By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
When the pandemic struck New York, and the City that never sleeps was forced to shutter, scores of New Yorkers fled to rural areas. With work and schools going remote, and with the attractions shuttered, they felt it made little sense to stay in such a crowded city and pay such high expenses. Many headed towards Florida, or somewhere aloof and remote, where they would have plenty of outdoors space and escape the urban life. It didn’t always turn out as well as expected though.
A lot of the city folks had no idea what it would take to survive in remote locations. As per a recent article in the NY Post, many of those who fled found themselves in over their head and missing the city comforts. Actress Kate Chapman, 51, and her husband Ed,55, a Broadway sound technician, decided to head to rural Colorado when the pandemic shuttered the city. Ed owned 40 acres outside Colorado Springs, which he had purchased “for retirement”, and they figured this was their chance to live it up. It wasn’t the oasis they imagined, however. They literally had to build the home themselves. Cultivating crops and raising chickens weren’t as easy as they may seem either, especially in the arid land which was subject to dust storms and hail.
Similarly, as per The Post, in searching for a simpler rural life immersed in nature and away from people, civil-rights lawyer, Allison Mahoney, decided to ditch her stylish DUMBO apartment for a condo in Snowmass Village, Colorodo, in September of 2020. “I was becoming increasingly frustrated with my living situation in New York,” said the 38-year-old about being stuck in a small apartment in the height of the pandemic. “I was trying to think where would be pleasant to stay over the winter, and a ski town was like the first thing that popped in my head.”
She ended up missing the things she never thought to appreciate. “My first night staying there I was petrified, because it was so quiet,” she said. “The USPS can’t and won’t deliver mail here, so I suddenly had to get a PO Box,” she said. “I’ve never had to go to the post office so much in my life.” Countless other stories were told by those who took part in the exodus, about how they moved into places with leaks or were forced to do their own remodeling without any previous experience in rural undertakings.
