Yeah I tend to talk about it a lot here. But this is a progressive site and my town is pretty progressive.
The town isn't perfect. A majority of us somehow voted for Trump.
You may be thinking those two things don't comput. But some smart people on Daily Kos once told me when you live in a town that is 97.8% white according to the 2010 Census, well we don't mind voting in an election to raise our taxes because we are giving US not THEM stuff. More truth to that comment then I care to admit.
Since Trump was elected it seems the news media can't stop doing stories on "fly over" country. Of little rural towns that had better days.
I wonder why a news crew doesn't come to where I live and say, this is what is possible. Great, even grand things are possible.
As you pull into town we have a sign that says "Population 5,700." Willing to bet the 2020 Census will show we have more than doubled in size. We can't build houses fast enough. Cause funny thing people like nice things and we have a lot of nice things!
Walk a few block in any direction and we have parks. Often with a baseball field and a soccer pitch. I have a skate board park. Ponder I have a skate board park for a few please ……..
With Obama's reinvestment act we got a ton of money from the Feds and matching funds from the state and I have a fiber optics backbone, all schools and public buildings (City Hall/Post Office/Library) wired. My town is in the process of figuring out how to offer free WiFi city wide.
Multiple families that live within a household or two of me have moved here in the last 5 or so years. Usually from a county or two away. Ask them why and they, with more than a few kids, say the same thing. Your schools. We are the 19th ranked school district in the state. All the other schools on the list are in gated communities. We don't have gates. Heck I know my neighbors and we don't even lock our front doors. No crime. None.
My city through a co-op of other smaller towns provides me power. Also water. I am single, no kids. My bill last month for a five bedroom house was $92 for power, water, sewer. My city setup a city wide contract with Waste Management. I pay $28/quarter for trash and recycling. It doesn't even cost a lot to live here. Oh I have mentioned taxes, I have the lowest local tax rate for like states in any direction. Local. IL does hit me kind of hard.
Back to schools. Bruised a few ribs. Lot of pain. Have a kid that lives around the block mowing my lawn for a few weeks until I heal. A family that moved here from a few counties over because of the schools and the town in general. I asked him, Domonic is 16, if the school had guards and metal dectators after the recent school shootings.
He is like nope. None of that. Did I mention in a town that voted 53% for McCain over Obama (I am in IL darn it) we voted 67% to raise our taxes to build a new high school. lt is like something from the future. From when the vote was approved it was built in weeks not years. Where the old high school was, in front of the new one, we did kid of a green, hippie liberal thing. Made another huge park with walking paths and wild grass/flowers like used to grow here before we plowed it all under to grow the feed corn, wheat, and soy beans much of this country eats.
When my parents saw it they were like "can't they afford to mow the lawn." I am like LOL dad. It is supposed to be that way.
I could go on and on. All our police cars are hybrid. Heck we got a food truck in town. I had joked to a lady around the corner, African American raised in New York, that a Trump talking head had gone on TV and said if we keep letting Mexicans into our nation there will be a taco truck on every corner. We were like that would be cool. I told her we have a taco truck in town. She grabbed her wallet and we went and ate a lot of tacos.
We are also adding jobs not by the dozens but the hundreds. In the last year alone Boeing and Monsanto set-up shop. Not either of my favorite businesses. But job. Jobs with benefits.