
College Townies: How Do You Honour A Place As You Breeze By? - bootload
http://www.thetowner.com/college-townies/
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futun
What 90% of college graduates fail to consider is that many of those townies
will one day be far richer than they are.

The idea of students 'looking down' at (for example) the local plumber is
often ridiculous, considering a plumbers' hourly rate often exceeds that of
many lawyers.

As we all know, there is a frightening, decreasing correlation between college
education and financial success. At the same time there are plenty of locals
who work hard and pour money into real estate.

It's a disturbing truth for most college graduates who drink the kool-aid of
"education equals financial superiority". And colleges are only too happy to
serve up that kool aid.

eg: I know a guy my age who owns a dozen hardware stores. He made his first
million before he was 30, and he dropped out of high school. He's also one of
the sharpest business people I know.

Be nice to everyone. You might learn something.

~~~
etrautmann
That's not really the point he was making in this article, which was more
about people that make their homes in multiple places. It was using the term
townie differently from the standard definition.

~~~
futun
Just in case this isn't 100% clear to anyone: "Townie" is derogatory.

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ianai
Always treat people as people. If you're treating someone as a "means to an
end" then you're not treating them humanely. That's exactly the way to win
enemies and violent tendencies. It goes the same with towns and cities in
aggregate.

Know that I say this as someone who doesn't feel very welcome where I live
currently. The many aggressive behaviors I experience daily have made me
resent this place. So I look for ways and places to appreciate it here. I'm
still looking to leave. But I'm also embracing my existence here.

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tcfunk
I feel I have this problem(?) still, years after graduating college. I have
lived a few places now, and held several jobs, and each time I have treated
both the location and occupation with an air of impermanence. I neglect to
make friends or make any long-term commitments because I know I will one day
leave them behind.

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closeparen
>This attitude manifested itself most corporally in the behavior of the local
college students in traffic; they would wander in and out of the street
without looking, exuding a kind of studied indifference, sending a clear
message to the local people that the streets were for them, risks of blunt
force trauma notwithstanding

It's one of my favorite things about college campuses that pedestrians own the
streets and cars wait their turn.

You could always tell when it was parents weekend by the huge size of cars on
the streets and their unusual aggressiveness at crosswalks. Suburban/exurban
parents out of their element. It was always satisfying to see them ticketed.
_This is an urban college campus. That shit doesn 't fly here._

It's not really about student vs. townie, it's just that these few blocks,
unlike almost anywhere else in the country, are for walking.

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rm_dash_rf
This hits home. I am also a faculty kid. You grow up thinking the university
is awesome. And it is. You get involved in the university when you are older
and find that the students for the most part treat the city and its residents
like crap. The word townie is thrown around in a derogatory manner towards the
locals. You are left thinking why the heck should I support this university
when the alumni base has such a bad view of the people that actually live in
the city. I realize that not everyone at the university is like that but its
enough that it seems like a real cultural problem.

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pkd
Is this more common in the US? Because in my country it seems to be the
absolute opposite. The permanent residents (or the locals as we call them) are
extremely apathetic towards the students. Whereas the students (me included)
absolutely fell in love with the place and find it hard to leave.

The locals also take advantage of the relative wealthiness of the students
(higher education is not cheap) and you will find them skirting rules
everywhere: autos don't run by meter, you are charged extra for cold bottles
of soft drinks, restaurants and pubs are extra pricey and so are the rents -
all this compared to a bigger non-university town just 5 kms away.

~~~
panglott
There are different kinds of "college towns" in the US.

Boston is a big college town because it has several of the nation's most
important/prestigious institutions of higher education—but it's also a
distinctive and vibrant city in its own right, with a unique history, culture,
built environment. New York is similar.

But many of the state universities and land grant universities, especially in
the West, put the state's largest and most important school in a small and
otherwise unremarkable town. Norman, Oklahoma, has a population of 110k and
the University of Oklahoma, which has enrollment of 30k. Lawrence, Kansas, has
a population of 87k and the University of Kansas, which has enrollment of 28k.
West Lafayette, Indiana, has a population of 29k and Purdue University, which
has enrollment of 40k. Bloomington, Indiana, has a population of 84k and the
main campus of Indiana University, which has enrollment of 49k.

These are all nice little towns, but they are all relatively small towns with
small enconomies, and there's just a limited number of college graduates they
can absorb. They usually have local political cultures strongly influenced by
the college and very different than the small and rural communities that
surround them.

Plus, lots of American communities can seem very generic. Many Americans towns
are less than a century old, with only a few generations of traditions and
history, and surrounded by similar communities with a similar size, culture,
environment, and history.

~~~
kratak
I wouldn't consider Boston a "college town", and I doubt it qualifies
according to this article.* A "college town" usually means a town where the
college dominates the local economy, and the students make up a large portion
(or even a majority) of the total population during the school year.

I used to go to Virginia Tech; at the time, there were roughly 34k people in
the town during the year, 26k of those students. The "townies" were only about
8k (and of course, this included the staff and faculty that lived within town
limits, which was a significant portion of the townies). So when it was
summertime, the town was seemingly deserted (and it was a wonderful time
too!).

* As an example, Tempe, Arizona is home to ASU, one of the top 10 universities in the US by enrollment. Look at the map in the article: there's no dot for the Phoenix metro area. Hence, Tempe (and the rest of Phoenix) is not a "college town", because even with over 50k students, the school doesn't dominate the local economy.

~~~
panglott
"Ian Faith: The Boston gig has been cancelled...

David St. Hubbins: What?

Ian Faith: Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college
town."

Boston and New York at least have large populations of college students, but
certainly they're not iconic of what Americans consider a "college town".

------
epberry
Well hey, I live here too! Actually I've lived here my whole life, growing up
in West Lafayette and attending Purdue, and then working here as a software
engineer after graduation. The author is spot on about many of the drawbacks
but there are quite a few nice things that are hard to appreciate unless
you've actually experienced them.

One I think is quality of living for the price. I'm pretty sure that by
several metrics my quality of life is much better than that of many friends
living in NYC or SF. I make about 1/3 of their salary on average but I have a
relatively large apartment, walk 8 minutes to work every day, see my parents
about once a week (starting to appreciate this more and more as I get older),
have a steady supply of graduate student friends and my own colleagues who I
went to school with to converse and hang out with, and a Purdue community to
engage with and learn from.

Drawbacks for me are a intense feelings of FOMO as I read about the innovation
happening in real tech hubs, a lack of a larger network of startups and strong
engineering companies, no big city to experience, and seeing my parents once a
week ;).

I don't want to stay in West Lafayette forever (although I would strongly
consider moving back here to raise a family) and maybe I'm just rationalizing
my situation, but the SF-or-bust feelings I used to have in college have
subsided quite a bit.

