America’s communities are the laboratories for America’s future. The lessons of today can be studied, modeled, replicated, and scaled thanks to the technologies of our era. Examine and explore the how of the American renewal, and connect communities with one another, here.
PARKS, REC & FUN
Great Falls Reimagines Its Identity through Nature-Based Tourism
With community partnerships and resident input, the small South Carolina town is writing its next…
PRESS
Discussing the ‘Our Towns’ Journey on The News Project
Deb and Jim Fallows explore the ongoing story of Our Towns with Andrew McKeever on Greater Northshire Access Television’s ‘The News Project: In…
CIVIC LIFE
‘Change is in the Air – in Redlands!’
A panel of residents, business owners, and community stakeholders discuss the southern California city then, and…
LOCAL INSTITUTIONS
How a Foundation Transforms the Well-Being of Residents
Our Towns’ Ben Speggen talks with the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation team to discuss how the Foundation is empowering community development, has transformed a…

Step Inside Our Towns
Listen to today’s stories of American renewal on our podcast now available through YouTube and Spotify.
Listen NowTowns and cities from coast to coast are today’s incubators for ideas that will tell the modern story of American renewal. From the arts to education, from public policy to sustainability, from craft beer to river walks, people are experimenting in innovative ways that drive progress. We tell their stories here.
APPLY LESSONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Paths to New Prosperity and a Better Politics in Our Democracies
‘It’s not all a silicon valley’. What a new report of a U.S.-Midwest learning exchange and study tour for European Union and United Kingdom leaders finds.
ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
Carbon offset pact will put solar on dozens of Habitat for Humanity homes
The District of Columbia-based American Institute of Architects is offsetting greenhouse gas emissions from a major renovation with a $500,000 donation that will cover the cost of solar panels on an estimated 72 homes.
RURAL & REGIONAL
How Infrastructure Funding Is Bringing High-Speed Internet to Hard-to-Reach Places
A fresh round of funds was pumped into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Broadband project when the infrastructure bill passed a year ago. That investment is bringing connectivity to some of the most rugged and remote corners of the country.
INVENTION & RENEWAL
Made-in-Ohio solar panels benefit from federal incentives, supply chain politics
About two decades after cadmium telluride solar panels were commercialized in Ohio, the maturing technology is finding momentum thanks in part to its domestic manufacturing and supply chain.
RURAL & REGIONAL
Is Rural America Growing Again? Recent Data Suggests Yes
Despite unprecedented Covid-19-related death rates, rural America shows population growth after a decade of decline.
APPLY LESSONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Discovering ‘Cultural Debris’: Making a Big World Small by Paying Attention to Permanent Things
Sharing what we experience when we travel can open communities to themselves and others.
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
What Midwest Industrial Communities can Teach about Managing Economic Change
With a great convergence on both sides of the Atlantic around the urgent need to diminish geographic economic disparities and opportunity gaps — particularly those between thriving global city regions and struggling communities in industrial heartlands – there are growing efforts to learn from each other.
PODCAST
Inside Our Towns: John Kropf
John Kropf discusses his latest book, ‘Color Capital of the World: Growing Up with the Legacy of a Crayon Company’, which explores Sandusky, Ohio’s innovative industrial heritage and his family’s role in it.
ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
That empty space next to highways? Put solar panels on it.
Roadside solar fields across the country could power up to 12 million electric vehicles.
LIBRARIES
Global Effort Takes Libraries to the People
Libraries Without Borders finds innovative ways to meet community residents where they are to provide equitable access to the range of services today’s libraries offer.
ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
What’s the Quickest Way to Make a Big Difference, Through a Little Step? It’s Right There in the Backyard.
Change comes slowly, then all at once.
REPORTS FROM AMERICA
Another Look Into the ‘Heart’ of America
First, a geographic perspective. Then, the country’s struggle to recognize ways in which it is changing—and might be improving.
ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
A Delicate Balance – Marrying Recreation and Preservation in Iowa
Local climbing coalition and authorities found a way to collaborate and keep access to a popular climbing area and preserve the environment.
PODCAST
Inside Our Towns: Allen Carroll and Story Maps
Evan Sanford explores the origin and evolution of Esri’s story maps with the innovative storytelling tool’s creator, Allen Carroll.
CIVIC LIFE
To Both See and Tell the Country: From the Road through North Carolina to South Carolina
Why seeing more of America matters.
EDUCATION
‘We Fly,’ in Indiana
It’s time to judge colleges by their contributions to the economic and civic life of their communities. Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, passes the test brilliantly.
EDUCATION
A Student Newspaper Takes on Community Responsibilities
The Ball State Daily News has filled a local journalism gap.
ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
Turning the Tides
Turtles, and people — a connected story, with an outcome you might not have guessed.
CIVIC LIFE
‘To Arrive Where We Started and Know the Place for the First Time’
The America that Americans Don’t Know About, and Why That Matters
EDUCATION
‘When Gown Embraces Town’: Two Stories from Indiana
What is happening in the ‘Middletown’ of Muncie, and why it matters.
JOURNALISM & CIVIC NEWS
What Happened at Chautauqua, and Why It Matters
Friday, Aug. 12, an assailant rushed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution. He stabbed Salman Rushdie in the neck and abdomen. Rushdie was not the only victim in this attack.
ARTS
An Outsider Works with Insiders: Examples from Akron and Cleveland
Mac Love, who has spent much of his life outside Ohio, uses new technologies to bring community residents and college students together. That collaborative approach is now helping citizens’ voices be heard and is driving meaningful change in their neighborhoods.
BIG LITTLE IDEAS
Inside Our Towns: Project Fighting Chance
Evan Sanford and James Fallows talk with Ian Franklin and Terry Boykins about Project Fighting Chance — a boxing gym that is more than a boxing gym in San Bernardino. They discuss how it got started, how it has grown, and an immediate challenge it faces today.
ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
‘Mapping Common Ground’: What I learned this summer in San Diego
New reason to “think globally, and act locally.”
RURAL & REGIONAL
A Dining-room Meeting Begins a New Chapter in One Town’s Story
As Isaac and Heidi Tucker saw it, there was no use in waiting for their town to improve itself. Instead, they took action, and are rallying renewal efforts in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania today.
WATER
Past, Present, and Future on the Water: Using StoryMaps to Explore Bucksport, Maine
What does a mile-long stretch along the Penobscot River tell the walker about Bucksport, Maine? As it turns out, a lot.
RURAL & REGIONAL
Q&A: How to Support Rural Students Pursuing Higher Education
Matt Newlin is a higher education consultant and founder of the podcast The Rural College Student Experience. He advocates for rural students pursuing college.
ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY
A Look at Lobstering and Craftsmanship
Eastport, Maine has a long history of resilience. It’s still there today in Elijah Brice.
CIVIC LIFE
A Town of Doers Works Together to Preserve Their Past and Plan Their Future
Residents and businesses in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania have adopted a mantra: if it’s a community problem, it’s their problem too.
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
The Economic Potential of the Great American Rail-Trail
The completion of a cross-country bike trail in old railroad corridors could add nearly a quarter-billion dollars a year to local economies.
CIVIC LIFE
Inside Our Towns: PA Humanities
A look at Humanities in the 21st century, the power of storytelling in community development, and more.
YOUTH ENGAGEMENT
The Paper Clips Project: Students Bring Holocaust History to Southeastern Tennessee
Whitwell, Tennessee has become the center for a world-renowned cultural education project and Holocaust memorial.
EDUCATION
Now is the Time for Reflection on Public Education
How can community-level education serve as the enabler for self-government? A look at our country’s past may offer the best answers for our future.
RURAL & REGIONAL
Inside Our Towns: Jason Neises
Discussing opportunities, real and perceived challenges in small-town America, and the impact of Community Heart & Soul in Iowa.
LIBRARIES
A Remarkable Woman Builds a Remarkable Library
This is the story of how a late-1800s free public library built by Amelia S. Givin in Mt. Holly Springs, Pennsylvania continues to bring the region together today.
EDUCATION
Real Mississippi podcasts: Having the Grace to Find a Sense of Place
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science student Christina Zhang explores how a church in Biloxi serves as a space to share and celebrate Asian-American culture.
HEALTH
A Safe Place to Talk: Raising HIV Awareness through Barbershops
Barbershops are often hubs for conversation in Black and Latinx communities. DKBmed’s Fade Out HIV initiative strives to make use of these gathering spots to destigmatize HIV education and save lives.
FAITH INSTITUTIONS & ORGANIZATIONS
HOW POWERFUL STORIES ARE REBUILDING A CHURCH
This is the story of Elias Van Buren Parker and how today’s telling of his story has the power to pull the town of Mt. Holly Springs, Pennsylvania from its early glory days, then decline, back to new days of glory.
EDUCATION
Real Mississippi podcasts: You Can Go Back Home Again
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science student Raegan Calvert explores the challenges and opportunities in her hometown of Wiggins, Mississippi
COLLABORATIONS & PARTNERSHIPS
Story Maps are at the Center of Community Collaboration in Kent, Ohio
New digital tools give communities innovative and engaging ways to tell their own stories. In Kent, Ohio, a community-wide collaboration among Kent State University, Main Street Kent, and the Kent Historical Society & Museum uses story maps to teach residents about the town’s rich history.
YOUTH ENGAGEMENT
Never Too Soon: Engaging America’s Youngest Citizens Early and Often
Americans know that retaining their young people requires getting them involved in the civic process early and often.
GEOJOURNALISM
Why Story Maps Matter
People understand the world through stories. People absorb their stories in ever-expanding ways. Here is a preview of a powerful, emerging form of digital story-telling, which we’ll be using frequently in this space.
EDUCATION
Real Voices from Real Mississippi
How podcasts are reshaping how high-school students research and tell stories of their hometowns throughout Mississippi.
Arts
Think Global, Perform Local
Troubled by the war in Ukraine, 100-year-old Angie Zerad wanted to do something. With help from her daughter, she began the daily ritual of playing the Ukrainian national anthem.
HEALTH
American Institutions That Still Work
Everyone knows about the parts of America that are so polarized and divided that they have lost touch with their basic functions. Here’s a look at some of the people, institutions, and collaborative cultures that provide examples, and lessons, for the rest of us.
CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
Fountains of Youth for Towns
The life and spirit of any town or city depend on its ability to attract and retain people. In a time when many worry about brain drain, how communities keep their young people, or bring them back, or attract newcomers illustrates a place’s sense of and attention to renewal.
INVENTION & RENEWAL
Galesburg residents revitalize ‘Appliance City’ by focusing on ‘quality of life’
Galesburg residents are redefining the heart and soul of the town by bringing their unique history and heritage to the fore.
COLLABORATIONS & PARTNERSHIPS
A New Partnership: Community Heart & Soul
Community Heart & Soul and Our Towns Civic Foundation are collaborating to bring national attention to the stories of innovation and renewal in small cities and towns across the United States.
BEER
The Local Tavern: The Tradition Continues at Max Taps-Centennial
Entrepreneurship. Gatherings of friends and colleagues. Industry leadership. Great American traditions. These are prime ingredients of successful local community taprooms. And there’s a new one in Centennial, Colorado building community.
NEW OLD IDEAS
Renewing the call for a Marshall Plan for America
Seven decades ago, a plan to rebuild fragile, wounded countries swept across Western Europe. That idea should serve as a blueprint for American towns and cities and regions left behind today, argues Michael Cooper.
TOWN HISTORY & STORY
Building Bridges within and among Communities through Stories
Not all bridges are physical. The ways communities are connecting with one another, and themselves, is happening differently in light of COVID-19 and with new tools like OurStoryBridge: an online platform that captures and houses community stories.
CIVIC LIFE
The River Walk Theory of Life
Bucksport’s waterfront is a major natural asset for the Maine town. And along it runs Bucksport’s Walkway. Here’s a look at the river walk and why it matters.
FLYING / AVIATION
Cooperation, Calm, and Competence: This Is How It Sounds
In the skies over Dulles airport last week, pilots and controllers gave an example of grace under pressure.
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
“Ally-Shore” to Restore U.S. Economic Leadership and Protect Democracy
“Allyshoring” offers the United States benefits locally, nationally, and internationally. What is “allyshoring,” why does it matter? Why is it important now? Elaine Dezenski and John Austin explain.
CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
The Past, the Future, the Present: Updates from Coast to Coast
A Fellow named, college services goes big, and scenes from a Day of Enlightened Living — here are three updates on stories we’ve been following on this site over the years.
CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
Bringing a City Together: How Leaf Blowers Did It
This is the story of how citizens worked together toward a common goal in Washington, D.C. The story involves a change on the local level with significant, positive implications for other parts of the country and beyond.
LOCAL HEROES
Max Taps Supports Marshall Fire Victims
In the wake of one of the costliest fires in U.S. history, a local establishment is leading a local response effort to support those in need.
CIVIC LIFE
The Coming Reckoning
Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of our democracy, or are we living through growing pains? Are we on the brink of a civil war, or will unity prevail adapted and renewed?
BEER
The Local Tavern: A Glimpse of America’s Past Present Today
One of the most important things modern America shares with the people who founded the country is the sense of community and fellowship that comes with sharing time at the local tavern.
Civic Life
‘We’re Speaking’ features ‘Our Towns’ in conversation
A conversation on the experimentation, renewal, and hope for America’s small towns.
Civic Life
A Southern City Shows How to Deal With the Past
This is how it looks when a community, its faith and civic organizations, and some of its leading citizens face difficult truths.
BIG LITTLE IDEAS
Ajo, Charleston, and Eastport take to the digital stage to talk rural resilience
What do Ajo, Arizona; Eastport, Maine; and Charleston, West Virginia have in common? The answer leads down a rural path.
CIVIC LIFE
Congrats to the Winners!
Two small towns come out strong in a national poll. They’re among our favorites, and we’re glad for these results.
LIBRARIES
Libraries Lead the Way—Again
Every aspect of civic life has involved reinvention and adjustment, through this pandemic era. One of America’s most “traditional” institutions has adjusted fastest and best.
LEADERS & GOVERNANCE
The Future of Power
What is the future of power?
FLYING / AVIATION
The Quiet Competence That Makes the Country Run
Being “inside the clouds” is stressful. But when you break into the clear, you see things you might not have noticed before. A view of the “soft skills” part of America’s human infrastructure, and their difference from those in China and elsewhere.
INVENTION & RENEWAL
Examining Change at Global, Local Levels
How do global changes affect us on the local level, and vice versa?
CLIMATE
‘Renewal’ at All Levels — The Personal to the Global. An Urgent Conversation with Two Leaders of the Movement
What can a conversation about ‘Renewal’ teach us about climate change?
LOCAL HEROES
In Honor of Charly Jupiter Hamilton
A person who became the soul of his community, explains his vision—in art, and in memorable words.
RURAL & REGIONAL
Covid Pioneer Families
How has the pandemic motivated people to reconsider where they live, and why? Here is a story from South Dakota about how families are changing—and towns as well.
LEADERS & GOVERNANCE
The Justice Paradox in America
Developing a common definition of justice could go a long way towards healing our national rifts. But how do we arrive at a shared definition?
Civic Life
Bring in the Refugees
The most encouraging front-page headline I’ve seen in the New York Times in a long time was this, from Labor Day. It was on a story by Miriam Jordan and Jennifer Steinhauer, and it said: For the moment, let’s set aside the obvious complications and caveats: Who exactly made it out of Afghanistan, and didn’t. When and where […]
ARTS
A New Host for Mountain Stage
The founder of a popular and influential NPR program brings on a new host.
INVENTION & RENEWAL
Transforming Industrial Heartland Communities – And Healing Our Fractured Politics
Some communities have made the transition to a new, thriving economy in a changed world. Others are still struggling.
LIBRARIES
Learning to Expect the Unexpected
Anythink Libraries Serve Adams County Through a Spirit of Hospitality and Innovation
LEADERS & GOVERNANCE
Polycentric Power in Your Community
What power do communities have at the local level when it comes to the environment?
HOW-TO MODELS
Bucksport Maine Finds Its Heart & Soul
How can person-to-person democracy be revived? A one-time mill town in coastal Maine is a laboratory for a new approach.
RURAL & REGIONAL
Living Through History: a Reading List
The 1880s, the 1930s, the 1950s—they dramatically reshaped America. The 2020s are likely to do so as well.
CIVIC LIFE
Greater than the Sum of Its Parts
How Gender and Racial Biases Create Ironies that Defeat Good Organizations
GEOJOURNALISM
‘A New Citizenry Around Truth’
How can the people who invented digital mapping technology avoid worrying about writing the next chapter in the history of disinformation?
FROM THE READERS
Brimming with a Sense of Possibility and Positivity with the Wind Finally at Our Backs Again
“Our Towns” Reader Response Roundup features film screening feedback, a unique effort to support libraries nationwide, and national perceptions being addressed at the local level.
PUBLIC ART
Charleston, West Virginia Celebrates Charly Jupiter Hamilton
“‘The Wonder Mural’ by Charly Hamilton changed an entire community. Through inclusion, Charly made a piece for the community by literally painting the community.”
GEOJOURNALISM
Why Maps Matter, Starting in Childhood and Even More Now
A “geo-historical narrative” captured the imagination of many children in mid-20th century America. Maps have always had power to shape perceptions of reality. A memoir about their influence–and an introduction of what’s to come.
CIVIC LIFE
Organizational Irony in Small Town USA
What can a look at the paradoxes of power and failed leadership teach communities?
HIGH SCHOOLS
A Message to the Class of 2021
What’s a Mike? And what makes a Mike Mighty?
JOURNALISM & CIVIC NEWS
The Rise of the Kingsbury Journal, and the Future of Local Journalism
A local paper with a longer history than its home state suddenly shut its doors, for good, during the pandemic. How an entire community willed a new publication into existence–and avoided becoming one more American “news desert.”
CIVIC LIFE
Exposing What was Already Present
The pandemic provides an opportunity to focus on justice and equity in Erie, Pennsylvania.
FROM THE READERS
‘Our Towns’ Viewer Response Roundup
Viewers respond to ‘Our Towns’ HBO documentary.
JOURNALISM & CIVIC NEWS
Learning from a Prairie State
Small cities, potentially big lessons. What a state that is home to 800,000 people can demonstrate to the country as a whole.
IMMIGRANTS & REFUGEES
Erie Celebrates World Refugee Day with New Film, Publishes Directory of Refugee-Owned Businesses
Erie Celebrates World Refugee Day with New Film, Publishes Directory of Refugee-Owned Businesses
ARTS
Creating and Reimagining Community through a Crisis
A look at the impact of Covid-19 on the culture sector in Erie, Pennsylvania.
HBO DOCUMENTARY
“Our Towns:” From the Pages to the Screen
The filmmakers and writers discuss the story of “Our Towns” at JES Global Summit.
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Revitalizing Charleston, West Virginia Brick by Brick
Revitalizing Charleston, West Virginia Brick by Brick
JOURNALISM & CIVIC NEWS
The Editor Behind the Story of ‘Own Towns’
Few people outside the publishing world knew of Dan Frank. Many benefitted from his vision, and skill–including anyone visiting this site.
BIG LITTLE IDEAS
‘New Old Ideas’: A Modern CCC
American history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Crises keep cropping up–and so do ideas and solutions. Many innovations from the 1930s have new relevance for the post-pandemic 2020s. Here is an example, and the thinking behind it.
BIG LITTLE IDEAS
A Plan to Grow 90,000 Trees in Los Angeles
Using tree planting as an axis to connect job creation, climate sustainability, urban renewal, and economic equity and inclusion.
TRANSPORTATION
Learning from Eisenhower (and Lincoln): A Grand Bargain on Transportation
Two Republican presidents — Abraham Lincoln, and Dwight Eisenhower — offered bold new approaches to transportation as part of their national strategy. A proposal
CIVIC LIFE
‘My Friends’: Communications and a ‘National Family’
What the presidential addresses of 1933 tell us about the America of 2021.
Local Institutions
Geo-Journalism Illustrates & Expands the Story
An interactive map of the Columbus, Ohio Library system illustrates the power of maps in reporting.
HIGH SCHOOLS
History Come Alive – and Livestreamed!
Eighth of May Emancipation Celebration in Columbus, Mississippi now available on YouTube.
COMMUNITY COLLEGES
‘One Flat Tire Away’: Community Colleges Deserve the Spotlight
Two members of the Biden family, one a president with an “American Families Plan” and the other a First Lady known as “Dr. B” to her community college students, make the case for these schools as engines of opportunity.
PRESS
Writers discuss state of the US in documentary ‘Our Towns’
Hoda and Jenna talk with James and Deborah about ‘Our Towns,’ their documentary of the month.
Press
Opinion: Biden’s American Families Plan could rewrite American politics
“The value of community colleges in giving students technical skills for the jobs of the future was explained powerfully in ‘Our Towns’…
PANDEMIC
Meet Erie: Part II – Economic Impact
Like many towns and cities, Erie, Pennsylvania long had its identity tied to its industry. The only county of the Keystone State’s 67 located on the Great Lakes watershed – on the lake from which it draws its name – Erie, through the decades, built the reputation for building. But unlike Detroit with its automobiles […]
PRESS
“As an exercise in sincerity, fellowship and earnest inquiry, it might be the most subversive movie in circulation right now.”
HBO documentary ‘Our Towns’ visits 6 American cities and finds unity, not division.
HBO Documentary
‘WHAT TO WATCH’ RECOMMENDS ‘OUR TOWNS’ HBO DOCUMENTARY
Editor Phil Nickinson lauds the film’s “expansive perspective on America that finds unexpected connections between personal stories, community actions, and the arc of history.”
Civic Life
Our Towns Civic Foundation: The Idea, and the Goals
What is the idea behind this site and the Our Towns Civic Foundation? And what are the goals? Here’s a brief summary.
CIVIC LIFE
‘On Such a Full Sea…’
Welcome to the Our Towns Civic Foundation site! The purpose of this note is to introduce a new film; to connect the news of the moment to the largest possibilities of the era; and to explain the ambitions of the project of which this site is part.
Arts
A Vibrant American Musical Career, far From America’s Cultural Capitals
What Larry Groce discovered by launching a national radio program from an out-of-the-way location
Civic Life
Artisanal Salt From an Ancient Sea
Fair warning: I am not going to try to strap any Larger Policy Significance onto this report. It was just one of the more interesting things we’ve seen on our travel, and we wanted to let others know about it. Our story starts some 600 million years ago, when a body of water now known […]
Civic Life
Three Guides to the Next America
This note is to kick off a resumed set of chronicles in the “Our Towns” series, after time away for a long Atlantic project on the origins of this era’s public-health and economic disaster. The results of that project are here: “Three Weeks That Changed Everything.” If you’re wondering, the three weeks I have in mind are: January […]
Civic Life
Local Efforts in a Time of Extreme Global Stress
The theme in this “Our Towns” space has been, and remains, the sources of vitality, practicality, generosity, and renewal in local-level America, despite bitter polarization in national-level politics. The series began almost seven years ago, when smaller communities across the United States were still trying to rebuild their economies after the financial collapse of 2008 and beyond. […]
Civic Life
The End of the Roman Empire Wasn’t That Bad Maybe the end of the American one won’t be either.
It’s time to think about the Roman empire again. But not the part of its history that usually commands attention in the United States: the long, sad path of Decline and Fall. It’s what happened later that deserves our curiosity. As a reminder, in 476 a.d., a barbarian general named Odoacer overthrew the legitimate emperor of the […]
Education
‘The world you can change is the world you can reach out and touch’: How history is shaping the future of Columbus, Mississippi
Through research, partnerships, and performance, students are giving a voice to history’s ignored chapters to tell the fuller story of their town.
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
A Peach Tree Grows in Charleston, West Virginia
Behind the 4,000-square-foot building in the Elk City neighborhood of Charleston, West Virginia, a shed stood alone outside.
Arts
THIS IS WHAT WE TRAIN FOR
During our five years of travel around the country, my husband Jim and I often found that artists who revealed the perspectives on their hometowns were the people who stopped us in our tracks.
Arts
Meet Erie: A rust belt region continues to navigate its renaissance through a pandemic
Local filmmakers take to their streets examines the economic, cultural, and social impacts of Covid-19 during the summer of 2020 through this short film series.
