108 mi. from there to Minard's Spaghetti Inn. Delicious meals and a very interesting family owned restaurant.
Cumberland, Maryland wants you to move there
- Thread starter gfh77665
- Start date
Hmmm... it's a bit more interesting than I expected.
Let's say you have to do work in Washington D.C. and you like to bike.
Apparently there's a bike trail that goes straight to the Amtrak in Cumberland, Maryland. From there it's not a short ride from Cumberland to Washington D.C. About three and a half hours. But it's also a direct journey with no transfers needed to get from A to B.
https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/schedule-results.html
I wasn't about to figure out the round-trip cost but Amtrak does offer 60% discounts if you buy 8 tickets. All you would need is a place to sleep in DC if that's your thing.
https://www.redfin.com/MD/Cumberland/320-Columbia-St-21502/home/14710335
That house is just under $150k. It is less than a mile away from the Amtrak station and also a nearby bike trail.
Who knows? May be worth it.
Let's say you have to do work in Washington D.C. and you like to bike.
Apparently there's a bike trail that goes straight to the Amtrak in Cumberland, Maryland. From there it's not a short ride from Cumberland to Washington D.C. About three and a half hours. But it's also a direct journey with no transfers needed to get from A to B.
https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/schedule-results.html
I wasn't about to figure out the round-trip cost but Amtrak does offer 60% discounts if you buy 8 tickets. All you would need is a place to sleep in DC if that's your thing.
https://www.redfin.com/MD/Cumberland/320-Columbia-St-21502/home/14710335
That house is just under $150k. It is less than a mile away from the Amtrak station and also a nearby bike trail.
Who knows? May be worth it.
Nearest area for jobs is Hagerstown, which is mostly warehousing jobs $20-$25 and hour. Almost enough to pay rent, but certainly not enough to buy a house. Ironically I work in Hagerstown and live in PA. The whole area within 45 minutes of each other is a barren "wasteland" of warehouses popping up left and right. Problem is there is not enough people to work in such warehouse so they've been bussing people in from the city. Crime has risen, housing is going whacky, overall a mess. My little part of PA isn't bad, but a 30 minute ride it turns into a different world.
No. But it's a nice place to visit and OK to retire if income taxes are not an issue for you.
I recommend a ride on the Western MD scenic rail road https://wmsr.com/
I wonder how they get the $$$ they gave you back? Property taxed out the wazoo?
The dollars would need to come from some tax or economic development fund clearly. The logic would be that if a median income family moved to the area they would easily make that back in a couple years of local taxes and money they spend at local businesses, assuming of course the money goes to people who otherwise would not have moved there.
JHZR2
Staff member
The problem is that’s it’s not close to anything of consequence. Beautiful countryside for sure. But for much of anything else?
I just looked this am, over 2.5 hours from dc. So not really close to any major city, it would be a longer and more challenging drive to Pittsburgh, Baltimore won’t be much better than dc. Same for Philly.
I guess you can get to… Harrisburg?
That may not matter to some folks. But it does limit opportunities in some fields.
Yes, without luring employers there it isn't likely to have much success. I actually give them credit for trying something.
Luring employers requires a lot of help at the state level with tax concessions and such. They have done it her in South Carolina over many years, but even here all the small towns are still dyeing - the manufacturers setting up shop wish to be nearer the bigger cities to attract and retain the type skilled workers they need.
Luring employers requires a lot of help at the state level with tax concessions and such. They have done it her in South Carolina over many years, but even here all the small towns are still dyeing - the manufacturers setting up shop wish to be nearer the bigger cities to attract and retain the type skilled workers they need.
Some churches do this too.
This is interesting to me, having never been anywhere close - I think of the eastern seaboard states as being absolutely crammed, pretty much fully built-up from Boston down to Baltimore.
It's never occurred to me that there are small declining towns in rural areas in any of these states.
This misconception comes from a LIFE magazine I read as a child, a double issue about the future of the American city. They predicted one huge urban area, I think they dubbed it Megapolis, right down the east coast.
Very gun unfriendly. That would be my issue.
This can really happen to anywhere.
One example is a cute town called Georgetown SC - its a tourist trap / blip on the map between Charleston and Myrtle Beach. Its on a river with direct access to the ocean only a few miles in. Historically it was a huge exporter of rice and Indigo, but when free labor ended after the civil war, that industry collapsed but they became the largest exporter of lumber in the world for a while, which then collapsed in the great depression. In the 50's a large papermill and some other manufacturing moved in and boomed for a while. The last one to hold on was the steel mill until maybe 10 years ago, which made a desired product but was bought out by one of the largest Steel mill companies in the world - Arcelor Mital - who promptly closed it - they just wanted to eliminate the competition.
They managed to re-invent themselves again as a retirement community - to stem the population decline, given there fairly convenient location, but its all old people now - no real industry. So we shall see how they fare going forward.
One example is a cute town called Georgetown SC - its a tourist trap / blip on the map between Charleston and Myrtle Beach. Its on a river with direct access to the ocean only a few miles in. Historically it was a huge exporter of rice and Indigo, but when free labor ended after the civil war, that industry collapsed but they became the largest exporter of lumber in the world for a while, which then collapsed in the great depression. In the 50's a large papermill and some other manufacturing moved in and boomed for a while. The last one to hold on was the steel mill until maybe 10 years ago, which made a desired product but was bought out by one of the largest Steel mill companies in the world - Arcelor Mital - who promptly closed it - they just wanted to eliminate the competition.
They managed to re-invent themselves again as a retirement community - to stem the population decline, given there fairly convenient location, but its all old people now - no real industry. So we shall see how they fare going forward.
Shoot, around here outside of the cities it's wide open. My backyard is all pasture. Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York are all beautiful country outside of the cities. Heck, even New Jersey is pretty wooded. I will warn you though if you're driving through the country and hear banjos, do not stop!
One of my friends visited NJ for work around 30 years ago - RFL, I think. He was pleasantly surprised by how it really was "The Garden State".Shoot, around here outside of the cities it's wide open. My backyard is all pasture. Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York are all beautiful country outside of the cities. Heck, even New Jersey is pretty wooded. I will warn you though if you're driving through the country and hear banjos, do not stop!
This is my commute to work. No interstate in sight!
The landscape is very, very, similar to Cumberland.
I feel personally attacked /s.
Yea I got plenty of that happening right now, but this ain't the right thread for that...
I’ve looked at some old cities on Google Street View in the NE USA and seen 100+ year old buildings with brick roads.
I always think to myself I would love to go back in time when that city was booming and see how things were before the blight , crime, job losses and population decline.
I understand MD is openly hostile to the 2A, but asides from that I could envision this town being a decent place to retire in with the move-in incentives offered. For the right person who does not need employment or "big city" attractions.
