At least one business sees a silver lining in the
recent Los Angeles earthquake. The Nevada-based Greener Pastures
Institute, which helps “urban opt-outs’ find their footing in the
unfamiliar terrain of the rural West, is getting a lot more phone
calls. The Institute’s newsletter circulates to about 2,000 people,
two-thirds of whom live in Southern California. People want to move
to the West and Northwest, says company director Bill Seavey, not
only to escape earthquakes but also to flee lost jobs and
pollution. As for the impact of immigrants on their new-found
“personal Edens,” Seavey encourages new arrivals to shed their city
expectations of symphonies and other amenities, and assimilate.
Communities that want to limit growth should consider zoning and
open space aquistions, he says. But if local residents don’t like
the changes overtaking their communities, “They can sell and move
anyplace they want.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Quake’s shakes move masses.
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