They have fiber internet now. I grew up offline, had to fight for every improvement from 56k modem to ISDN to DSL. Now their internet is faster than mine.
A village nearby my hometown got fiber for the church and installed directed wifi antennas on the church tower to solve their internet problems
They’ve reinvented confession for the modern age
Technically you do not confess, but the Big5 internet monopolists track your every move like a vengeful god would do.
It’s tripled in population. We’re up to about 3,000 people now.
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Lots and lots and lots of empty places.
At least half of the retail space is basically dead.
My old shopping mall filled the half-empy food court with a climbing gym for kids and a massive video arcade, which is cool. It’s more like a flea market than a mall now because the storefronts that are occupied are all local retailers.
Oddly enough, the old cookie shop in the mall is still going strong and making the same great stuff. Apparently that place is timeless.
Less trees. A lot less.
Every small outdoors place I grew up playing in have been razed to build more detached homes.
The city is originally small, with 2 main roads crossing each other. With all the new influx of people, it is impossible to get out of there in a timely manner by car or bus.
A massive outlet mall opened, in a small city who’s biggest attraction previously was WalMart. Now when people ask where I’m from, the response I get to telling them is “oh the place with the mall?”
Also, I’ve heard the school district is pretty good these days. Unlike when I was there and my high school had one of the lowest graduation rates west of the Rockies.
The only change I think anyone would notice is the town got big on graffiti art. It’s everywhere now.
My town let some kids go around and paint stuff where graffiti usually pops up. Zero graffiti. They do a little upkeep so it doesn’t fade and I haven’t seen tags in a decade.
its about half condo townhouse but when I was young I would be surprised if it was 10%. Conversely so many mcmansions. Way more businesses especially restaurants. They are like one step away from allowing bars when before it was dry. Oh man the flagship pool is basically a waterpark now. so jelly of the kids. crime certainly higher. In recent times guns have been fired in town which when I was young you never even heard of a police officer firing a gun. of course catalytic converter thefts. Muggings and carjacking has happened. Growing up some teens firing of fireworks was crime. Gas stations requiring prepay. This excersise is sorta bumming me out now.
My hometown was in Canada’s top-ten communities in decline for years. These days, it’s got two-thirds the population it used to, the streets are full of deer, and quite a few farmers’ fields have turned into forests. Almost everyone my age that I knew moved away long ago. Going back is always shocking.
I think the most notable change is that the main hospital in my hometown was moved to the outskirts of the city. It used to be closer to the center but they moved it, possibly because it’s bigger now and they needed more space to work with.
They also tore down the old courthouse and replaced it with one that, at least from the outside, looks smaller. Some of the supermarkets have also move locations and there are some new stores that have taken the old locations.
A few nicer houses, the crappy highschool is gone, many of the businesses remain unchanged.
Everyone I know got older.
Every time I visit, I know where less and less places are, because they keep closing older places and opening new ones. It really doesn’t feel like my hometown anymore. Last time I wanted to visit the music shop where I would practice piano and have recitals, only to drive by to see that it had been closed for a couple years.
*The population is 50 times what it was when I was a kid.
*All the cool places we used to hang out at school as kids are fenced off.
*The big tree that shaded half the yard of the house I grew up in was cut down. The property has been split into 3 separate “apartments” for rent. Everything was repainted and the yard looks nothing like it used to.
*Everything around town has been built up. Most of the empty fields have businesses or houses on them.
*The lake my grandfather and I used to fish at is no longer publically accessible. The lake was choked to death by algae caused by farm run off pollution.
*The main road is paved, has gutters, street lights etc. and isn’t a dirt road anymore like it was when I was little.
*Trains don’t go through the railroad going through town. They haven’t for years so no train watching.
