Snowbirds and public perception around Yuma.

[Almost There]

2s
Headed up there myself this summer. I am going to price out Canadian dental work. My new dentist in Florida crowned the wrong tooth and still charged me for it. Sure, it may have been getting bad and needed the crown. But it wasn't the one that hurt.

Don't expect any bargains in dental work in Canada. Even with currency exchange factored, don't be surprised when you find that it's more than double what you'd pay for it here.

Heck, I'm hoping that if I have to have any dental work done, it's needed BEFORE I go back home.

 

[USExplorer]

Locals care about the attitude of visitors. As a stereotype, snowbirds are retirees from large Eastern urban areas who retain their city manners when living elsewhere. They bring money but in too large numbers destroy local culture. Most of Florida's Southern culture has been destroyed by excessive immigration from the North. There are very few Old South-style small towns anymore, and most of the local restaurants and joints have been replaced by national chains. Traffic lights and multi-lane highways are universal.

While business owners enjoy the increased revenue from large numbers of temporary residents, many common people find that they drive up the cost of living, while contributing to traffic and a decreased quality of life. Example: Yuma is chock full of rich snowbirds crowding up the place, but it still has the highest unemployment rate of ANY metro area at 23.2%.

 

[dhawktx]

I know that the Dallas, Texas metro area is not at all like it was, spirit-wise, when I was growing up there. The Utah 'Happy Valley' is a lot more like 'home' in that respect. But even here is too built out for my taste!

 

[akrvbob]

Since I'm a boondocker, I don't have any interaction with them except when they are clerks in stores and in there I look like everyone else (well, I don't, but most snowbirds do).

What they think has zero impact on my life.
Bob

 

[BradKW]

When I worked as a seasonal RN in Yuma, my patients would sometimes gripe to me about snowbirds.  After telling them that I was a snowbird, they would say, 'Oh, well, that's different'. 

Key West gets huge influxes of people, from snowbirds and seasonals to vacationers and cruise ships. In general they make my life more stressful with traffic, parking and grocery store lines. So I'm certainly part of the crowd that bitches about them to coworkers, etc...as a group, they're a PITA. But once you meet one and talk to them, they are no longer part of the group you're bitching about, cuz now you know'em

 

[GotSmart]

Where I grew up, the "Summer Tourists" saw how good we had it...  Land went from $1,000 an acre, to $1,000,000 an acre.  

The Napa Valley is like LA traffic now.  

Of course having restrictions on building and an extensive Ag Preserve made it that much more desireable.   :dodgy:

 

[MrNoodly]

The snowbirds in Yuma drive me crazy even though I technically am one. A lot of slow (come on, Canadians, it miles per hour, not kilometers), inattentive, lost and bad drivers... parking lots littered with poorly parked RVs... RV drivers who believe the size of their rigs give them de facto right of way... people whose minds are off somewhere else clogging the store aisles... couples in matching outfits... But I have to get supplies somewhere.

 

[Cathead]

couples in matching outfits...

Ha! Gotta love that!

 

[wayne49]

... couples in matching outfits...

Also couples with a dog in matching outfits.

 

[Patrick46]

Rhinebeck, NY is a town and village of less than 5,000 people, located about 100 miles north of New York City.  It contains the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, where every year a county fair is held that rivals the New York STATE fair, and is bigger than the CT or NJ state fairs.  We get between 200,000 and 250,000 visitors in the space of 6 days.  The traffic is insane, and many local businesses just shut down for the week.  Locals schedule their annual vacation during that period to avoid being home during that week.

Consider the townsfolk from Sturgis, S.D.

The population is less than 7000...except for during Bike Week. (the world's largest motorcycle rally) Then it swells to OVER 1,000,000!!!! Think about that for a minute! That's ALOT of people, in a very small town!
So, much like Rhinebeck, these locals adjust their personal schedules to accommodate the rally, and the monstrous influx of people that it brings. Of course, many ca$h in on the horde, as I do myself. (as a vendor) One can make some serious money during this run...and many do!
because of this, there's not a whole lot of complaining about the rally. It's been going on since 1938, and if you live anywhere near there, then this rally is part of your life. No 2 ways around it.