LIBRARIES
How Libraries Are Leading the Way to Digital Equity
This is a report about how that drama is playing out in one sizable American city, and what its lessons indicate for the country as a whole.
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
When a Company Invests in an ‘Underdog City’
The story of how a company that started in one of these places is now involving people and businesses in another—and why that matters in the next stage of equitable American recovery.
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
LEARNING FROM THE NEW DEAL—FOR THE NEXT RECOVERY
I was talking with the mayor of a “red state” city about how his community was weathering today’s public-health and financial crises.
Leaders & Governance
How Michael Jones Changed Our Daily Lives
“Everyone is an inventor; you need only ignore limits and preconceptions then ask yourself ‘how should it be?’ “
Leaders & Governance
Why Biden’s Inaugural Address Succeeded
In 20 minutes, the president signaled how he will approach this job and this moment in history.
Leaders & Governance
Time for Consequences
President-elect Joe Biden must look forward—but the rest of us must contend with the past.
Economic & Business Development
What Post-pandemic Repair Could Look Like
An update, following a report last month, on plans to repair the damage now being done.
Leaders & Governance
How Biden Should Investigate Trump
The misdeeds and destructive acts are legion. The new president should focus on these three.
Big Little Ideas
Why Some Libraries Are Eliminating Fines
Are fines consistent with a fundamental mission of libraries: to serve the public with information and knowledge? And to address that mission equitably across the diverse population of rich and poor library users?
Civic Life
How to Reconnect Rural and Urban America
Some recent items worth noticing
Leaders & Governance
Trump’s Indifference Amounts to Negligent Homicide
The president’s behavior may not meet the term’s legal definition, but it captures the horror a government is visiting upon its people.
Economic & Business Development
What Happens After the Election
What else is going on in the country, with less than two weeks in this consequential election season?
Civic Life
A ‘Climate Corps’ of California Volunteers
Designed to address both the causes and the effects of California’s exposure to climate change.
Leaders & Governance
The Media Learned Nothing From 2016
The press hasn’t broken its most destructive habits when it comes to covering Donald Trump.
Education
The Sport That’s Like Playing in a Jazz Quartet
“Rowing is a sport, everything else is a game.”
Leaders & Governance
A Note on Ted Halstead
From an early age, he thought, talked, promised, and achieved on a very big scale. I am very glad to have known and worked with him, and I hope his example will inspire many others.
Education
‘A Most Beautiful Thing’ in a Time of Racial Reckoning
This film’s story would be surprising and engrossing at any time, but it has a current power and relevance its producers could not have foreseen when they began making it.
Leaders & Governance
The Cool-Media Approach to Conventions
The Democrats were forced out of the old, and figured out the new. How will Republicans respond?
Arts
THE ARTISTS OF LEMMON, SOUTH DAKOTA
The role of the arts in a tiny town with its sights set high
Economic & Business Development
How a Small Brewery Can Survive COVID-19
A bellwether business category, figuring out how and whether it can survive.
Leaders & Governance
Another Lesson From the Roman Empire
From Sulla to Sullen: What the Fall of the Roman Republic Tells Us About Where Trump Is Taking Us.
Leaders & Governance
Michael Jones Receives Royal Honors
Awarded the 2020 Patron’s Medal for his contribution to the development of geospatial information.
Economic & Business Development
What happens to small companies now?
The path small, locally conscious firms are taking to survive the current economic and public health disaster.
Economic & Business Development
Will Craft Brewing Survive?
Following up with breweries large and small around the country.
Health
The 3 Weeks That Changed Everything
Imagine if the National Transportation Safety Board investigated America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Health
Is This the Worst Year in Modern American History?
Comparing 2020 to 1968 offers some disquieting lessons for the present.
Arts
‘This Is What We Train For’
During our five years of travel around the country, my husband Jim and I often found that artists who revealed the perspectives on their hometowns were the people who stopped us in our tracks.
Reports From America
The Post-Pandemic Future of Libraries
“I’ve never been prouder to be a librarian.”
Economic & Business Development
A Company That Helps You Find Job
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Bitwise hosted a conference for International Women’s Day Courtesy of Bitwise The tech-training and incubator company Bitwise, based in Fresno in California’s agricultural Central Valley, has been an important test case for the proposition that new, valuable, job-creating and wealth-expanding businesses can arise anywhere, not just in the few […]
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Sparking a Small-Town Business Ecosystem
Read the story in The Atlantic here. An event in the long-abandoned Elks Lodge in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, now an office center and civic space. (Courtesy of Innovation Collective) The national-level response to the coronavirus pandemic descends from tragedy into catastrophe. The black granite slabs of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington display the names of […]
Economic & Business Development
From Military Service to Civilian Leadership
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Courtesy of NationSwell Here’s another installment in the chronicle of people who are trying to take up the slack, while the national government flails rather than coping with a pandemic. Previously in this series: innovations from libraries; changes in a statewide program in California; and responses from a nationwide nonprofit network. (To […]
Economic & Business Development
A Different Kind of Civil-Service Organization
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Aminata Brown, who is now Chief Innovation Officer at the New Orleans Police Department, and Sean Doss, now Executive Advisor to the Los Angeles Housing & Community Investment Department, both of whom served two years in those agencies as FUSE Executive Fellows. (Courtesy of James Weinberg) The U.S. national […]
Health
A Rural Health Center With a Pandemic Plan
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Downtown Eastport, from above Courtesy of Don Dunbar The Rowland B. French Medical Center is the primary health-care facility for the residents of Eastport, Maine, a tiny Down East fishing town, population 1,400. Eastport was one of the first of some 50 towns that Jim and visited during our reporting across […]
Health
Books for This Moment
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Morning in Cleveland, Ohio, where Belt Publishing is based Henryck Sadura via Shutterstock The past weeks have of course meant economic devastation for small and local businesses of all sorts, as discussed here in an item about Erie. The pressures on local bookstores and publishers, and local newspapers and other news […]
Health
A New Way for Californians to Serve
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Josh Fryday announcing the Civic Action Fellowship in February of this year Courtesy of California Volunteers The coronavirus peril is global. Much of the response must, of course, be international or national if it is to matter at all. In the United States, only the federal government can pump […]
Local Institutions
PUBLIC LIBRARIES’ NOVEL RESPONSE TO A NOVEL VIRUS
America’s public libraries have led the ranks of “second responders,” stepping up for their communities in times of natural or manmade disasters, like hurricanes, floods, shootings, fires, and big downturns in individual lives. Throughout all these events, libraries have stayed open, filling in for the kids when their schools closed; offering therapeutic sessions in art […]
Health
‘Years of Effort, Undone in Weeks’
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Ember + Forge, a coffee shop that has become a center of downtown life in Erie, Pennsylvania, but whose revenue has virtually disappeared. Small businesses like this have led Erie’s downtown revival. A new study examines what it will take for them to survive. (Courtesy of Nick Warren and […]
Local Institutions
Looking at Libraries
Read the story in The Atlantic here. A “fly-brary,” courtesy of the Deschutes Public Library, at the Redmond, Oregon, airport. (Courtesy of Deborah Fallows) Continuing the photo essay about public libraries, which showed many examples of children’s rooms and adult spaces, this collection shows some of the multitude of activities happening at public libraries. It also includes some […]
Local Institutions
A Portrait of Public Libraries
Read the story in The Atlantic here. The topiary garden at the Columbus, Ohio, public library. (Courtesy of Deborah Fallows) Since Jim Fallows and I began traveling the country for American Futures and Our Towns nearly seven years ago, there has been one beat that began as a surprise to me and grew into the most heartening story I’ve witnessed […]
Education
Dayton, Ohio, Is ‘a Place That Knows What It Is’
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Main campus of Sinclair Community College, in downtown Dayton, Ohio. (Courtesy of Sinclair Community College) Let’s take another look at Dayton, Ohio. For context, here is a report on how the city has dealt with the loss of major industries over the decades, and with the mass shootings in its nightlife-and-cultural […]
Arts
HOW ARTISTS BUILD THE SPIRIT OF A TOWN
During our travels to towns around the U.S., Jim Fallows and I have come across several artist-in-residence programs, for example in Ajo, Arizona; Eastport, Maine; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Economic & Business Development
The University of Dayton Is Reinventing Town-Gown Relations
Archway Entrance for the University of Dayton, in Ohio. “The city is in our name,” says the university’s president. “It’s our future.” (Courtesy of the University of Dayton) It’s time for another report on Dayton, Ohio, subject of this introduction last month. A century ago, Dayton was known mainly for the things it created, from the Wright Brothers’ […]
Economic & Business Development
New Jobs, New Residents, and New Possibilities
Read the story in The Atlantic here. crazybear via Shutterstock Here are news items and developments related to trends we’ve been covering in the recent “Our Towns” series, and elsewhere: The furniture business returns, and is looking for furniture-makers. In a series of dispatches from Danville, Virginia, and its environs, Deb Fallows and I talked about […]
Immigrants & Refugees
Ajo, Arizona, is the story of a better America
The village of Ajo, Arizona near the Organ Pipe cactus national monument Deborah Fallows is the co-author with her husband, Atlantic writer James Fallows, of “Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America.” An HBO documentary based on the book is currently in production. Fallows is also a fellow at New America. […]
Arts
AN ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE CREATES A SENSE OF PLACE
We’ve seen artist-in-residence programs in a number of the towns we’ve visited. The first was in Eastport, Maine, where we ran into Richelle Gribble, a young artist based in Los Angeles, whom I consider an resident-artist extraordinaire. Over the past three and a half years, Richelle (as I’ll refer to her) has been an artist-in-residence in 15 different programs around […]
Local Institutions
Report for America Goes Big
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Sixty-one members of this year’s Report for America corps at their training session in Houston this past summer. RFA has just announced that it will send four times as many reporters to local newsrooms next year. Courtesy of Report for America It has been another rough period for the […]
Arts
Photos Can Trigger Change in a Town
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Kononstev Artem via Shutterstock In 2008, National Geographic photographer Jodi Cobb and photographer and former Second Lady, Tipper Gore, talked about the role of photography at the then Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The evening was called “How Photos Can Change the World.” Eleven years later, their comments […]
Economic & Business Development
The Death and Afterlife of the Mall
Video by The Atlantic The shopping mall has had a dramatic fall from grace. Once the veritable town square and a cornerstone of American consumerism, malls have aged into oblivion, replaced by cheaper and more convenient alternatives. Today, these sprawling complexes are mostly ghost towns—dilapidated vestiges of their former selves. In a new episode of The Idea […]
How-To Models
Democrats Should Talk About Place-Based Policy
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Deb Fallows on part of the farm near Guymon, Oklahoma, where Caroline Henderson wrote her “Letters from the Dust Bowl” series for The Atlantic in the 1930s. At the time, the area was a thriving farm community. Now it is deserted. (James Fallows / The Atlantic) Staying versus […]
Local Institutions
In Defense of The Commercial Appeal
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Mark Russell, executive editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis Courtesy of The Commercial Appeal A few days ago I published an item about a new online journalistic site in Tennessee, The Daily Memphian. In that item, I quoted some Daily Memphian officials saying that they had been prompted to action by the shift […]
Economic & Business Development
The Modern Women of Rural America
Read the story in The Atlantic here. The author’s sister (on lap), mother (left), great-aunt (rear), and great-grandmother in rural Minnesota, circa 1947 (Courtesy of Susan Zerad Garau) Along the way of our reporting for American Futures and Our Towns, I ran into the stories of some remarkable women—living and dead. Eliza Tibbets, who planted the first navel oranges in […]
From the Readers
On the Virtues of Statewide Journalism
Read the story in The Atlantic here. The Daily Memphian is trying to revive local news in Memphis, Tennessee Sean Pavone via Shutterstock A few days ago I published an item about a year-old online effort to revive local news coverage in Tennessee, The Daily Memphian. It was part of an ongoing series about efforts to revive, reinvent, preserve, […]
Big Little Ideas
Planting a ‘Trail of Giants’
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Giant Sequoia seedlings, planted at Otis College of Art and Design, in Los Angeles Courtesy of WildPlaces Last month, as part of a “Big Little Ideas” series, I mentioned a surprisingly valuable short-term step that communities can take, on their own, for positive climate effects. That is to start planting trees. More on […]
Local Institutions
In Memphis, A Lab Experiment for Local News
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Justin Rushing, advertising director of the online news site The Daily Memphian Courtesy of Patrick Lantrip / The Daily Memphian It’s time for another look at new financial, editorial, and technological models for local journalism. You’ll find previous entries at these links: from Mississippi; from Maine; from Massachusetts; from Southern California and the San Francisco Bay […]
Economic & Business Development
The Gem City Moves Forward
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Overlooking downtown Dayton this autumn James Fallows / The Atlantic This is the first in a series of posts on the city of Dayton, Ohio. I’ve been there three times since August and am about to make another trip. Almost every trend affecting modern America is on display in […]
Local Institutions
The New Approach to Local Journalism
The Shawangunk Journal offices in Ellenville, New York. Backwards sign made by artist Roger Baker. (Courtesy of Amberly Jane Campbell) Here’s another installment in the ongoing series on how local news operations, especially newspapers, can devise new ways to stay in business. For previous entries—from Mississippi, from Maine, from Massachusetts, from Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, from Massachusetts again, and […]
Arts
A RIVER OF WORDS IN PITTSBURGH
As we’ve traveled around the country with our American Futures and Our Towns projects since 2013, my husband, Jim, and I have evolved from being skeptics to evangelists about the impact of public arts on communities.
