Hacking Small Town America(theatlantic.com)
theatlantic.com
Hacking Small Town America
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/hacking-small-town-america-the-unexploited-market-of-tyler-texas/238584/
26 comments
Minor note: Tyler is 100 miles east of Dallas. There's a distance marker at US 69 and I-20 that says "Dallas - 100" that I've seen about that many times so it stands out. :) To compare, there are about 40 miles between the city centers of Dallas and Fort Worth, or Fort Worth and Denton.
Sure, maybe the polling place info may not be online, but I'll bet that the polling places haven't moved for years and that folks don't have problems finding them.
as to "), but no one seems to have done any analysis of it (disappointing since the town has four colleges)." - what is the benefit of said analysis?
>I expect to spend a great deal of time actively disagreeing with people. ... > The list goes on. Tyler has information that could be freed. Tyler has government that could be opened. ... > Instead I'm going to hack Tyler to be what I need it to be.
Ah yes, the big city kid is going to teach the yokels how to do things.
If Tyler is at all typical, it's about 100x as open as Chicago.
If the author wants Chicago, he should stay there.
as to "), but no one seems to have done any analysis of it (disappointing since the town has four colleges)." - what is the benefit of said analysis?
>I expect to spend a great deal of time actively disagreeing with people. ... > The list goes on. Tyler has information that could be freed. Tyler has government that could be opened. ... > Instead I'm going to hack Tyler to be what I need it to be.
Ah yes, the big city kid is going to teach the yokels how to do things.
If Tyler is at all typical, it's about 100x as open as Chicago.
If the author wants Chicago, he should stay there.
"I'm going to do my best to live without being a consumer of gasoline, just as I did in Chicago."
Good luck with this. I don't think he realizes how pedestrian unfriendly cities in the Southwest are. He'll quickly realize a trip to pick up groceries will take 2 hours via bus, and he'll be forced to walk without sidewalks in 105 degree heat to the bus stop while everyone else drives by in airconditioned cars looking upon him like he is homeless.
Good luck with this. I don't think he realizes how pedestrian unfriendly cities in the Southwest are. He'll quickly realize a trip to pick up groceries will take 2 hours via bus, and he'll be forced to walk without sidewalks in 105 degree heat to the bus stop while everyone else drives by in airconditioned cars looking upon him like he is homeless.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Tyler,_Texas is in east Texas. Big stretch to call that Southwest.
Also at 100k people it isn't exactly "small town America" as the article claims.
Also at 100k people it isn't exactly "small town America" as the article claims.
Also at 100k people it isn't exactly "small town America" as the article claims.
I started to wonder about the actual size when he mentioned "reasonably extensive" bus service and then four colleges. And maybe my estimation is skewed from having grown up in the suburbs instead of Chicago itself, but I would expect living in an actual small town to be a lot cheaper than just 30% under.
I started to wonder about the actual size when he mentioned "reasonably extensive" bus service and then four colleges. And maybe my estimation is skewed from having grown up in the suburbs instead of Chicago itself, but I would expect living in an actual small town to be a lot cheaper than just 30% under.
Tyler is the county seat of Smith County; that's why it has 100,000 people. For comparison, the Tyler/Longview (nearest city of size that isn't a suburb of the other) area has about 415,000 people. The population of the next-nearest major area in Texas? Dallas/Fort Worth at 6.6 million people. The question of what makes up "small town America" is somewhat fuzzy, but Tyler, compared to an 70 minute drive (not at all unreasonable for a state the size of Texas) west, fits the bill.
The other point from anamax about the city slicker teaching the yokels how it should be done is very apt. There is a reason why hackers gravitate towards Silicon Valley: people like to be with other people who are doing the same thing. Tyler is by no means dumb. As the author--who admittedly also posted here that he didn't want to debate the article--points out, there are two universities (University of Texas-affiliated, I might add) and two junior colleges. The area is also home to pipe and robotics companies. It is also very insular, especially when it comes to "being shown how things are done" because the Dallas area has been the older, wiser brother to Tyler for decades.
Oh, and "nothing about local politics?" I guess the reporting from KLTV, the oldest television station in Tyler, doesn't count.[1]
1 - http://www.kltv.com/category/74361/politics
The other point from anamax about the city slicker teaching the yokels how it should be done is very apt. There is a reason why hackers gravitate towards Silicon Valley: people like to be with other people who are doing the same thing. Tyler is by no means dumb. As the author--who admittedly also posted here that he didn't want to debate the article--points out, there are two universities (University of Texas-affiliated, I might add) and two junior colleges. The area is also home to pipe and robotics companies. It is also very insular, especially when it comes to "being shown how things are done" because the Dallas area has been the older, wiser brother to Tyler for decades.
Oh, and "nothing about local politics?" I guess the reporting from KLTV, the oldest television station in Tyler, doesn't count.[1]
1 - http://www.kltv.com/category/74361/politics
Erm, 100K is not small town America.
I grew up outside of a town with 5K people; it was the largest town in a 50-mile radius.
Small towns have under 1K people, at least where I come from.
I grew up outside of a town with 5K people; it was the largest town in a 50-mile radius.
Small towns have under 1K people, at least where I come from.
I live in Scotland, where the entire country has less people than Dallas/Fort-Worth - and even here 1k people isn't a 'small town', it's a village.
