Extreme-climate livability will always be an option -- with enough investment and the right infrastructure
People want to live in warm places because it's cheaper, but that will change, and so must we.
We have a disconnect here: Our South in general and our coastal areas in particular continue to attract internal migrants across our country. We are told that the pandemic is/was a driver (get out of diseased cities!), along with inflationary pressures, the usual bit about an aging population seeking a warmer, cheaper clime, and, finally, a self-selection phenomenon out of Bill Bishop’s “big sort” — namely, the inherent desire of conservative and liberals to congregate (the South favors conservatives, to be sure).
Meanwhile, as the Summer of Hell (2023 … until a few months from now?) demonstrated, life is getting pretty extreme in places like Arizona and New Mexico — two perennial top-targets for Americans heading south. Phoenix, for example, endured 31 straight days with a high temp over 110 degrees. That was obviously very stressing for a metro whose city planners have determined that all new developments must be stopped due to systemic groundwater limitations.
It seems like one of those perverse-incentives dynamics: low taxes and cheap living attracting populations whose soon enough won’t be able to pony up the collective costs of making life work in areas whose livability and sustainability factors are seriously declining at speed.
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