Code Words

Frankly, the words sometimes make me feel a little excluded.

I agree, Rapunzel, and it seems to me that this is the plan. I find a hard-core attitude in the government and school district which seems to imply that if you moved in here in the last 5 years, you could move right back out again and so you aren't "real". There are a lot of bright and talented people moving here, and the county does not take advantage of this fact. Contrast this to the talent pool at Sacred Heart, where they have embraced "outsiders" and recruited medical staff who want to relocate to the area.

I lived in Atlanta, also, where the population is extremely transient, and the politicians out in the suburbs had to accept newcomers, since the newcomers outnumbered the "natives". In the city of Atlanta, though, they still want that "pedigree".

Newcomers won't outnumber the pedigreed folks anytime soon here - we still are a "part-time" location for too many new homebuyers, and it's hard to get involved in politics when you are a newcomer. So many of the "new" folks are business owners and just too darned busy to make the commitment.

I think, also, that this was frankly a little hardscrabble corner of the world for a long time. The people who lived here and stayed, and raised their families, had to work a lot harder at it to be able to live in "Paradise" since there are no major employers and little real economy. I understand the attitude that their home is being "ruined", but I also think they ignore the fact that this is being done with the explicit permission of their elected officials, who seem to want to be sure that every property owner (many of whom were those old-timers) can eke the maximum profit out of their stake.