On The Other Hand

...we see the other face of a booming resort. During a crisis in tourism?

Greetings, fellow sentient beings. I intend to step way out of my league here and share my thoughts on processes that I am...superficially close with. I am judging from what I see on the surface, that's what I mean. Not that I haven't given it enough thought, or heard from others, or observed hundreds of other superficial wounds upon the surface of reality.

At what point do surface things tell a tale about things deep within?

In Isaac Asimov's 'Prelude to the Foundation' (if I am not mistaken — it could have been in any other of his Foundation cycle books) a maths professor could see the signs of the crumbling of the Empire from a single non-functioning light somewhere on the dome of some starport.

Because that had not happened before. For thousands of years.

What we see around us is ruin for decades. Urbanization being the beginning of the end for small settlements. Small at first. Insignificant at first glance, until...

Whole villages are abandoned...

Small towns are depopulated...

Houses in small towns begin to slump and crash under their own weight when there's nobody around to maintain them. And that took some years, too.

Irreversible? At least we know it is not sustainable in a closed system. But the system used to be wide open, up until recently.

Well, this place did see lots of tourists, this year included. Some hotels have been sprouting like mushrooms along the seacoast for the past decade. Tourism has been the only thing holding some small places together. Of course, locals are still trickling out. But newcomers take their place, trying to start some family business during the summer season. These places are alive during the summer only, quite quiet in winter.

Properties are still looking to be sold. And I found out that prices were not too shy there, reaching almost as high as those of properties in the city. Unrealistic but hopeful, some people remain. I wonder where this all turns now or during the following decade.

Looking at this structure, an old house in a popular, but only during the summer, place...I imagine there are two timelapse graphs racing. The property bubble and the strength this structure has still remaining in its sinews. One force is trying to reach this place, another is pulling it down.

In reality, it will be torn down, no matter what, no? I don't think a buyer would keep the old house instead of rebuilding. Will there be one? It's a risky deal. Is it?

Bubble babble...

Take it easy!

Yours,

Manol