About half counties in US losing population

Quote: gamerfreak

Feels like they all came to Chester County. There are massive apartment complexes going up everywhere. Traffic is terrible, and it’s impossible to go out for breakfast on a Sunday morning without a 2hr wait.

126,629 - 1930 Chester county
524,989 - 2019 Chester county

235,505 - 1930 Schuylkill county
141,359 - 2019 Schuylkill county

The counties are ~ 60 miles apart.

Everyone must live in the metro areas. You would think with computers and internet somebody would want to live in the country.



Population growth in PA strongly mirrors the Appalachian Regional Commission map .

Quote: Pacomartin

Everyone must live in the metro areas. You would think with computers and internet somebody would want to live in the country.

Living week to week, sometimes in populated areas, sometimes out in the middle of nowhere.
Out in the middle of nowhere, takeout sucks. Quality is lacking. Sometimes have to drive 45min for good takeout. That's my gripe.
Bottom line, life is generally more convenient in populated areas.
Was talking to a family from Wyoming in the campground
Asked what there was to do in the area
Teen daughter said there is nothing in the whole state.
Everybody chuckled.

Quote: gamerfreak

Feels like they all came to Chester County. There are massive apartment complexes going up everywhere. Traffic is terrible, and it’s impossible to go out for breakfast on a Sunday morning without a 2hr wait.

My experience is that you can get in to almost any restaurant when they open. If I go out to breakfast it is no later than 6am. The wife would prefer 9am but if she wants to go with me it will be by 6am. 9am is almost lunch time. I also generally only eat one meal a day.

I think the question is why should all the population growth be in Chester, Montgomery and Bucks county and 30 miles outside of Chester County population is diminishing for the last 90 years.

If there was population they could build restaurants that would provide take out.

Quote: Pacomartin

Everyone must live in the metro areas. You would think with computers and internet somebody would want to live in the country.

It doesn't end up working that way. Here is an example, my boss was always on me to move our office from Rochester to Batavia to be better able to capture both Buffalo and Rochester markets. We could never capture Buffalo not being there. I always explained that if we "moved to the middle" we would just lose both markets.

Same with jobs. Maybe half the jobs lend themselves to remote work. The rest you have to get to the location.

Quote: AZDuffman

It doesn't end up working that way. Here is an example, my boss was always on me to move our office from Rochester to Batavia to be better able to capture both Buffalo and Rochester markets. We could never capture Buffalo not being there. I always explained that if we "moved to the middle" we would just lose both markets.

Same with jobs. Maybe half the jobs lend themselves to remote work. The rest you have to get to the location.

It’s amazing how many times I have seen this tried and fail.

No one who lives in a city wants to commute to the suburbs.

Quote: AZDuffman

It doesn't end up working that way.

I'm actually smart enough to realize that I am talking about a fantasy.

It comes up with airline flights all the time. You have an airport that is jammed to capacity where they must spend billions of dollars in improvements, and a few miles away there are practically goats that wander onto the empty runways.

After deregulation in 1978 the government dreamed of building airports in rural locations where land was dirt cheap and you could build as many runways as you wanted. The idea was to stop people from flying to an overcrowded hub like Chicago Airport just to change planes when their destination was not Chicago. The concept was a complete disaster.

Quote: Pacomartin

After deregulation in 1978 the government dreamed of building airports in rural locations where land was dirt cheap and you could build as many runways as you wanted. The idea was to stop people from flying to an overcrowded hub like Chicago Airport just to change planes when their destination was not Chicago. The concept was a complete disaster.

The problem in this one is that the connection happens because the connection is based on people who do want to get to Chicago. OTOH, LUV has shown that it does work, they are usually happy to take slots and gates in the secondary airports. JBLU has followed this strategy to a lesser extent. FWIW, I have heard those two could merge someday.

Say we flatten half of Gary, IN to build an airport. Well, it has been flattened already, lets just build the airport. Nobody wants to fly to Gary (lefties on here, read "nobody" critically not literally.) So I am flying Pittsburgh to Las Vegas. Connection in Gary, lets call it 200 passengers on a 737. And lets say 19 other passengers want to go to LAS as it is a tourist place. 180 other people going to how many other places? You would end up having to have 2-3 "dumps" a day, lots of planes landing, then 2-3 hours while people get to the other planes.

This is sort of a "break box" terminal but for humans. Just will not happen.

I am still upset that I can't get a direct flight from Las Vegas to Ft Myers Florida. Las Vegas has an incredible number of direct flights but of course not to where I want to go. Ft. Myers has a legitimate airport and I doubt there are many busier ones that don't fly direct to Vegas.

Quote: DRich

I am still upset that I can't get a direct flight from Las Vegas to Ft Myers Florida. Las Vegas has an incredible number of direct flights but of course not to where I want to go. Ft. Myers has a legitimate airport and I doubt there are many busier ones that don't fly direct to Vegas.

Allegiant Air does not fly to RSW, but they fly to Punta Gorda (PGD) which is 30 miles away.

Allegiant didn't use to fly more than 2000 miles on a segment, but they recently put a flight into to BWI, so there is always a possibility that they will begin to fly to FLORIDA.

LAS-BWI 2,106 mi
LAS-PGD 2,045 mi

Spirit flies from Vegas to Fort Lauderdale and/or Tampa. Tampa is about 100 miles away. The drive may take less time than doing an airport transfer.