Locals care about the attitude of visitors. As a stereotype, snowbirds are retirees from large Eastern urban areas who retain their city manners when living elsewhere. They bring money but in too large numbers destroy local culture. Most of Florida's Southern culture has been destroyed by excessive immigration from the North. There are very few Old South-style small towns anymore, and most of the local restaurants and joints have been replaced by national chains. Traffic lights and multi-lane highways are universal.

While business owners enjoy the increased revenue from large numbers of temporary residents, many common people find that they drive up the cost of living, while contributing to traffic and a decreased quality of life.

I live on the Oregon Coastline, and we get a phenomenal amount of tourists here every summer.
But the one's that bring the most resentment from the locals...are the 'Californians'.

They come up here, with their "I don't give a crap about you peasants" attitude. They do crazy things on the road, like the guy who does a U-turn in the middle of Hwy 101, right on the edge of the down-town area, in an huge RV pulling a car!!!!! (and then goes on to say..."well, we do this at home!!") REALLY???? You drive that badly at your home town??? I somehow doubt that.

They are also very rude in restaurants, and don't mind pushing their way around.

This area has a very laid-back, easy-going attitude. We're friendly folks, and don't like people coming here and bringing their negative energy to the area.

Little wonder they're not very welcome here.


I try to keep this in mind as I myself travel around this country, and try to keep my own attitudes and actions in check.


Good Thread!

 

[highdesertranger]

I here you Patrick. myself being from Kalifornia, that perception is the first thing I like to get out of the way. it's because I live here and knows it's true. highdesertranger

 

[westriver]

Consider the townsfolk from Sturgis, S.D.

The population is less than 7000...except for during Bike Week. (the world's largest motorcycle rally) Then it swells to OVER 1,000,000!!!! Think about that for a minute! That's ALOT of people, in a very small town!

You're right Patrick, it would be a huge amount of folks in a little town, but fact is, the "official attendance" statistics at the rally are, well................... pretty "optimistic". First, the number has never been anywhere near a million, but that is what was hyped in the media for the entire year leading to the 75th. anniversary, in August of 2015. The reality was that the official count was a bit under 740K. Which is twice what a typical rally is lately. Now what they don't tell you is that at no point are there anywhere close to a million, or 740K people in, or near Sturgis, at one point. They use all kinds of data, including tons of trash generated, and vehicle counts coming off of I-90, to get an idea of how many attend rally during the entire week. So, there is a good possibility that you could attend for the week and get counted many, many times. For example, you end up camping a bit to the east, in Rapid, and ride into town every day. Once a day, a guy standing on the off ramp to town, hits his clicker when you go by. Doesn't take long for you to get counted as five or six attendees. The other interesting issue is that the attendance is a very tall bell curve. It peaks hard, mid-week and drops to near zero by the second weekend. We have been there on a Sunday afternoon, filling bags with $40 embroidered golf shirts, and other high dollar items, and paying ten cents on the dollar, since the legendary crowd is long gone, and getting their act together to go back to work the next morning, a thousand miles away from there.

 

[MrNoodly]

Consider the townsfolk from Sturgis, S.D.

The population is less than 7000...except for during Bike Week.

And it's not just Bike Week. When I passed through there a few years ago during Labor Day weekend there was a Mustang owners rally clogging up the place.

 

[Seadog729]

Time for an reverse snowbird invasion of Canada when the sun gets high in the sky.

Canada was nice when it was 1.25CAD for 1.00USD.

Now it is a fire sale.

Come on up, we love to you up here.  Just make sure you bring that warm weather

 

[buckwilk]

Those of you uncomfortable in Yuma, are you uncomfortable anywhere else you go? Yuma is no different, no better, no worse than any other city in this country. It certainly isn't Chicago! Old folks clogging aisles in stores, bless them, they are Moms and Dads. I wish mine were still here to clog aisles.