Local Institutions
‘We’re Doing It for Love of Community’
“Traditionally, white gowns were for girls, blue for boys,” Worth Robbins said of Harvard’s high-school-graduation ceremony, pictured here in 2016. “For the past six years, seniors have voted to have the gowns distributed randomly. This year the seniors voted to have only blue gowns, a symbol of their propensity for knocking down differences and announcing […]
Big Little Ideas
Start Planting Trees
Planting trees as part of a green initiative in the southern California town of Redlands. Courtesy of Karen Bell Recently Deb Fallows kicked off a series of “Big Little Ideas”—innovations or reforms that could be applied fairly easily at the local level and that might have cumulatively very important effect. (Thanks to many readers who have written in. […]
Economic & Business Development
Rebuilding After Incarceration
Two women involved with Project Lia look up at windows they helped restore. Courtesy of Jensen Productions and New America More than 2 million Americans are in the country’s prisons and jails now, giving the United States both the largest number of prisoners and the highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world. For the U.S., the […]
Arts
How Art Can Renew a Community
Children at an event put on by the Big Car Collaborative in Indianapolis Courtesy of Jensen Productions and New America This is No. 2 in a series of three videos from our friends at New America about the realities of community revitalization and economic recovery in the much-discussed Industrial Heartland of America. It’s based on an Indiana tour […]
Economic & Business Development
Building Your Future in Indiana
Michael Brannon, a carpenter apprentice and graduate of the Build Your Future program in Indiana Courtesy of Jensen Productions Inc. and New America This spring, Deb Fallows and I made a trip through Indiana for a series of events and meetings co-organized by New America Indianapolis and Indiana Humanities. We were in Muncie, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and the small […]
Big Little Ideas
A Big Little Idea From Nashville
The Nashville Public Library Wangkun Jia / Shutterstock During our travels visiting towns and cities across the country for American Futures and now Our Towns, Jim Fallows (my husband) and I have encountered story after story of short, sweet initiatives that we have begun referring to, fondly, as Big Little Ideas. The ideas usually started from sparks somewhere in […]
Economic & Business Development
‘Lessons From Danville’
By the Dan River, in the River District of Danville, Virginia, this summer James Fallows / The Atlantic This summer, Deb Fallows and I visited the southern-Virginia town of Danville, and the surrounding rural areas of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and the adjoining Caswell County, North Carolina. In its heyday, Danville was a thriving textile and tobacco […]
Local Institutions
There’s Hope for Local Journalism
Everyone knows that local newspapers are in trouble. That’s why Deb Fallows and I have been chronicling examples of smaller papers that have bucked the economic trend—in Mississippi, in coastal Maine, in rural communities across the country. But what “everyone knows” about the main source of the problem may be wrong—or misleading enough to divert attention away from a […]
Arts
The Library That’s Also an Art Gallery
A “hub of Winston-Salem in touch with the people.”
Health
The Surprising Rural Health-Care Legacy of the ’60s
Eastport Grapples with Health-Care
Economic & Business Development
‘Local, Local, Local’:
How a Small Newspaper Survives
Local Institutions
The Gift of a Public Library
A legacy that continues.
Arts
Flying Down East
Headed back to Eastport
Education
The Power of a Community College
Readers weigh in
Education
The Choices Facing Community Colleges
Decisions critical to the future of these institutions so crucial to this economic and political moment
Local Institutions
A Public Library of, by, and for the People
A “how to” on staying relevant through invention and reinvention
Economic & Business Development
How a City Talks About Itself
Sioux Falls in 2019
Economic & Business Development
Three Big Lessons From One Small Town
Connections, parallel themes, and lessons from Danville
Arts
Sioux Falls is Ready for Tom Hanks
A progress report
Arts
‘A River, Not A Border’: Report from Brownsville
Striving together for good health and well being in a Texas border town.
Arts
The American Sense of Place
An update: Reactions from readers and significant local-renewal developments
Economic & Business Development
When Small Towns Take the Big Stage
Connecting Ajo, Columbus, and Erie
Leaders & Governance
The Rituals of ‘Becoming America’
Can ‘civic religion’ help America become a better, freer, fairer, finer version of itself?
Leaders & Governance
A Public Library Brings Opportunity to the Blind
The Heiskell Library in NYC provides both unique and also ordinary library services to its clientele.
Economic & Business Development
Report for America Revives Possibilities for Local Journalism
A promising movement, in discouraging times.
Leaders & Governance
An American Story, Starting in Kosovo
Idealistic people from outside America’s borders have continually prompted the country to live up to its own ideals; an example from Erie.
Economic & Business Development
A Regional Approach to Rural Healthcare Challenges
God’s Storehouse, a food pantry serving low-income people along this southernmost border where Virginia meets North Carolina.
Economic & Business Development
How Danville Has Avoided Omaha’s Mistake
How the bittersweet heritage of old buildings in Danville, Virginia has helped them avoid the mistakes of Omaha..
Economic & Business Development
Bitwise Goes Big
Fresno tech startup, Bitwise gets $27 million in funding to expand its operations.
Economic & Business Development
The Reinvention of a Downtown: Danville’s Story Part 2
A snapshot of the efforts paying off in reviving Danville’s downtown.
Reports From America
Father’s Day 2019
A tribute
Arts
The Reinvention of Danville’s Downtown: Part 1
A factory town coming back
Economic & Business Development
A Community Within A Community
Restoring Spirit and Pride in Danville
Economic & Business Development
How a ‘Communiversity’ Works
Real collaboration in Mississippi
Local Institutions
WHEN LIBRARIES ARE ‘SECOND RESPONDERS’
Everyone knows about first responders. I’ve come to think of libraries as playing a crucial role as “second responders.”
Education
An Engineering School Pulls Off an ‘Epic Trick Play’
Daring and Guts Pay off for Trine University
Economic & Business Development
What David Halberstam Learned in Mississippi
A Journalistic Icon’s First Lessons
Education
Can Schools ‘Teach Students to Think’?
A reader’s response
Economic & Business Development
National Policies Have Local Effects
Changes — in trade policies, and for refugees — are making the United States more closed, rather than more open
Education
How to Teach Students to Think
Students getting a ‘first chance’ at MSMS
Economic & Business Development
The Last Family-Owned Daily in Mississippi
How one local paper survives
Economic & Business Development
Dead Malls, Everywhere
Readers weigh in on malls past their prime
Arts
On Emancipation Day, Back to Mississippi
A return visit to the Golden Triangle
Economic & Business Development
Dead Malls, Reborn Cities
Ideas from the readers
Economic & Business Development
What Happens to Abandoned Malls?
Opinions differ
Economic & Business Development
‘Unknown Outside Indiana’
The previous four “Our Towns” posts have been about Indiana: One about Angola and the importance of its relationship with Trine University; one about Fort Wayne and its ambitious reconstruction of a cavernous abandoned GE works; and two about Muncie, first about sustainability programs and then about a virtually unique approach to the long-troubled public schools. They had a common theme: how surprising it was […]
Education
An Unusual Way to Bridge the Town-Gown Divide
This post is about a development that few people outside the state of Indiana have ever heard or read about, but that has implications for the country as a whole. It’s about a highly unusual approach to a highly familiar problem: the economic challenges of public schools. This news comes from America’s original “Middletown,” the […]
Economic & Business Development
What We Saw in Muncie
How a university is helping a town move forward
Economic & Business Development
Fort Wayne Makes Its Own Luck
Breadth, density, and boldness of experimentation
Arts
A Community Finding a Path Forward
The civic-renewal mix in Angola, Indiana
Civic Life
The Reinvention of America
Americans don’t realize how fast the country is moving toward becoming a better version of itself.
Economic & Business Development
Eastport Postcard
A report on progress in Eastport.
Arts
OUR ERIE’ TELLS ITS STORY
As we’ve been working away on our book based on our “American Futures” travels over the past four years, my wife Deb and I have increasingly come to think of Erie, Pennsylvania, as the representative American city of this moment. OK, there are a lot of other candidates: Fresno and San Bernardino, in California; Columbus and its neighbors in […]
Economic & Business Development
Meanwhile in America:
‘New Americans’ in the Rust Belt
Economic & Business Development
‘Let’s Care About Someone Who Does Not Belong to Our Tribe’
The old Hotel Virginia in downtown Fresno, latest site of expansion by the tech incubator-and-training firm called Bitwise Industries. (Historic Fresno) We could use a little positive news at the moment, right? Here you go: Over the past three years we’re written a lot about Fresno in general, one of the unglamorous cities of California’s Central […]
Economic & Business Development
The End of the Journey
N435SR parked at its new home at the San Bernardino Airport in California (Deborah Fallows) Arriving in Tucson, we felt the inklings of coming full circle with our American Futures project. Only one more leg of our journey, about 400 miles, before we reached our destination of the San Bernardino airport, and on to a writing base at the University […]
Parks, Rec & Fun
In Flight
Banking to the right, looking through the clouds toward the water and the ground. (Deborah Fallows) We took off west from Demopolis, Alabama, prepared for a lot of flying ahead on this last journey for The Atlantic’s American Futures project. (First two installments in the series, taking us from D.C. to Alabama, here and here. ) We passed over Meridian and Jackson, […]
Economic & Business Development
A Big Step for Little Eastport
A new life for the Seacoast Canning Company
Economic & Business Development
Flying Into the Deep South
At the airport in Demopolis, paper mill in the background. Deborah Fallows We woke up in Demopolis, Alabama, on day two of the final journey of our American Futures series for The Atlantic. We were one day out of Washington D.C. (first installment here) and already decades away in so many ways. The weather was balmy. In the Best […]
Parks, Rec & Fun
Farewell to Washington
Montgomery County traffic, Cirrus Four-Three-Five Sierra Romeo taking Runway One-Four, VFR (visual flight rules) departure to the west, Montgomery. Rolling down Runway 14 for takeoff from Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, Maryland. (Deborah Fallows) And with that, we were off in our small Cirrus airplane for the last official journey of our American Futures series for The Atlantic, […]
Arts
All Progress Is Local:
New Year’s Notes from Around the Country
Parks, Rec & Fun
Happy New Year:
See You in June
Economic & Business Development
Returning to Ohio
How a small, Midwestern town has changed over the decades—and where it aims to go
Immigrants & Refugees
A Post-Election Field Report From America’s Refugees and Immigrants
Words and stories from the towns where the newest Americans live
Economic & Business Development
Missing Thanksgiving Day
When you are an American living overseas, Thanksgiving is an even more powerful nationally unifying holiday than the Fourth of July. All the Americans know something special is going on; for everyone else, it’s just another Thursday. Even for non-Americans who are aware of the concept, the shifting date means they can’t quite keep it […]
Arts
The Treasures of Birmingham
For almost a century, the local library has guarded its city’s history.
