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March 6, 2006

Talking 'bout Vermont

The New York Times has an article on the migration of young people out of Vermont. If you're a Vermonter (even temporarily), you should read it.

I'm interested in the article for a few reasons.

1) Technology

UVM Economics professor Arthur Woolf (who occupies the office 1 floor directly below mine here in scenic Old Mill Building) is featured prominently in the article. He explains the decline in people moving to Vermont seen in the 1960s, 70s and 80s thusly:

"If you live in New York or Boston and you want to get away from it all, these days it's just as cheap to fly out to Boise, Idaho, or Montana," Professor Woolf said.

Now, I'm not sure I can agree with this, given the current state of the airline industry and the high price of fuel, but there's something else we could take from his point -- rather than looking at tourists, why not focus on permanent residents? The rise in telecommuters makes this demographic an important one to consider.

Our friends Joe and Joe (one of whom blogs) are both consultants. They moved to Vermont because they both could work anywhere and they wanted to get out of DC. They have offices in their fabulous antique farmhouse and now the only real difference is that they fly to various client locations from Burlington Airport instead of from Dulles or National.

Joe and Joe would seem to be ideal examples of the type of people Vermont should be trying to attract, and yet the telecommuting sword cuts both ways.

As Jennifer Black (formerly of Walden, Vt., now in Stoneham, Mass.) explains:

"When I'm up there visiting [Vermont], I think I would love to live up there," said Ms. Black, 36. "The air's so fresh." But, she added, "you have to drive half an hour to a grocery store. I can walk to a grocery store from here. There's a place where my kids can take swimming lessons readily available here."

If you could telecommute to your job from anywhere, where would that be? Would you want to move to the country, to the city, to the suburbs, to Europe?

And given how ridiculously expensive the cost of living is up here, why would anyone do that to themselves?

On the other hand, if telecommuting within Vermont ever caught on (and I'm not holding my breath for that), it could substantially reduce the housing shortage and super-inflated housing costs in Chittenden County, while also reducing traffic congestion on Vermont's inadequate roads. Of course, this wouldn't solve the problem of isolation right away. It would take time to distribute the population more evenly over the state, which may increase the number of conveniences and social opportunities in areas outside of Burlington.

2) Rhetoric

Four examples of rhetoric in action (or rhetorical inaction -- you make the call).

Example 1:

While Vermont's population of young people shrinks, the number of older residents is multiplying because Vermont increasingly attracts retirees from other states. It is now the second-oldest state, behind Maine. Arthur Woolf, an economist at the University of Vermont, said that by 2030, there would be only two working-age Vermonters for every retiree.

The back-to-the-land influx of the 1960's, 70's and 80's, which once had Vermont growing faster than the country as a whole, has dissipated, Professor Woolf said. Vermont may have lost some cachet for the people often referred to as "flatlanders."

I've never lived anywhere as disdainful of everyone else as Vermont. (That's saying a lot -- I'm from Texas, where "<3 NY? Take I-30 East" bumper stickers are still plentiful.) Between the compulsive need to identify oneself as an Nth-generation Vermonter (and really, why would you listen to anyone whose family hasn't been in Vermont for at least 3 generations?) to establish credibility and the colorful phrase "flatlander" (meaning everyone else, even though Rocky Mountain states have many more, and much higher mountains than Vermont), if I didn't have a ridiculously thick skin I simply wouldn't feel comfortable here.

Here's a fun drinking game: while reading your local Vermont newspaper (the Burlington Free Press, for instance), every time a quoted or referenced person's family history is described in terms of the number of generations (or years) they've lived in Vermont, take a drink. You'll be under the table before your frosted flakes get soggy.

Example 2:

As we've been discussing in the Rhetoric seminar, to instill fear in an audience, a rhetor needs to prove 3 things: that the thing to be feared is actually dangerous; that the thing to be feared will actually affect the audience members personally; and that the thing to be feared will affect the audience dangerously soon. Count how many of these our Governor achieves in these passages:

Vermont's governor, Jim Douglas, is treating the situation like a crisis. [....] Mr. Douglas said: "There's an exodus of young people. It's dramatic. We need to reverse it. The consequences of not acting are severe."

Without more working people, Mr. Douglas said, "we won't have tax revenue for anything other than public education and Medicaid. There'll be no money for anything else."

I think he might want to get a new talking-points writer. Preferably someone who has read Aristotle.

Example 3:

Does our university president manage any better? Let's see:

Daniel M. Fogel, the University of Vermont's president, says some have not grasped the seriousness of the problem. They believe a shrinking population will prevent overdevelopment, but these "antisprawl folks are the very people who tend to value very highly the environmental protections and the social programs, which the state is not going to be able to afford if the working population shrinks," Mr. Fogel said.

As I've also been discussing with the Rhetoric classes, tone is really quite challenging to master, especially in writing. In this instance, President Fogel runs the risk of sounding the smug "I-told-you-so" note as he predicts that the people most vocal about limiting sprawl and development will find their precious social and environmental protections necessarily cut. What do you think -- does this transcription of his comments pull it off?

Example 4:

I am really, really, really tired of the "perfect storm" metaphor. It needs to die a horrible, lingering death:

The situation stems from what Robert G. Clarke, chancellor of Vermont's state colleges, calls "a perfect demographic storm" involving jobs, housing, the environment, education, even skiing.

This metaphor no longer has any power for me. It just makes me want to inflict bodily harm on whoever is foolish enough to drag it out yet again.

3) My Experience

I have to agree with all of the complaints the folks in the article raise -- Vermont is too expensive, real estate is crazy out here, and renting is just as bad; good jobs are hard to come by (faculty spouses, for instance, frequently have trouble finding work, which makes staying at UVM impossible to afford); and yes, the majority of late-teens/twenty-somethings here are from somewhere else.

All that said, I do like it here. The Spouse has a job, I like my colleagues, and I like my flatlander students. Hey, I've even got a few Vermonters in my classes. I imagine that must be akin to finding a four-leaf clover. How could I complain?

(X-posted to Writing Bodies)

Posted by reparent at March 6, 2006 7:34 PM

Comments

Posted by: Mike Gannett at March 20, 2006 6:39 AM