Posted: 10/13/2008 6:04:35 AM EDT
| Just spent the weekend at the BOL and I am bummin......The mountains of NC have become the wealthys playground.....We were allways well off the beaten path but starting to see the locals starting to sell out...(alot of my distant Kin). Afraid there will be a condo on the mountain before long.......Really sad.....alot of history on the mountain, my family has been there for 150 years.....UGH |
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Welcome to what has been happening to the west for a long time. One example: My father in law had green bean and strawberry ground outside of town. The town was situated in a typical coastal valley approx. 7 miles x 7miles across surrounded by steep hills. The bozo 'tourists' voted in a law that prevented building houses on the hillsides because you might see lights at night. Well.... what land is left to build on? Hey the world class farm ground! These people were so stupid that 'not seeing lights' were more important than food.... Now we import food from Mexico. |
| I know what you mean. Asheville has got to be NC's biggest liberal area. Lots of folks with lots of money have invaded, bought up what used to be old working farms and turned them into "quaint retreats" from the city. They'll be hungry if anything happens, and surrounded by marginal land that they don't know how to work. |
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I have a friend that had the same concerns in a mountainous area here in Pa. He keep the developers away for quite along time by playing "crazed Hillbilly" everytime someone came out to checkout his neighboring land. The SOB actually would walk around naked with a shotgun and a beer and go right up to the people and start talking with them, then go into a "rehearsed fit" and start blasting away at nothing... Then calm down and ask if there would be any children moving in... He's a freak, the local cops knew him and knew what he was doing and the few times someone would call the police on him, they'd just laugh their asses off. But hey it worked for years. Eventually some construction company bought the land and put up a housing development... It is sad. |
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Yeah I hear ya'. I found out this weekend that off-roading on private property has now been put off limits. Seems that the new arrivals out here in the high desert convinced the county board to pass a new law. There's lots of empty private property out here that the public has used for decades to ride on ... not no more. Even if the land owner permits it they need the concordance of all adjacent neighbors. When I bought my 20-year old home it was on the very edge of the developed area. That means 20-years ago up until four years ago there was no further growth to the east of me. I live near horse property, cattle and chicken farms, and use to have orange groves within smelling distance. Those orange groves are now gone and 30,000 people have moved into the areas to the east of me. Seems most of them are from the rust belt - Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois plates are everywhere. California cops are pretty aggressive here about not registering your vehicles, I think you've got six weeks once you establish residence to register with a CA plate but I still see dozens of out-of-state plates on my way to work just 4 miles away. The homes are in the $400,000 to $600,000 ranges so these are not your blue collar workers. They've bought the wrong home if they think this is Anaheim Hills ... I'm waiting for them to start up with the livestock "ew they smell","the roosters are crowing","I drove over a horse's droppings in my BMW" ... those folks are trying to change our semi-rural lifestyle into that of a manicured lawn suburb. Hopefully as they lose their homes more down-to-earth people are going to move in there. We'll never recover the flavor of the orange groves. Pleas to the city council go unheeded. They only see the increased power and money they'll get from additional residences and business. Most people aren't going to move out . One ordnance that did get passed was to protect the horse properties in an area of the city. Wonder how long that's going to survive? The on-going election could see a change in the council and hopefully more responsive members. No on growth! |
Crime and urban blight. Thing is, these ideots dont realize is that crime will follow, and with crime comes urban blight.  Zar |
I've lived in the mountains of NC (Haywood County) for almost 26 years now and you are absolutely correct - unfortunately. The price of land and housing had been growing by about 10-15% annually during this decade. If there is one good thing about the economic downturn, it is that it has slowed down new home construction on the sides of mountains. Not knocking the Floridians but now that they can't sell their homes there, they aren't building here. I just drove from Murphy to Waynesville this afternoon. I was surprised at the number of new homes just above the valley in the Murphy-Andrews area that weren't there 5 years ago. Insofar as a BOL, I was thinking Kentucky for myself. I had found a nice cabin on 25 acres in a sparsely populated county surrounded by USFS land. Unfortunately, I work for a division of AIG which is being sold. I won't take the risk of buying something until I know my job and income is secure. I know that puts me in the minority of Americans (and the majority here, thank God). John |