Leaders & Governance
Why Not Dodge? Why Not Stockton?
Citizens of Stockton at city council meeting considering library expansion “Raising Literacy,” Robert Dawson I mentioned yesterday that several local initiatives could mean as much to their communities or states as the outcome of most national races. The two historical examples I naturally think of are from California, Propositions 13 and 187. Prop 13, which was passed nearly […]
Economic & Business Development
What the Renewable-Energy Economy Looks Like
Another gigantic turbine blade is delivered in Spearville, Kansas Nicolas Pollock / The Atlantic At its peak, nearly one century ago in 1920, the coal-mining industry employed nearly 800,000 people in the United States. Decade by decade, as America’s population has swelled and its economy has grown, and as total coal output as also increased, employment […]
Economic & Business Development
A Renewable Energy Revolution in Small-town America
A Renewable Energy Revolution in Small-Town America by The Atlantic’s video team See a video (here) made in conjunction with the American Futures project and based on the reporting of James and Deborah Fallows.
Arts
Update on the Eastport Saga
The never-say-die city
Reports From America
Refugees, Immigrants, and the Battle Over Who Is American
Sisters originally from Darfur, resettled in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The young lady on the left was a proud member of public high school ROTC. Deborah Fallows / The Atlantic Deb Fallows has a new post up, about what’s actually involved in settling immigrants from Syria—or Somalia or Congo or Bhutan—in the American cities that have taken […]
Economic & Business Development
What It Takes to Settle Refugees
The people of Erie, Pennsylvania, have welcomed immigrants and refugees, and believe that their town is better off for having done so.
Economic & Business Development
Annals of Renewal:
MTP Podcast, Knight Competition
Economic & Business Development
The Generational Difference in Optimism: A Video Look
Older People Moan, Younger People Hope
Economic & Business Development
Is America in a Boiling Fury About Immigration?
Not the America I Have Seen
Economic & Business Development
And Now for Something Saner and More Positive:
Fresno, Erie
Reports From America
Life in the Air
Getting from here to there by small plane
Arts
Old City, Old Buildings, New Life
An art museum with a long history reinvents itself with passion and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Economic & Business Development
The Ebbs and Flows of Coastal Maine
Quoddy Village was built ahead of its time
Local Institutions
Beyond Books:
Libraries Reach Out to the Public
Economic & Business Development
Erie’s Unlikely Benefactor: Its Casino
Legalized gambling is a familiar part of the modern American landscape. But an innovative scheme in a lakeside city in western Pennsylvania shows new possibilities for putting casino revenue to positive public use.
Economic & Business Development
Cattle Drives in Down East Maine
A cowboy with his herd in Maine, en route to Turkey. courtesy Quoddy Tides Last night my wife Deb put up a report called “Little Town, Big Art.” It’s about how a surprisingly ambitious effort in The Arts—painting, sculpture, photography, drama, music, festivals (like the Pirate Festival underway this weekend), etc.—had given a very small place a much […]
Arts
Little Town, Big Art
The arts at the center of economic and civic plans
Economic & Business Development
A Waterfront Library
In Erie, Pennsylvania, a public institution is building on its nautical past to open a world of opportunity for local residents.
Economic & Business Development
The World Comes to a Tiny Town
Eastport’s Lesson in Globalization
Economic & Business Development
Eastport Update: Electric Power from the Sea
Generation from currents
Economic & Business Development
Notes From the Rest of the Country:
‘Now That I’ve Got a Look at This Place, It’s Not So Bad!’
Economic & Business Development
‘America Is a Dream Country’
What does it mean to spend years as a Syrian refugee and then land in a brand new life in Erie, Pennsylvania?
Economic & Business Development
Erie and America
The challenges of Rust Belt America are real, and well-known. What’s less familiar is the response some mid-sized cities are making.
Civic Life
The Education of Ryan Lochte
What he could learn from America’s public pools
Arts
A Carnegie Legacy in Dodge City
Synergy of arts and civic life in a Kansas town
Economic & Business Development
Dodge City Postcard
Notes from the ground, from the sky, and from the people of Dodge City, Kansas
Leaders & Governance
What’s (Less) the Matter With Kansas
Downtown Dodge City, Kansas James Fallows / The Atlantic This week’s election news out of Kansas was the defeat in the GOP primaries of some of the hardest-line Tea Party Republicans, at both the Congressional and local- and state-legislative level. The most publicized single upset was that of Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas’s First Congressional District, which covers a huge amount […]
Economic & Business Development
Educating Migrant Children in Dodge City
“We’re a port of entry 1,000 miles from the border.”
Leaders & Governance
A Different Kind of ‘Trump Nation’ Report
Dodge City High School Marching Band, “the Pride of Southwest Kansas.” (Red Demon Football on Youtube.) Western Kansas, where Deb and I have spent time over the past month, is the heart of Trump Nation in one sense: Trump and the GOP will almost certainly carry this area, and the whole state, this fall. But […]
Economic & Business Development
Dodge City’s New Frontier
A high school in the famed Kansas town is embracing its rapidly changing demographics.
Economic & Business Development
New Pioneers in Southwest Kansas
Mexican immigrants on the Great Plains try to build new lives, with hope and help.
Economic & Business Development
The Story of Ernestor
Dodge City, Kansas relies on undocumented immigrants—from meatpacking workers to the city’s assistant finance director.
From the Readers
From the Air Traffic Controller’s Perspective
Read the story in The Atlantic here. This is not the controller I spoke with last week at Denver’s Centennial airport, because this man is working that same day in the control tower at LAX. But this gives you an idea of what controllers are looking at and dealing with. (Bob Riha Jr / Reuters) […]
Parks, Rec & Fun
The Air Traffic Ballet
The airspace that was the subject of a coordinated aerial ballet two days ago. The magenta line shows where pilots thought they would be going. The orange line shows where they ended up. (FAA sectional charts via SkyVector.) During our travels Deb has often mentioned our interest in, and nearly-all-times admiration for, the Air Traffic Controllers […]
Parks, Rec & Fun
View From the Right Seat
About to land one week ago, on Runway 14 in Dodge City, Kansas. (Deborah Fallows) During our more than 50,000 miles of flight for our American Futures project, I’ve sat in the “right seat” of our Cirrus SR22. That’s the official term for my spot in the plane, and the right seat like the left carries all […]
Economic & Business Development
What Rural Economies Look Like From Above
In Kansas, the advent of an energy industry is inscribing itself on the physical landscape, adding wind farms to wheat farms.
Leaders & Governance
A Note About Trumpism, From the ‘Real America’
Mayor Kevin Heeke of Spearville, Kansas (far left), with Atlantic interview and video team yesterday (Deborah Fallows) For the past week my wife Deb and I have been in western Kansas — Dodge City mainly, also Garden City, briefly Spearville. There will be a lot more to report in coming days on the economic, cultural, and political […]
Economic & Business Development
The Multi-Dimensional Reality of the Nation,
vs. the Flattened Reality of National Politics
Parks, Rec & Fun
A Good Start
Bobby’s Story
Economic & Business Development
More on the Public Role in Fostering Private Innovation
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Graphic from the Maker City Playbook, now available online here. A few days ago I argued that the Maker Movement finally depends on the ingenuity and effort of private entrepreneurs and of companies large and small — but that these efforts go much faster, further, and better when supported by a range of […]
Parks, Rec & Fun
America by Air:
Whitewater
Economic & Business Development
The Maker Movement:
If Hamilton Were Around, He Would Be a Fan
Economic & Business Development
Finding Health Care in the Desert
With the closest hospital 100 miles away, Ajo, Arizona’s Desert Senita Health Center acts as the region’s clinic
Economic & Business Development
The Surprising Problem With U.S. Manufacturing:
It’s Creating Too Many Jobs
Economic & Business Development
The Maker Revolution:
What It Has Changed, and What It Hasn’t — Yet
Economic & Business Development
Why the Maker Movement Matters: Part 2, Agility
Business are finding that “makerspaces” enable them to reduce what’s known as the mind-to-market gap: how long it takes for an idea to become a thing on a shelf.
Economic & Business Development
‘Mr. China’ on Making Things in America
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Latest cohort of Highway 1 fellows — hardware entrepreneurs at Liam Casey’s startup center in San Francisco. Following this earlier post about the significance of the Maker Movement, and before an upcoming report on an unusual and significant maker/startup space in Louisville, I want to mention a very interesting WSJ interview by Matthew Kassel with my […]
Education
‘The Last Best Hope for Public STEM Education in Mississippi’
Campus of the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, where MSMS is housed (Deborah Fallows). Over the years my wife Deb and I have frequently mentioned the remarkable Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. You can read about some of its successes in posts collected here, and about its recent funding challenges here. A reader who grew […]
Education
Budget Challenges at a Remarkable Mississippi School
An update on what’s happening at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.
Economic & Business Development
Farming in the Desert
A small town in Arizona grows a thriving food scene.
Economic & Business Development
Why the Maker Movement Matters: Part 1, the Tools Revolution
Just like the internet before it, the Maker Movement is revolutionizing manufacturing, with implications for startups and jobs.
Education
Deb Fallows at the University of Redlands
During our West Coast travels for American Futures reports in the winter of 2014-2015, my wife Deb and I were based at the University of Redlands, in southern California. From there we did reports on neighboring San Bernardino, Riverside, Fresno, and Winters in California; Ajo, Arizona; central Oregon; and other locales. This weekend Deb was back at the university as one of […]
Leaders & Governance
Awards for Civic Engagement:
37 New Examples
Economic & Business Development
Paradise Duluth
Postcard of the old Clyde Iron Works in its prime, via Perfect Duluth Day. As part of the unfolding saga of start-up businesses as the crucial creators of new jobs, and of particular start-ups like craft breweries (along with tech incubators, arts companies, manufacturing “maker spaces,” and others) in bringing life to fringe areas of recovering cities, I talked […]
Economic & Business Development
Wichita, Salisbury, Knoxville, Seattle: Revival Updates
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Citizen University (Alan Alabastro Photography) Here are some recent developments that are related to the “America Is Putting Itself Back Together” argument in our March issue. They’re also connected to the subject of my post earlier today: that an under-appreciated axis in American politics and culture is between those who think, […]
Parks, Rec & Fun
America 2016, in 2 Quotes
Read the story in The Atlantic here. From Donald Trump’s rally in Bethpage, Long Island, this week. The saying on that sign is not one of the quotes I have in mind. (Carlo Allegri / Reuters) Quote one, from Michael Cohen’s report for the Boston Globe on the big Trump rally in Long Island. Emphasis added: A smiling […]
Economic & Business Development
On National Beer Day, Craft Brewers Improving Water, and Life,
In More Ways than One
Parks, Rec & Fun
Hmmm, Why Does This Sound Familiar?
Part 1,293
Economic & Business Development
Craft Breweries:
No, I’m Not Kidding, They Actually Matter in Civic Development!
Economic & Business Development
From Fresno to Duluth to Allentown, with Montana in Between
Civic Updates
Economic & Business Development
Checklists for Success,
from Knoxville to Salt Lake City and Beyond
Arts
Language as Art in Pittsburgh
Exiled writers use words as art and inspire a community.
Economic & Business Development
Startups Creating Jobs in the United States, Around the World
— and Now in Cuba
Arts
Listening to Montana
In Chester, Montana, a world away from city life inspires an artist’s music.
Economic & Business Development
Shifting Back to Better News: What’s Happening in Ohio
Ohio Statehouse, in Columbus, last year. No, this story is not about the Ohio primaries! (Deborah Fallows) A big theme of our March issue cover stories (main story here; “11 signs of success” checklist; “Library Card“) is that one the bleakest aspect of modern America is the one now dominating the headlines: the dysfunction and bitterness […]
Economic & Business Development
How Libraries Are Becoming Modern Makerspaces
They’ve long served as communal gathering spots, but these civic institutions are becoming gateways to technological tinkering.
Economic & Business Development
With the PBS NewsHour
in Greenville, SC
Economic & Business Development
A Public Library Tells the Civic Story of a Town
Greenville’s public library puts its past and present on full display: mills, racial history, internationalism, public-private collaborations, and culture.
