Roadside America -- The Adirondacks

Overall roadside culture up here seems relatively undegraded compared to what we have seen in recent road trips, including not just NC but also Graham's college tours back in '21 and other trips. There are old motels up here in the North Country that have seen better days but a higher proportion of them seem to be doing just fine than in other regions.

I have to wonder whether it's a regional thing. Maybe NYC and to a lesser extent Boston metros have lower regional Gini coefficients relative to other regions. Certainly there have always been a lot of middle- to upper middle-income people in and around Wall Street. For now, at least before the onslaught of AI at skilled office jobs, finance seems to be holding on as a regional cornerstone industry.

Also, though much ink has been spilled about how the NIMBYism of the dense NE corridor metros has constrained housing supply and thereby supported housing prices for now, another feature of the regional economy is that people in the NE will willingly trade down in terms of square footage for career options, good schools and convenient entertainment amenities. Economists often talk about how people will substiture, typically a generic for a brand name product, in an inflationary period or difficult economy. People in high density metro areas actually do the same with space. They live in conditions that would not seem agreeable to people further out. You see it in all major metropoles, NYC, London, Paris, Moscow, probably Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Lagos too. It is a valid consumer choice. 

As Morgan Housel pointed out in a book or blog post or something, that the average size of the original Levittown houses post-WWII was 750 sq feet, 2BR, 1 BA. And it seemed luxurious at the time compared to the apartments in Brooklyn the houses replaced.

I think this space constraint in the cities -- esp the NE Corridor -- could well create excess disposable income for middle-income people wanting to get away, for example to the Poconos or Adirondacks and the cute little motels.