Man you hit it on the head........What part of ohio you in ?? I grew up around youngstown ....Dad moved north before I was born.....Spent a chunk of my summers down here.......the area you mentioned is right where im talking about.....Banner elk is gone, Linville falls is starting to go......Jonas ridge not so bad yetelk park and pineola starting to slip.......you a victim of your dad movin north for work too ? |
I was kind of thinking same thing about KY or TN.........I wont let this place go without one hell of a fight (4 generations of family burried on it).....finding a small place hidden away from freakin yuppies |
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I bought 9.5 acres that had once been part of a smallish dairy farm. Since the neighbors were rarely around it was great, I got along well with them when they were out and as long as I was respectful of things they were happy to let me walk their property since I could call them about vandalism or damage from a storm or something. But things slowly changed over a couple years and I sold out. My dream is to still have a chunk of land up in the hills out away from most folks. I don't know how realistic it is. These days I am just watching what is happening to others and trying to learn everything from it that I can. |
North Georgia mountains are the same way. Mountain land was considered waste land 30 years ago and sold for as little as $300 an acre. Then the rich Yankees working out of Atlanta moved in and drove the prices out of sight. Funny how they're always quick to slander the South, but once they moved down never wanted to leave. We call them Damn Yankees. 
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And compared to the rest of WNC, Cherokee County really was the most isolated - Graham County excepted. It is on the other side of the mountains from the rest of western NC and probably should have been in Tennessee if truth be told. I handle Cherokee Cty's deferred compensation plan. I talked to the head of the building inspections today. The growth in new homes is way down though he still stays fairly busy. A couple of years ago they had to hire 5-6 new environmental sanitarians just to handle the backlog in septic permits. I'm not sure how many still work for the county given the slow down in building. |
Growing up I lived in the Cleveland area It was my grandfather who had a house/cabin built on Ginger Cake Mountain, so as kids our parents would take us down there for weeks at a time. Great times, but it was my older siblings that enjoyed the mountains then me, because at the time they we’re a lot older then I. Things change, my grandparents ended up passing a way, which they are both at a cemetery up in Boone. The cabin was divided between my father and his sister. They both decided to sell the cabin, one of the biggest mistakes in my life, at the age of 16 my father asked if we (the family) should keep it. I wish I could take that answer back. From time to time, I make my way down there and see all the sights I remember as a kid growing up. For people on the site to understand and what I thought was the biggest mistakes they made down there was, if you can image beautiful rolling mountain view with all the trees you can see for miles. Picture that…. Now put a 12 story Condominium Building on the very top of the mountain, so that all you see when you look at the mountain landscape. I’ve talked with a few people here and there and they tell me of Pineola and the other areas around there and that I would believe it if I’ve seen it with my own eyes, very sad to think about it. I think this summer the mountains will call me back down there...  |
| That happened with the land that was passed down to my wifes cousin in Kennebunkport Maine. He still has his trailer on a few acres, but now George bush is his neighbor down the road (Bush family vacation house) and Secret service rents another neighbors (big) house next door year round for the few weeks per year Bush is actually there. No privacy anymore for him. |
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I use to live in Asheville NC and left because the uber rich drove me out. Could not afford land. So now I am working my butt off to some day (like MacArthur) return and buy a huge chunk of mountain land between Asheville and Franklin. Set up my little compound/BOL/farm. I long for the the hills of W NC. LORD take me home soon. |
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Same thing is/ has been happening up here in NH.......Massholes, Connecticunt and New Yukas have taken over..............It seems the towns have declared economic warfare on working people, raising values and taxes, putting people homes out of financial reach. I know of several people that have sold second and 3rd generation homes because the burden of Values/taxes. |