From the Readers
Local Success, National Paralysis:
How Does it Balance Out?
Education
Tech Meets Art in Middle School
A South Carolina public school gives tech-savvy students a sense of humanity.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Hmmm, This Sounds Like Something I Would Agree With
Read the story in The Atlantic here. From Thomas Friedman in the NYT, emphasis added: … what will be required to produce resilient citizens and communities [is] forcing a politics that is much more of a hybrid of left and right. It is the kind of politics you already see practiced in successful communities and towns in […]
Parks, Rec & Fun
Hmmm, Where Have We Heard This Before? (Super Tuesday Edition)
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Headline on an editorial-page essay in this morning’s NYT: From the essay itself: In the presidential primary on Tuesday, Texas Republicans seem set to throw themselves behind the two candidates [Trump and Cruz] who are doing all they can to stress the seams, pop the rivets, blow apart whatever counts as […]
Parks, Rec & Fun
In Which Warren Buffett Agrees With Me (or Perhaps Vice Versa)
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Warren Buffett playing ping-pong, at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting last year. Another billionaire looks on. (Rick Wilking / Reuters) When I was living in and reporting from China, I spent a lot of time trying to hammer this point home: whatever you might say about China — good […]
Economic & Business Development
Talking About a Second Gilded Age, With ‘On Point’ Listeners
Members of San Bernardino’s “Generation Now” last year. The NYT has a story about work they and others are doing to improve a hard-pressed city. (Deborah Fallows) Two updates today: 1) On Point. I spoke today with Tom Ashbrook of WBUR and his On Point audience, about my contention (in the current cover story) that even in this time […]
Arts
How America Is Putting Itself Back Together
Most people in the U.S. believe their country is going to hell. But they’re wrong. What a three-year journey by single-engine plane reveals about reinvention and renewal.
Economic & Business Development
‘The Looming Entrepreneurial Boom’: Kauffman Weighs In
Brand-new companies play a surprisingly important part in progress toward fuller employment. A new report says that the prospects for start-ups may be improving.
Reports From America
A Police Shooting Case in Mississippi
Protest march in Columbus, Mississippi (Ricky Ball a Cry for Justice) Over the past few years we’ve mentioned many of the positive developments underway in the three counties of northern Mississippi (Lowndes, Clay, and Oktibbeha) collectively known as the “Golden Triangle.” They’re featured in my current cover story; in the video that the Atlantic’s team has produced; in the discussion […]
Economic & Business Development
Fareed Zakaria GPS, and Another Traveler’s Views
One of the founders of the successful and stylish Loll furniture company, at the the headquarters in Duluth. The company’s story is one I describe in the magazine article and talked about today on CNN. This morning I was on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS program on CNN, talking about the project behind my current Atlantic cover story. A YouTube version […]
Education
Mississippi Students Write About Life in Their Home State
Inspiring young writers connect with their literary legacy
Economic & Business Development
Pitching in to Save a Library
In San Bernardino, one way to help save the city is to save its library.
From the Readers
What Presidential Campaigns Show About Civic Fiber
Read the story in The Atlantic here. The end of my current story in the magazine, on “How America Is Putting Itself Back Together,” explores the contrast between what I’m describing as healthy civic society at the city-by-city level, and the bitter dysfunction of modern national politics. We’ve been reminded of the latter once more […]
From the Readers
American Futures Master List:
Some of the Hundreds of Places We Would Like to Go “There is more going on, in more places, than you imagined.”
Parks, Rec & Fun
Welcome Our Newest National Monuments!
Often it seems that modern presidents can’t do anything — except wage war. Here’s a heartening exception.
Education
Punching Above Their Weight in Mississippi
Mississippi schools come in #49 in many national rankings. Read these essays and poems by high school students from Columbus, Mississippi. Then tell the folks who make up the rankings that they need a different algorithm.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Can America Put Itself Back Together? Kicking Off Another Season
Across the country, people think America is going to hell—but things look better here locally. Why the general tone of the moment’s politics is wrong.
Arts
Civic Engagement Talk in America’s Original Engaged Communities
The Chautauqua Institution is one of America’s great centers for civil, cultural, and intellectual engagement. A talk about 21st-century American renewal, at a place whose history traces to a great 19th-century reform movement.
Local Institutions
America’s Libraries: Old Institutions Becoming Very New Again
Most people associate libraries with fustiness, quiet, and a previous era in technology. But across the country, they’re embracing new technology to fill important new civic roles.
Education
Another Look at Maine Maritime:
Who Is Providing Value, to Whom, and How?
Economic & Business Development
Wondering Why We Like Fresno?
Some people are smug about the coolness of New York or San Francisco. Those places are nice, but Jim Fallows much prefers “the kick-ass spirit” of Fresno.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Jim and Deb Fallows Talk “American Futures” with Kai Ryssdal
Economic & Business Development
A Library Writes Its Own Story
A California library becomes a living legend.
Local Institutions
Gone Swimmin’
How public swimming pools show you the heart of a town
Economic & Business Development
A Library of Good Ideas
Formula for success in Central Oregon: know the users, spot the opportunities, act with vigor.
Economic & Business Development
An Innovative Library in Oregon, and Other Reports From the Road
Kicking off reports from the inland Northwest, plus a happy birthday to James Baldwin
Economic & Business Development
Why an F-16 Hit a Cessna, and Some More-Upbeat Updates
Sobering news from the NTSB, but encouraging news from Maine to California
Parks, Rec & Fun
America and Iran, at Walden Pond
From his tiny room in Tehran, an Iranian scholar imagined what a classic American scene would look like. Here is what happened when he had a chance to see for himself.
Local Institutions
The New New York Public Library
Preserving tradition while expanding offerings for a bigger, broader audience.
Reports From America
The Good Ol’ Days of the Motor Hotel Are Back
The metamorphosis of a Bend, Oregon, motel—from its classic origins, to crack house, to upscale rustic elegance
Education
When High School Means a Build-It-Yourself Education
A charter school in Oregon encourages students to shape their own learning
From the Readers
The San Bernardino Story: Fire Fighters Weigh In
Who is to blame when a struggling city runs out of money? A public-safety worker says it’s unfair to point the finger at him and his colleagues. Plus, a young resident of the city discovers reasons to hope.
Economic & Business Development
A Community College at the Center of an Oregon Recovery Story
When the lumber industry left, the region bet its future on technology—even though it lacked a research university
Parks, Rec & Fun
How to Tell Oregon Apart From New Jersey
If Chris Christie had thought of this for his state’s gas stations, maybe he’d be doing better in the 2016 race now
Economic & Business Development
Building for the Future, In California’s Famously Failed City
Can education save San Bernardino?
Parks, Rec & Fun
Sports and Civic Life, Bend Elks Edition
An evening at the ballpark, with Vinnie the Elk and friends
Parks, Rec & Fun
Summer in the Pacific Northwest
The Bend, Oregon, Elks open their baseball season
Parks, Rec & Fun
American Futures: The Pacific Northwest Edition
It’s still a bigger, more varied, and more vigorous country than most people would guess.
Education
American Futures Updates, from MS to AZ to CA
NPR conveys the sound of an innovative school in Mississippi, plus other news from the road
Education
A High School That Changes Lives, One at a Time
Teachers and students in a bankrupt California city, determined to make progress
Arts
Post-Memorial Day Note: Another Kind of Service, San Bernardino
“I don’t just sit around. I don’t sleep much. That’s what I do. I do stuff.” The story of a man determined to do something for his town.
Leaders & Governance
Isabella Greenway, Pioneering American Woman
The first Arizonan congresswoman, a lifelong friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, lived a remarkable life.
Leaders & Governance
Today a Bankrupt City Votes on Its Next Steps
“We’ve gotten used to gridlock and stalemate at the national level. This is what it looks like for a city.” What civic dysfunction has in common with excessive CEO pay, and why it matters.
Economic & Business Development
The Battle for Downtown, From Canada to the Carolinas
“It is strange, but true.” What one reader says about Raleigh, North Carolina, applies many other places as well.
Economic & Business Development
What It’s Like When Your City Goes Broke
San Bernardino, California, is poor, and has a high unemployment rate, and is affected by drought, and is in bankruptcy court. But its real problem is something else.
Economic & Business Development
An Incredible Time-Capsule View of One Downtown’s Development
Can tearing up a noted artistic zone be a path to civic success? City leaders say yes, while some of their citizens say no.
Arts
California’s Improbable Navel-Orange Queen
Eliza Tibbets was a suffragist, abolitionist, and spiritualist—and the mother of California’s orange industry.
Economic & Business Development
Cars, Pedestrians, and the Struggle for the Future of Downtowns
Plus: how much is any discussion of “downtown” a coded talk about race?
Economic & Business Development
Fresno to South Bend to Louisville:
The Elusive Elements of Civic Success
Economic & Business Development
Can Cars Save Downtown?
Fresno, California prepares to rip up its landmark pedestrian mall and replace it with a street.
Arts
A Word Cloud of Ajo, Arizona
The words we use about ourselves reveal surprising truths
Arts
‘Generation Now’
What people do when there seems to be nothing to do.
Economic & Business Development
Asheville Just ‘Happened’ to Develop a Nice Downtown or Did It
In the immortal words from Liberty Valance, “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Herewith the legend and reality of Asheville.
Economic & Business Development
Equal Time for Tampa, and More on Asheville Too
Catching up with changes in major cities, and in the Atlantic’s own web site
Local Institutions
A Visit to the Shanghai Public Library
Aging manuscripts share the building with makerspaces.
Economic & Business Development
More on Nice Downtowns: Do They Just Happen? Or Are They Made?
Tampa has kept trying to revive its downtown, and has kept failing. Asheville has been wildly successful—but was it even trying at all?
Economic & Business Development
The Dilemmas of Maker Culture
Thinking through the consequences of the proliferation of powerful tools and technologies
Economic & Business Development
Nice Downtowns: How Did They Get That Way?
“Visitors think, ‘That’s just how Seattle is.’ But it wasn’t.” Lessons via places ranging from Fresno to Shanghai.
Economic & Business Development
How Makerspaces Help Local Economies
New technologies like 3-D printers and laser cutters have boosted entrepreneurial activity in American communities.
Economic & Business Development
Three Ways of Thinking About Fresno (and Why You Should Care)
A beleaguered city shows the path toward revival.
Arts
Boulder, Colorado: A Special Kind of Community
An exaggerated version of a college town, it’s the perfect setting for an unusually participatory conference.
Education
Growing Up in Ajo
What it takes to get from the desert to college
Economic & Business Development
From Xizhou to Eastport to Ajo: Big Dreams in Small Towns
The same kind of ambition you see in political campaigns, races for sports championships, or attempts to score a big IPO—but toward a different end.
Arts
Creating California’s New Bohemia in an Unexpected Locale
“It’s a great time to be an artist in Fresno.” This is a possibility I had never considered before visiting. And now …
Arts
Ajo, Arizona: Oasis in the Desert
How a city with century-old “good bones” tries to reinvent itself.
Reports From America
On the Road, in Arizona and Colorado
A small city struggling to come back, a larger one already thriving, and the implications for civic vitality
Economic & Business Development
Ajo, Arizona: A Small Town Pushed to the Brink, and Coming Back
What does a town do when most of its people lose their jobs nearly overnight? For the people of this small town, the surprising answer places heavy emphasis on the arts.
Economic & Business Development
Downtown Fresno Kicks Off Its Campaign
Why “unapologetic” may be the most important word in a city’s recovery plan
Arts
‘The Blue and the Gray’
A historically oriented performance comes from New York to the Southern site that inspired it.
Arts
How People in Boulder Build Community out of a Conference
An annual meeting brings speakers from around the world together with students and local residents, in intimate settings.
Economic & Business Development
Stages of a Downtown Comeback: Fresno Begins the Long Climb
Urban revivals require a shared narrative, private-sector partners, and a public official championing a far-sighted plan.
Education
Fresno’s Tiniest Citizens
An elementary school of and for the urban community
Economic & Business Development
Among California’s Centers of Technology: Fresno?
How would you build a high-tech center in a vast farming zone? You might start by applying tech solutions to farming problems of water use and sustainability in all forms.
