#walkable cities

If you could reblog this for bigger sample size that would be so so appreciated

Was looking around to see if there were colleges that had closed their doors or listed their campuses for sale just to browse and there's something going on here

Like 370+ up for sale in the United States, there must be some sort of quiet extinction event going on with the more niche, out-of-the-way colleges. Covid and online learning probably started it and Trump defunding everything is hastening it, its becoming a ghost town out there.

And they're also getting no bites it seems, this place in Maine (with an additional 224 acres) is assessed at $26m in value, but its list price is $5m, its sat on market for three years already so you could probably bid lower and they'd take it. I presume its because the market for such places is also other small educational institutions which are suffering badly from the same trends that forced these places under.

It feels like an opportunity, like you can do a lot with this. Its an entirely walkable, self-contained small town. You have residences, administration, services and utilities, dining and minor shopping outlets, a gym, a library. Labs/classrooms/equipment facilities can either be kept as they are or converted into entrepreneurial ventures, paying off a $3-4m loan seems easily feasible if you are a moderately successful online venture/not dependent on locality for your business.

fyi Amtrak has a guest rewards program for taking the train now

Yes it includes you can redeem them for travel, either by themselves or in combination with cash

When did they start? No idea. How does it work? They have a lot of details on their site! I just saw this because they sent me a big flashy email about how to redeem my points (which if they were smart is an email they'd make sure to send Often), so saying "I'm just the messenger" is honestly a big overstatement, more like I am leaving a small stack of fliers about on the counter of a public restroom.

I'll just answer with a link to the home page for their guest rewards program

Text from said Amtrak flyer:

Frequently Asked Questions

Credit Cards

SO MANY WAYS TO EARN SO MANY REWARDS AHEAD

LET THE EARNING BEGIN:

Learn more about all the different point-earning opportunities that help you get to rewards faster.

Amtrak Travel Earn 2 points per $1 spent, and a 25% point bonus for Business class travel and 50% for Acela First class.

Amtrak Guest Rewards® Preferred Mastercard® They're yours after spending $1,500 in the first 3 billing cycles of your account opening. Offers vary.

Retail & Specialty Partners Enjoy earning with flowers, gifts and more.

Rail Travel Partnerships Earn up to 10,000 points with a Rail Passengers Association membership depending on the membership level. With an RPA membership, members get discounts on Amtrak, regional trains, hotels and more.

--

Please excuse the exhausting definition density of soulless marketing language

But yeah. Turns out, in the United States, Amtrak gives you loyalty points now. And like, an actually, genuinely, extremely reasonable point to money ratio, too, which I wasn't sure was still possible in 2026.