The town I grew up in had a population of ~35k, and it was definitely a 'small town'.
These things are all relative to your local norms, but I think demanding that 'small towns' have at most four people and a lame horse is excessive.
The town I grew up in had a population of ~35k, and it was definitely a 'small town'.
These things are all relative to your local norms, but I think demanding that 'small towns' have at most four people and a lame horse is excessive.
It has an urban population of 96,900 that is fairly large by Scottish Standards. Inverness and Stirling have ~70,000 each and they are cities.
In Europe (at least continental), there is a clear distinction between "village" and "town", because historically, "town" was a legal status granted by the king or church (city would be perhaps the town where the archbishop would have his seat), but it wasn't necessarily distinguished so much by its size, they'd be all very small.
Personally, I'd but the line between "town" and "city" to having some kind of rapid rail transit. (That'd mean, for example, that in the country where I live is just one city.)
Personally, I'd but the line between "town" and "city" to having some kind of rapid rail transit. (That'd mean, for example, that in the country where I live is just one city.)
Yes, but it's not in Scotland.
My point was that the size of a 'small town' varies by context, and that a town of 1,000 would be tiny even in the context of a place that doesn't have many people.
Also, 'city' in the UK is to do with a special government/crown-granted status, not really the population per se.
My point was that the size of a 'small town' varies by context, and that a town of 1,000 would be tiny even in the context of a place that doesn't have many people.
Also, 'city' in the UK is to do with a special government/crown-granted status, not really the population per se.
I lived in Lubbock for four years. It's not tiny, but when you're isolated like that, 200k is nothing.
> "I'm going to do my best to live without being a consumer of gasoline, just as I did in Chicago."
Try doing this in north-eastern Montana.
(Or, better yet, don't. You'll die.)
Try doing this in north-eastern Montana.
(Or, better yet, don't. You'll die.)
@all I'm the author of the post (@onyxfish). I'm not even remotely interested in debating its merits here. You all seem well-equipped to form your own judgements. However, for the sake of clarity, I wrote a __blog__ post that got __aggregated__ by The Atlantic. The original post is at http://hacktyler.com. It wasn't written for anyone but those who know me, but people liked it so its become public. Think what you will.
What did the Atlantic offer you. Just a platform to republish and reach a wider audience?
Yes.
All his assumptions from the blog posts seems to be based on what he found online. Wait till he goes there!
I know Tyler, Texas only as the home of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, where all the patent trolls take their cases. I always just assumed it was because the jury pool were morons. Which isn't fair, kind of like this article.
Offtopic, but for some reason I wanted to take a closer look at Tyler, Texas. Loaded it up in Google Earth's streetview and "drove" around a bit.
Where is the city centre of Tyler?
I started around where Google placed the "Tyler, Texas" sign but the area looked like some rundown neighbourhoods that you could expect to find at the far edges of a big city.
Where is the city centre of Tyler?
I started around where Google placed the "Tyler, Texas" sign but the area looked like some rundown neighbourhoods that you could expect to find at the far edges of a big city.
I'm from Tyler. There's not really a "city center". There is a downtown area, which is where Google drops you, but the surrounding area is mixed; some of it is fairly nice, and some of it is a bit run down (as you say). The downtown area mostly hosts legal stuff—courts, lawyers' offices, city government, etc.
South Tyler is generally considered to be somewhat nicer than the downtown area (which is further north). For instance, one of the nicer neighborhoods in Tyler is Holytree, which is off of Grande near its intersection with South Broadway. There are also some nice areas around the southern parts of Paluxy, which runs roughly parallel to Broadway. A lot of the nicer areas, though, are not actually within Tyler itself, but in the surrounding suburbs.
South Tyler is generally considered to be somewhat nicer than the downtown area (which is further north). For instance, one of the nicer neighborhoods in Tyler is Holytree, which is off of Grande near its intersection with South Broadway. There are also some nice areas around the southern parts of Paluxy, which runs roughly parallel to Broadway. A lot of the nicer areas, though, are not actually within Tyler itself, but in the surrounding suburbs.
Thanks, I'll "drive" some more! ;)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...
As it turns out, pretty close to the "tyler, tx" search marker. The marker itself (Broadway and Ferguson) doesn't seem to me like a particularly run-down area.
As it turns out, pretty close to the "tyler, tx" search marker. The marker itself (Broadway and Ferguson) doesn't seem to me like a particularly run-down area.
What ever happened to The Atlantic’s attention to detail? Articles don’t use balanced quotes, have ‘--’ rather than ‘–’ emdashes, and now sound like a teenager's angry blog with opening lines such as “things are fucked up” referring to one’s private life.
He is obviously not particularly thrilled with getting divorced and having to move from a city that he is fond of, to a smaller, less interesting location, so I think we can cut him some slack. This subject didn't seem to require that he write in the style of John Updike, after all.
Looking forward to seeing what he accomplishes. What are some of the better "hack gov data" orgs or apps?
I know of the Sunlight Foundation and OpenSecrets -- what else?
I know of the Sunlight Foundation and OpenSecrets -- what else?
Proximity to other cities is also a big factor. I line in a city of 28k people, and the closest real city is 2 hours away. This place he's moving to is a mere 40 miles from Ft. Worth, TX, a city of over 700k people.
Ultimately it just sounds like a guy who thinks he's "roughing it" by driving his motor home to campground with electricity and running water.