Eastern ID growth slowing? (subdivisions, living, suburbs)

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Toyman at Jewel Lake

Not to be nit-picky but technically they would be the largest ever made for the US navy. 16"/50 calibers, Mk 7 gun. The Japanese had 18" guns on the Yamato and Musashi. (btw, great reply)

ETA, Mike was right again, we built and tested an 18" gun but it was never installed on a warship.

Thanks, Toyman.

The reason why Pocatello was chosen for the gun works were manifold. The Union Pacific built a locomotive repair shop here early in the 20th century that was later replaced with another, larger shop in Ogden, Utah, which left a lot of extremely heavy equipment facilities available to the government in Pocatello.

The location was also remote and far inland, away from the coastal naval facilities and shipyards, and the guns were the super-weapons of the time, more valuable than the ships they were mounted on because of their scarcity. It was easier to build the battleships the guns went to than the guns.

I learned all this from an old U.P. man who was one of my Dad's friends. The Pocatello trainyards were a very big deal for a very long time, as the Union Pacific had the most powerful steam locomotives that were ever made in service. They had to be big an powerful to be able to go over the Great Divide while pulling heavy trains of ore cars and flatbeds with big logs. The facility had to be big and strong enough to lift them off the ground for repair.

We had a hired man who worked for us in the summers when I was young who served in the Pacific as a gunner's mate in a 10" gun turret. Whenever the gun was fired, the crew had to scramble into a small elevator that took then down below the turret because the concussion inside the turret was more than a human could withstand. Even one deck down, the concussion when both guns fired was enormous.

Many of the battles he was in were so fierce that he became left with permanent nerve damage from the repeated concussions, and he shook all over continuously with tremors for the rest of his life.

Mentally, he was OK, but the shakes prevented him from doing any small-muscle work. He couldn't write legibly, and he stammered because his facial nerves were damaged.

He could drive a tractor well, though, and was a good guy. He drove a truck for the county during the winters.

[the topper]

Don't kid yourselves! It just a very short temporary blip to otherwise rapid growth and complete invasion of Californians to eastern Idaho. This summer, you'll feel it big time!

[Syringaloid]

Originally Posted by the topper

Don't kid yourselves! It just a very short temporary blip to otherwise rapid growth and complete invasion of Californians to eastern Idaho. This summer, you'll feel it big time!

Hate to break it to you, but Californians are not the only people moving into Idaho.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by Syringaloid

Hate to break it to you, but Californians are not the only people moving into Idaho.

Not the most current data, but:

https://stateimpact.npr.org/idaho/ma...oves-to-idaho/

shows that more people are moving to Idaho from Washington than from California.

[dcisive]

I nearly moved to Washington State until I got bids on costs of the buildout and what really put the end to that was their Taxes. No breaks for Seniors as well as absurdly high property taxes. Got a GREAT deal on a new stick built home instead of a manufactured home in S. Idaho and many other aspects have already gleaned benefits for my senior status. It was certainly the right move in so many ways. Plus the people here are amazing

[banjomike]

I took a short drive out in the county just outside of Idaho Falls yesterday, using a route I don't normally take.

It had only been a few months- maybe last December- when I drove it the last time, and yesterday, I saw another huge apartment complex well under construction that didn't exist last summer. It's already half occupied, easily capable of housing 100 or more families.

That's the wave of the future housing here. Many more apartments and town houses, many fewer individual homes on lots. Both are being built like crazy in and outside of the Idaho Falls city limits, but it's obvious to me that the contractors are now making much more money on multiple housing units than singles.

For the younger generations, multiple-unit housing makes much more sense than home ownership in lots of ways. For Eastern Idaho, all those new units are a sure sign of our growth, and how fast it's growing here.

As an old farmer, I'm happy to see more apartments jutting up in the farm fields. They mean more fields will continue to be farmed in the future, instead of being paved over and planted with suburbs. The suburbs have eaten up much of the best farmland that exists, and in Idaho, the best farmland is some of the best on the planet.

Growth is inevitable here, but humans still need food daily. One farm feeds many, many families. The more farms that continue on means the more food will remain plentiful in the future.

[cleosmom]

Originally Posted by banjomike

As an old farmer, I'm happy to see more apartments jutting up in the farm fields. They mean more fields will continue to be farmed in the future, instead of being paved over and planted with suburbs. The suburbs have eaten up much of the best farmland that exists, and in Idaho, the best farmland is some of the best on the planet.

I confess, I had to re-read this TWICE! After doing so, it makes wonderful sense!!

[dcisive]

I moved where I did because indeed there are miles of area of extremely productive farming that shouldn't change anytime soon. My kind of place. I need open space. Well tired of encroaching mile after mile of homes and worse yet apartment buildings (transient types). Just hoping in my lifetime things don't change too drastically. I endured 25 years of that growth in Utah till throwing the the towel in. Now it's time for me to soak in the open space type of lifestyle.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by dcisive

I moved where I did because indeed there are miles of area of extremely productive farming that shouldn't change anytime soon. My kind of place. I need open space. Well tired of encroaching mile after mile of homes and worse yet apartment buildings (transient types). Just hoping in my lifetime things don't change too drastically. I endured 25 years of that growth in Utah till throwing the the towel in. Now it's time for me to soak in the open space type of lifestyle.

We are in the beginnings of a great cultural shift that's a great change from the 20th century's way of doing things.

The youngest generations of Americans, some now who were born at the turn of the century, no longer want the same kind of life their parents had, and no longer want the same things their parents aspired to own.

A McMansion home in a suburb is high on their list of undesirables. These kids hated the social isolation of late 20th-century suburbia. They also hate the life that is car-centered, the sprawl, the dependence on oil, and many other things those who are older take for granted.

Quite a few want exactly what you wanted; to return to the land, learn how to farm, and discover new ways of living that don't involve work cubicles, commuting, and a life of isolation indoors.

So- maybe your timing was perfect, and you'll never see those sprawling suburbs you despised so much again.

[the topper]

https://www.postregister.com/news/lo...a981ee93c.html Finally, reality sets in. Hate to say, "I told you so!"