I watched Colorado get bought out because the local economy was low and slow, with everyone making a living doing each other's laundry. They didn't have two nickels to rub together, so when $$$ arrived, it bought everything in sight.

I remember Aspen when it was a pretty little ghost town with a couple of summer homes and no ski courses.
Now the billionaires are pushing out the mere millionaires.

Telluride was a charming ex-mining town. Now it's wall-to-wall $$$.

Crested Butte used to be a nice blend of miners, hunters, fishermen and tourists. Now we call it the 'work-free drug place', full of trust-fund kids.

Even Durango was a decent place before it got Californicated.

Best places left are Ouray because it's been a tourist town for nearly 100 years and grew into it tastefully instead of getting overwhelmed with a 'plastic' West. And Lake City, because the summer folks don't need the Big Money - if you can afford to spend 3-4 months a year on vacation and have been doing so for 3 generations, you can resist being overdeveloped.

Il est dangereux d’avoir raison dans des choses où des hommes accrédités ont tort.
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.
- Voltaire

that Smaug destroys Laketown and spends all of his time laying on his hoard while the people of the town struggle for an existence in his shadow.