Education
Next Up From Fresno: High School for Overlooked ‘Kids in the Mid
Public schools often end up concentrating on students with obvious promise at the very top, and with obvious problems at the bottom. Here is one designed to foster opportunities for everyone else.
Education
Reinventing High School
How Fresno prepares the kids in the middle
Economic & Business Development
Welcome to American Futures 3.0
A new season of reports on a renewing America
Economic & Business Development
Talking With Dan Richard About High-Speed Rail
The chairman of California’s costly and controversial infrastructure project explains why (in his view) it actually will get built—and whether its champion, 77-year-old Governor Jerry Brown, is likely to be able to take a ride.
Parks, Rec & Fun
A Calculated Risk I Decided Not to Take
“Here we were doing what was a ‘strafing run’ down the highway and talking to Snake Eye and looking for the craters at the south end of the corridor.” Why we made this last leg of the journey by car.
From the Readers
Ask and Ye Shall Be Told, Mystery Airplane Edition
Sometimes crowdsourcing pays off.
Parks, Rec & Fun
When I Grow Up …
Darth Vader vs. Casper the Friendly Ghost, on an airport tarmac
Economic & Business Development
On SOTU Day, Some Next Steps in Civic Life
A conference in Washington, a development across the country
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail: The Collector’s Edition
An index to the arguments pro and con about the most ambitious infrastructure project in the United States
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail: A Minor End, an Important Beginning
Who should get the benefit of the doubt when we consider the unknowable future?
Economic & Business Development
How to Create a Tech Startup Scene
Pittsburgh’s success provides important and surprising clues.
Economic & Business Development
A Rural High School with a 21st Century Outlook
A California school prepares its students for success.
Parks, Rec & Fun
The Long Stretch Home
The fourth day of a cross-country flight
Leaders & Governance
Revisiting The Atlantic’s Dust Bowl Series
The third day of a cross-country flight
Economic & Business Development
That Winning Bid for California’s High-Speed Rail:
Is It Suspiciously Low?
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail: It’s Happening
Three weeks from now, a groundbreaking ceremony on the most important infrastructure project now underway in the United States
Arts
A Vibrant American Musical Career, far From America’s Cultural C
What Larry Groce discovered by launching a national radio program from an out-of-the-way location
Arts
How the Arts Drove Pittsburgh’s Revitalization
The role of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, founded by a wealthy band of visionaries 30 years ago, is central—but hard to replicate.
Economic & Business Development
The Past Is Never Past: Slave Labor in the West Virginia Salt Wo
“It is not fair to the men who were forced to work in this industry to celebrate the salt without celebrating them as well.”
Parks, Rec & Fun
Connecting Dots Over America
The second day of a cross-country flight
Economic & Business Development
Another Look at Salt-Harvesting in West Virginia
Combine ancient ingredients with a modern sensibility, and a new business takes form.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Flying West From the Winter
The first day of a cross-country flight
From the Readers
On the Politics of American Resilience
One reader urges me to embrace my inner conservative. Other readers say: Not so fast!
Parks, Rec & Fun
Thanksgiving in the Dust Bowl
A new understanding of bravery and independence
Leaders & Governance
How Political Leadership Makes City Streets Bikeable
Pittsburgh’s Mayor Bill Peduto shows what political will and determination can do.
Arts
What Millennials Love About Pittsburgh
‘Land of Opportunity’ has real meaning here.
Arts
A New Vocabulary for American Towns
Three 21st-century words that are driving the nation’s most dynamic municipalities
Economic & Business Development
How Green Riverfronts Transformed Pittsburgh
The City of Bridges revives the rivers that helped make it an economic powerhouse.
Local Institutions
A Field Trip to America’s Public Libraries
How they serve the needs of their communities
Economic & Business Development
America’s Tiniest Innovators: Report from Pittsburgh
Teaching technology and life lessons in an urban elementary school
Arts
The Story of Moop: How an Unlikely Company Came to Be
A Pittsburgh woman managed to build a successful bag company from a failed effort to make a dress.
Economic & Business Development
California Dreamin’: How Collaboration Builds Communities
In Winters, California, a library, a swimming pool, and a school make a big difference in the quality of life.
Economic & Business Development
The iPhone Case That Can Call the Police
A startup in Pittsburgh has designed a smartphone case and app to deter assault and help catch the attackers.
Economic & Business Development
The Company That Turns Plastic Bottles Into Fabric and Jobs
A startup in Pittsburgh shows what a social enterprise is capable of.
Local Institutions
What a Library Levy Means to a West Virginia Town
Charleston votes to save a community pillar.
Parks, Rec & Fun
How to Sign Up for Our ‘American Futures’ Newsletter
“At the national level, American politics is bitterly polarized, and the mood of the country can seem fearful and downcast. But city by city we’ve seen examples of collaboration, practical-minded compromise, long-term investment in a region’s future, and a coast-to-coast resurgence in manufacturing and other startup activity.”
Economic & Business Development
The Hard Road to Making Hard Liquor
A look at a nascent distillery in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley
Arts
Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum
In the City of Bridges, an eclectic community embraces writers in exile.
Education
When a Community College Transforms a City
Ohio State University may be the local titan, but Columbus State Community College has also become a formidable presence.
Arts
The Flying Housewife
50 years ago, Jerrie Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world.
Arts
Hip in the Heartland
It’s not just Brooklyn and the Bay Area any more
Economic & Business Development
No. 14: Why You Shouldn’t Get Your Hopes Up for a Self-Driving C
“Would you prefer a system where you can be instantly teleported from SF to LA? Of course. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”
Parks, Rec & Fun
Today’s Mid-Air Collision Outside Washington
“This reminds us how vulnerable we all are.” Lessons from a tragedy
Economic & Business Development
Going Home to Columbus
A generation returns to build lives and a town.
Economic & Business Development
Making Mead in a Space-Age World
A new craft-beverage business in Allentown, Pennsylvania, benefits from its association with an incubator of high-tech businesses.
From the Readers
In Which I Am Recruited to Switch Political Teams
“What you are discovering on your road trip is the genius of conservatism.”
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail Lucky No. 13:
Let’s Look at Maglev and Other Alternatives. “Should we invest in infrastructure? Absolutely! But the right kind of infrastructure.” Some ideas on what that might mean.
Economic & Business Development
National Problems, Local Solutions: More Reports From Ohio
America and Americans in the active, not passive, mode
Economic & Business Development
When ‘Collaboration’ Is More Than a Buzzword
The story of a business partnership that stands to boost the economy of Columbus, Ohio, and the surrounding region
Education
A Creative Way to Educate Low-Income Students
In Columbus, Ohio, an innovative school has patched together state funds, work study, and grants to give at-risk kids a high-quality education.
Economic & Business Development
What the Beer Industry and the Computer Industry Have in Common
They grew up in the same era and, despite some obvious differences, have some surprising parallels.
Economic & Business Development
Pennsylvania’s Beer Economy
Brewers have been perfecting their recipes in this part of the country since the middle of the 19th century.
Economic & Business Development
No. 12: All Aboard for the California High-Speed Rail Chronicles
In next month’s election, Jerry Brown is seeking a fourth term as California’s governor and public support for his plan for a north-south bullet train to transform travel in a car-dependent state. Here is more of what’s at stake.
Arts
Ingredients of a Better City: How Arts Play Their Part
A soft-power approach to hard economic and social problems
Arts
How to Attract Artists to a Down-and-Out Neighborhood
Columbus, Ohio, has figured out how to draw creative types to an area it is hoping to revitalize.
Arts
How the Boy Scouts Are Adapting to Modern American Life
A local example of a century-old organization finding a new place and role for itself
Local Institutions
Re-Knitting the Frayed Social Fabric: What Libraries Can Do
As Ohio goes, so goes the nation—or at least we can hope so in this case.
Local Institutions
Not Your Mother’s Library
How Columbus, Ohio, is building community spaces for the 21st century
Economic & Business Development
Urban Comeback Stories in 2 Swing States
Tales from two cities, plus the secret of the writing life
Economic & Business Development
Wasted Waterfronts: Why Cities Struggle to Build Along Rivers
The story of Allentown, Pennsylvania, as it turns its attention to a long-neglected asset
Economic & Business Development
Remaking Columbus’s Most Downtrodden Neighborhood
Franklinton long has been called “The Bottoms.” But not for much longer.
Parks, Rec & Fun
A Day on the Road: A Story-Map View of Allentown
What you find is usually not quite what you were looking for.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Iron Pigs Rising
Another strand in the fibers of civic connection
Parks, Rec & Fun
The Iron Pigs Come to Allentown
Changing the spirit of a town with sports
Leaders & Governance
Water, Water, Everywhere: Lehigh Valley Edition
Allentown deals with fiscal problems from its past with a bet about water supplies for its future
Leaders & Governance
The City That Turned Its Water Into Cash
“We’ve got unfunded obligations in the hundreds of millions. What can we leverage?”
Parks, Rec & Fun
First Bowling Alone, Now Vaulting Together
From Tocqueville onward, observers have thought that informal organizations held America together. Are any of them left?
Parks, Rec & Fun
Vaulting to Great Heights in Allentown
How girls from the Lehigh Valley become world-class gymnasts
Economic & Business Development
The 100% Renewable-Powered City: Too Good to be True?
Balancing substance and symbolism in the movement toward cleaner energy sources
Economic & Business Development
Breathing Life Into Allentown: Pennsylvania Comes to the Rescue
What does it take to raise a city? More than a village. In fact, it may take a whole state.
Economic & Business Development
Greening Up in Burlington, Rocking Out in Allentown
As American government seems ever more paralyzed at the national level, cities continue to find ways to grapple with real problems. Two more examples.
Economic & Business Development
Countdown to Tonight’s Arena Debut in Allentown
Is the city ready for its close-up? The locals say it is.
Economic & Business Development
The Eagles Come to Allentown, and So Does ‘American Futures’
Tomorrow is the first day in an old city’s new life—or so the city leaders hope and believe.
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail No. 11: Thinking in Time
Everybody talks about the future, but nobody does anything about it.
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail No. 10: Palate Cleanser
“The decision on HSR is going to shape the future in ways we can’t predict, and a touch of modesty in the arguments would be welcome.”
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail No. 9—the Chairman’s Turn Again
You want to hear more about the biggest infrastructure project being considered anywhere in the country? You’ve come to the right place.
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail No. 8—More Questions and Concerns
“Bad, bad, bad,” and other critiques
Economic & Business Development
The Courts Speak Up for California High-Speed Rail (No. 7)
And so do some readers.
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail No. 6: Some Views From the Valley
People in Los Angeles and San Francisco often say that the initial links in a proposed north-south system would be “trains to nowhere.” People from nowhere weigh in.
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail No. 5: 10 Readers With 10 Views
A solution looking for a problem? A genuine leap forward? The best we can expect from messy political half-measures? Or something truly brave? Take your pick.
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail No. 4: 7 Ways in Which High-Speed Rai
For your reference, the chairman’s detailed pro-and-con about the most ambitious current attempt to change America’s transportation infrastructure
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail No. 3: Let’s Hear From the Chairman
It’s time for broader national attention to the most expensive and ambitious infrastructure proposal in America today.
Economic & Business Development
California High-Speed Rail No. 2 The Critics’ Case
Every big infrastructure project is controversial. Most of them work out better than critics contend early on. But maybe the critics are right about high-speed rail. Let’s hear what they say.
Economic & Business Development
It Takes a Village to Staff a Factory
“It indeed is an oasis, but the passion and commitment are replicable elsewhere.” A Kenyan-born man working in Mississippi on some of the things the state has done right.
Economic & Business Development
The California High-Speed Rail Debate Kicking Things Off
The Erie Canal. The transcontinental railroad. The Interstate Highway system. Big, expensive, controversial—and indispensable. Is the next one in this series a new rail network in our most famously freeway-centric state?
Economic & Business Development
Raj Shaunak and the Economic Boom in Eastern Mississippi
It’s one thing to draw high-skill, high-wage jobs to a place that has historically lacked opportunities. It’s something else altogether to find people qualified to fill them. A local answer to a national question.
