Do you live in a small town? How is this financial crisis impacting you and/or your town?

[Mike 03]

[ColbertWatcher]

1. I live in LA so I shouldn't vote in this, but kick and rec for a good question! n/t

[graywarrior]

2. North Conway NH has multiple closings of retail stores

Ski industry is doing ok. I'm looking for a job and can't find one where I live so I may need to move south to MA

[doc03]

3. We have been in financial stress for decades here,

we are used to it. Seems like the biggest stress factor here is my racist SOB neighbors worrying about all the money Obama is giving away to blacks.

[Betsy Ross]

4. Small SF Bay Area city of 75k

We are now having "brown outs" with rotating reduced staff at fire stations. Library hours have been cut back. Our school district is about 5 million dollars short. Local food bank has seen a massive increase in need. A whole lot more people riding bikes around town. Talk to any restuarant owner; they are hurting. I'm cooking at home every night but Thursday when we splurge on cheese sandwiches from the local Italian deli for $11; I still have to prepare a vegetable course to go with them.

[Mari333]

5. no jobs,shops closing, storefronts empty

complete stoppage of homebuilding, condos..everything has stopped. my friend is a reporter in town and she is doing a story on the businesses in town and it aint looking good. the chamber of commerce and realtors and businesses were having a boom town boom when the shit hit the fan. this is a huge tourist town. well, it is now emptying out. 2000 local residents left in the last year and there are only 5000 of the locals left. the tourists are the only way this town makes money. that means this town counts on discretionary spending, which will probably not happen this summer. if you dont have a good summer here, you dont make it thru the winter.
and there are more empty storefronts then i have ever seen.
ya its michigan too.

[likesmountains 52]

6. I live in a small (20,000 or so ) town that is the biggest town for about 200

or more miles in any direction. Our economy depends a lot on tourists in both winter and summer. Our sales tax collections were down 3.5% in January and the city is planning some budget cuts. Our school district is going to lay off some teachers because of declining enrollment. I don't know the real estate figures but the paper is full of "executive ranches" for sale and several homes in my modest neighborhood have been for sale for months. I work at the hospital and while we haven't had any lay offs yet, they are not hiring any new people and in the last 2 weeks my inpatient unit alone overstaffed ( scheduled nurses told to stay home or go home early) 320 HOURS..some people are getting only half of their shifts. Fewer people are coming to the hospital, elective procedures have gone way down and the hospital's corporate investments are tanking like every ones. A manger from another unit told his staff that there are at least 3 hospital employees living in their cars...it is going to be 12 degrees here tonight. Most people I know are putting off home repairs etc. and holding on to whatever job and money they have. Hope this helps..wish I could report better news. And I just remembered that there were 5 or 6 foreclosure notices in the paper today which I had not noticed before.

[Maru Kitteh]

7. The few manufacturing jobs that were left are falling away. And when GM gues under, so will we.

The only sizable factory left makes valves for GM exclusively. They've already cut about 100 jobs, but really, I think they're just delaying the inevitable.

[LiberalPersona]

8. I haven't personally

seen much impact here, except for slightly risen food prices and some places doing layoffs.

[tabbycat31]

9. I do live in a small town

and this time of the year (well since the official collapse) is the slow time anyways. I live in a beach community, and there's not too much activity here between Labor Day and Memorial Day.

Ask me this question when the summer comes.

[pipi_k]

15. Yeah, beach locations are tricky...

I live in a place that has pretty much year round tourist attractions...nearby ski areas for winter, then there are museums, camping, hiking, and Tanglewood for the summer.


So we don't have industry, but we do depend on the tourist trade...

[tabbycat31]

17. ditto

100% of our local economy is dependent on tourism. And people wondered why I was so opposed to offshore oil drilling?

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. It is severe here.

At least 10% of all workers in the county have lost their jobs in the last 6 months... and this is a county which already has chronic unemployment.

[AlinPA]

11. Food pantry lines are longer. Running out of food there.

[ogneopasno]

12. No major changes because we're in an economically precarious position anyway...we've seen it before,

and we'll see it again. ("We" as in "the small town I live near.")

[scarletwoman]

13. I live 20 miles outside of the nearest small town. The grocery store is still open, but I see fewer

cars in the parking lot than there used to be.

I work at the local Tribal casino, and I've had my hours cut from 40 (with occasional overtime) to 32 hours per week. Luckily, my expenses are fairly low, so I'll probably manage. I still have my health care benefits.

Mainly, I just want to be able to hang on 'til spring. I'll definitely put in a vegetable garden this year -- I have 10 acres of potentionally arable land. Next deer hunting season I guess I'll get a license. I've avoided hunting up to now, but it may be foolish not to take advantage going forward.

sw

[pipi_k]

14. I live in the rural outskirts of a village...

There's no industry here except for one company that never looks like it's in operation. Some people have businesses down in the village, in neighboring towns, and others work in larger cities/towns some 20 miles away.

Existing homes are going up for sale left and right. Some people have tried, and failed, to sell their homes. Others have sold their homes with no problem at all. It's pretty arbitrary what will sell. Some homes worth more than 450,000 have sold right away, others at half that price have languished for months, unsold.

On my road, there was one new home built, another in the process of building, and two more that are adding on to existing structures. We added a sunroom in 2005.

So things aren't great here, but for a small village, they aren't exactly bad, either.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. Yes, but it all happened a LONG time ago.

East Texas, 1200 people.

The last local grocery store went belly up in 2004. There used to be 2 grocery stores here.

Wallyworld wiped out just about all the local businesses. That happened back in the early 1990s.

There are two small restaurants here and a Subway sandwich store. Our other franchise is a DOLLAR GENERAL. There are 2 banks, one hardware store, and a farm/ranch store that used to be the local farmers Co-Op.

I drive 15 or 20 miles twice a week to buy groceries. I can get junk food at the 3 gas stations/Stop/n/Robs, but can't get real butter, or organic milk, or anything like decent produce or meat.