A small picture-perfect Vermont town.... except--
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3/26/2008
Imagine a small village with all the cliches of rural Vermont. Years ago, you couldn't drive through town without waving at someone. It was a local joke that everyone drove one-handed, as we would wave at each other as we passed. You could afford to live here, buy a home, raise kids and send them to a terrific elementary school.
Then the horse show came in, the rich saw the place, fell in love, bought up thousands of acres, closed it off to recreation, and drove up the cost of living to astronomical, pushing out many of those in the middle. Then it left when the town "became too dull" and unexciting.
Now, there aren't any jobs for our children who grew up here, unless you want to work for a pittance at the ski areas (3 of them) for the winter. But what do you do in the summer? There is no housing for people earning less than way-above-normal or trust-funders. In fact, many of the small shops in town are run by people whose parents maintain the shops to keep their adult children out of their hair and far away.
What was an active, young, funky little village has become staid, and dull. It's still beautiful, but the fun is gone. It's as if the heart has been sucked out of the valley.
If you don't have wads of money, you can't live here with any comfort. McMansions litter the hillsides, raising property taxes to untenable for the rest of us. For the less-than-rich, it's hanging on by your teeth. It's simply survival.
Katherine | Waitsfield, VT