Reviews & Comments
Jackson, WY
A world of two extremes. -
4/24/2020Jackson is pretty interesting. It's a land of billionaires and millionaires. From the 10, 000 sq ft vacation home used a few months by one person to people renting crawl spaces. If you see enough of Jackson you'll find it's a micrcosim of the nation's growing inequality, and a nearly nonexistent middle class. The same middle class jobs in the 80s or 90s where the workers owned homes, raised families, and lived in Jackson are now filled with commuters, single individuals or the recently immigrated sharing a 2 bedroom apartment with 8 people. As these generations grow old and retire they are selling or renting their once middle class homes for a rate only the wealthy can afford. Gone is the American ideal of owning land and a home for most in Jackson. It's a vacation town, crowded noisy and frustrating to actually work in, in the summer and cold, snow covered in the winter. It has diversity as it continually outsources its employment to keep the town running and with many who vacationed there and once they became wealthy or old enough bought something or rented something there. The turn over in Jackson must be astronomical. The town is constantly in flux from the winter crowd leaving and then the summer crowd coming in. There's a few months in the shoulder season where it's actually populated with full timers and is relatively slow. It's pretty in Jackson, but the thing that makes it special is the location to the parks. Before moving here one needs to consider health. It's still a remote town with a fairly small hospital and life flights are common as people have to be moved to more specialized or advanced care. Keep that in mind if preexisting conditions. The population is generally nice and happy, you'll constantly see people outdoors at all times of day jogging or whatever, reinforcing the extremes as lots of people dont need to work in Jackson.