if rent were lower and they could live close to their friends anyway. However, I do know quite a few people who actively prefer group living situations, and a prohibition on such living arrangements would be a big negative for them. You could plausibly get around this by e.g. just renting every unit in an apartment building. These are all reasons why these laws are a major consideration but not a dealbreaker.
(2) My main claims were that it’s really difficult to build community in sparsely populated areas, and that driving cars is dangerous. I think these are both pretty well-supported, and that they matter a lot regardless of anyone’s personal preferences around driving / owning a car.
(3) Mostly anecdotal. I personally don’t mind cold weather, but it is kind of annoying to have to be shut in your house for half the year. And I think even those of us from cold climates have acclimated to California’s temperate weather, such that it would be somewhat unpleasant to go back.
(4) An assumption, I guess. Feels right though.
Good points overall, thanks!
Driving a car is actually very safe. You can expect to drive a car full-time for 100 years before suffering a lethal accident.
I agree that focusing on urban areas makes sense. By definition, an area with high population is attractive to lots of people.
I did start trying to make a survey on this sort of info once, and for me it quickly became unmanageably big, like it would have had over a hundred questions and would require lots of iteration loops with users. I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out how far from a major city people would be able to live, with lots of questions about earning, earning potential, openness and ability to do remote work, etc.
Probably someone else will figure out a clever smaller survey worth making though. (I’d be happy to give comments on any draft surveys people make.)
Lot’s of people in the community have seasonal affective disorder (see e.g. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/hC2NFsuf5anuGadFm/how-to-build-a-lumenator), so that would lead me to expect people would want to live in places with more sunlight, which tend to not have cold weather.