Economic & Business Development
Smaller Towns as Talent Magnets: The Chance to Make Things Work
“The kind of people who might have gone to NASA in the 1960s, Wall Street in the 1980s, or Silicon Valley in the late 1990s are now, I think, more likely than ever to work in municipal government.” So says a well-educated young small-town mayor.
From the Readers
Reparations, from Minnesota to Mississippi
The regional differences, and similarities, in the long struggle to come to terms with racial injustice in the United States.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Americana: Wade Stadium, Home of the Huskies
An evening in the ballpark, a look into the sports-in-America beat.
Arts
Now That Mississippi Is in the News
Can the media avoid a freak-show tone?
Education
Build Your Own 3D Printer
High-school science projects from Mississippi
Arts
The Endless Civil War Goes On
Northerners and Southerners, blacks and whites, grapple once more with the question of “what’s the worst we will put up with?”
Economic & Business Development
The Endless Civil War, Continued
“Should the people in Mississippi stay poor? I would suggest taking a serious look at the answer ‘yes’.” So says a reader who lives elsewhere.
Education
The Modern Orphans of Mississippi
“Actually, the children live very well.”
Economic & Business Development
Heavy Industry in the Mississippi ‘Prairie’:
Why Are These Factories Here?
Arts
The Civil War That Does Not End
How to talk, in the 21st century, about the war that divided the country in the 19th century, and the racial patterns set up by slavery long before
Economic & Business Development
Mapping America’s Prospects, in Mississippi and Elsewhere
Images that illustrate the challenges and opportunities Americans face region-by-region
Arts
A Real Story of Memorial Day
The origins of this weekend’s holiday, linking Mississippi and The Atlantic
Economic & Business Development
Theories of History: Joe Max Higgins & the Golden Triangle
“When Eurocopter came here, people started walking upright a little bit.” Why has this part of Mississippi pulled ahead of some others?
Education
Students From Mississippi Write About Their State
“MSMS is often referred to as the most diverse square mile in the state of Mississippi, alluding to academic interests, ethnicities, belief systems, aspirations, and much more,” a high school senior writes. “It’s true.”
Education
A Mississippi School Striving for Excellence
“I am so happy to be here. I have so many opportunities. I am so fortunate.”
EDUCATION
Emancipation Day Commemoration in Eastern Mississippi
“It’s not a black thing. It’s not a white thing. It’s an American thing.”
Economic & Business Development
The New Industrial Belt: The Deep South
Does America still “make things?” Come take a look … in Mississippi.
Reports From America
Beer Notes From All Over, Starkville Edition
This is the new America.
Economic & Business Development
A Song of America’s Downtowns
A heartening surprise of our travel so far: the breadth, seriousness, and—in some places—success of the effort to revitalize small-town downtowns. Or, what 3 programmers from Uzbekistan taught us about America.
Parks, Rec & Fun
The Spirit of Easter, Small-Airport Edition
Unexpected hospitality on the road.
Reports From America
Swampwise!
Dipthongs turn into monopthongs, and other adventures among the cypress knees.
Economic & Business Development
The Seas? The Skies? The Transformation of a Company Town, II
One economic titan has fallen, another has taken its place, but a city wants to expand its options.
Parks, Rec & Fun
St. Marys Interlude: The Okefenokee
Ever wondered what one of America’s most famous swamps looks like? Wonder no more.
Economic & Business Development
The Transformation of a Company Town: St. Marys, I
What happens when the company shuts down?
Reports From America
The Word Cloud of a Town
How the people of Sioux Falls describe themselves and their hometown
Education
A High School That Teaches Students to Fly, and Other Innovation
“A lot of problem-solving skills grow out of the experience of doing things rather than thinking about things.”
Education
‘Career Technical’ Education: More Middle in the Middle Class?
Training students for jobs that are less likely to be outsourced, de-skilled, or stuck at minimum wage.
Arts
‘Where Do You Go to Church?’ The Video and Mapping Versions
More ways of taking the measure of this vast country.
Leaders & Governance
The Vermont Lake Monsters, and Other Updates From the Road
Are people in smaller towns “nicer” than cosmopolitans? No. But their political structures are working better.
Parks, Rec & Fun
The Glamorous Life of a Journalist, Couples-Getaway Edition
Addressing America’s infrastructure crisis, while people are staying right in the infrastructure.
Arts
Greenville, Burlington, and American Futures
“I loathed it with the heat of a thousand million suns.”
Economic & Business Development
What ‘Career Technical’ Education Looks Like
From a High School in Southern Georgia
Education
What My School Means to Me: Essays from 3 High Schoolers
How students at an unusual school think—and write—about their experience.
Parks, Rec & Fun
On the Road Again: St. Marys
Starting the Mardi Gras festivities early in southernmost Georgia
From the Readers
East, West, and Points in Between
Where the Pacific Ocean is east of the Atlantic
From the Readers
Why We Never Get Over High School
Across the nation, people have different questions they ask when meeting someone new. There are hidden meanings in all of them — including a popular one about schooling.
Economic & Business Development
The Parks and Recreation Theory of America’s Future
What we discuss at the national level has surprisingly little to do with startup decisions. Some provocative data about where America is growing, and why.
Parks, Rec & Fun
The Power of Mapping
Geospatial information is changing the way we approach the world around us. Here’s an example.
From the Readers
There’s a Reason They Call It ‘Eastport’
East is east, and west is west, and the twain can meet — sort of
Reports From America
What We Mean When We Say Hello
The curious geography of American greetings
Arts
So, Where Do You Live? What Do You Do?
Read the story in The Atlantic here. When we were in Greenville SC recently, I was surprised to learn that a very common follow-up to the greeting of “How do you do?” or “Nice to meet you,” is the question “Where do you go to church?” I wrote about it here. Lots of you wrote […]
Arts
Dreaming Big in South Carolina:
A Public Boarding School for the Arts
Reports From America
Dadgum! Katy, Bar the Door!
Speaking Your Mind in South Carolina
Economic & Business Development
Smaller-Town Startups: ‘Stopping the Brain Drain’ in SC
‘People say, this is my ticket Out.’ Then, they want to stay.
Education
America’s Tiniest Engineers:
Report From Greenville, South Carolina
Parks, Rec & Fun
In Which I Develop New Respect for the Wedding-Industrial Comple
We know that football players are brave. But spare a thought as well for bride-magazine models.
Economic & Business Development
Welcome to Greenville and ‘The Upstate’
A region that has willed its way to a new economic and civic identity.
Reports From America
Separated at Birth?
Greenville, Sioux Falls
Economic & Business Development
Ice Cream, Chocolate, Coffee, and Beer
Take ingredients and blend, for small-town synergy.
Economic & Business Development
Why Do Tech Companies End Up Where They Are?
“You get some clusters, and some stand-alone firms far from anyone else. But rarely anything in-between.”
Economic & Business Development
Luck? Planning? Karma? The Elements of a Small Town’s High-Tech
A software company grows in an unlikely setting. “Why here?” we ask the founders.
Arts
An American Dream:
A YMCA With a Circus
Arts
On the Character of a Community: What Local Narratives Emphasize
The role of universities, and our un-loved public efforts.
Arts
A City’s Turning Points
The steps toward success, or failure, and why our understanding of them matters.
Education
A School With a Sense of Place
We arrived at The Grove School in Redlands, California, just before their winter break, at about noon and right in time for lunch. The Grove School is a public charter school with about 200 students in grades 7 through 12. It follows the Montessori system, and it adjoins a private Montessori elementary school. The complex […]
Economic & Business Development
From the Tree to the Table: The Journey of a Brave Little Orange
The surprising complexity behind even the simplest-seeming aspects of modern life.
Economic & Business Development
A 4th-Generation Orange Farmer, on Why He Sticks With It
“I was born in the grove. I was raised in the grove. I developed an intense dislike of farming in the grove.” Yet after 20 years around the world he has come back.
Arts
On the Limits, but Also the Power, of Local Narratives
The stories cities tell about themselves, and the difference that makes.
Economic & Business Development
Inside the Packing House
Viewing an ordinary fruit with new respect.
Economic & Business Development
Reports From the Road: Hangar 24 and a Student-Run Farm
The variety of America, chapter 12,825
Economic & Business Development
When Rails Make the Difference, From Down East to the Southwest
The loss of rail service into a small Maine town has been crippling
Parks, Rec & Fun
American Futures Heads West
Back on the road and in the air.
Reports From America
‘Springbok, Cleared for Landing’:
More on the Language of the Skies
Arts
Building a Museum: Report From Down East
A Maine couple defies the odds — and helps to build community in the process.
Arts
‘Tis the L.L.Bean Season
For Pinball Wizards and Wicked Good Wieners
Education
Career-Oriented Education vs. the Liberal Arts
Readers weigh in with compelling opinions on Maine Maritime Academy, liberal-arts colleges, and big questions.
Reports From America
Do You Speak Eastport?
A town teaches itself to talk positive.
Education
Who Are You Calling a Vocational School?
In Defense of Maine Maritime
Education
An Educational Surprise From Down East: Maine Maritime Academy
How a school you’ve (probably) never heard of is preparing students for good jobs.
Arts
Report from Rural Maine
What it takes to make a school
Economic & Business Development
America-Going-to-Hell Watch, Heady Topper Dept.
Ever closer to the magical-unicorn ideal
Arts
Down East Down Under
When ships sailing downwind are sailing east
Economic & Business Development
Small Town, Big Tides, Bigger Ambitions
Ocean Renewable Power in Eastport
From the Readers
How the #1 ‘Breakthrough’ Helps Modern Communities Survive
The importance of communities, imagined and real.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Two Ways of Looking at a Landing
“The sea gull … that would have been the worst.”
Parks, Rec & Fun
Between Flights
Recognizing a kindred spirit.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Flying Up Down East
Travel to Eastport
Parks, Rec & Fun
Eastport Road Map
Global Meets Local in a Very Small Town
Parks, Rec & Fun
Eastport on Marketplace
Hearing voices you won’t forget, from a small group of inventive and determined people.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Eastport, Maine, Population 1,300
On a per capita basis, one of the grittiest and most inventive places in America.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Notes Cheering and Otherwise, From an American Frontier
Where the country first sees the sunlight each day.
Education
What Would an Ideal College Look Like?
A Lot Like This
Parks, Rec & Fun
Now, for More Good News About America: Avidyne to the Rescue!
When you have the opportunity to give a deserved compliment, don’t let it pass.
From the Readers
EATNN TTUNA SNWCH – hold (at) MAYYO: More on the Secret Language
“The approach fixes, in order, are TRAMP, FLOZY, SILKY, and JAKOR. I’m sensing a pattern here but would love to know the back story.”
Reports From America
ITAWT ITAWA PUDYE TTATT:
The Secret Language of the Skies
Education
How Did a ‘Public Ivy’ Take Root in Vermont?
And the remarkable symbiosis that enriches both the city and its university
Economic & Business Development
The Question We Keep Running Into: What Turns a Town Around?
Plus, a nationwide golden age of beer.
Education
Vermont Report:
Shaping the Soul of a School
Economic & Business Development
A New Type of Growing City
“This is where the talent wants to live”
Economic & Business Development
Back on the Bright Side: Silicon Valley in Vermont
Why did this company end up on the shores of Lake Champlain, rather than on the San Francisco Bay or Puget Sound?
Reports From America
Magical Roundabouts and the Language of Signs
Exploring the sociocultural landscape of Burlington
Economic & Business Development
On Making and Taking, in Trenton and Around the World
Respect for the Garden State and its industrial heritage.
Economic & Business Development
Buying Local: the Google Angle
OK, I’m biased — but I think this is an interesting new project.
Economic & Business Development
Burlington Makes, the World Takes:
The Story of NRG Systems
Economic & Business Development
From Burma to Burlington: The Story of ‘Brings Luck’
A refugee finding a new life.
Economic & Business Development
If You Thought a Profitable Newspaper Was Surprising, How About
More strange tales from the North Country.
Arts
Strange Tales From the North Country:
A profitable (print) newspaper
Economic & Business Development
Beer Porn: The Alchemist Cannery
Going to the source, to find a highly celebrated and nearly unobtainable beer.
Parks, Rec & Fun
‘Baltimore Altimeter, 30.46’
Snapshots From a Clear Day in the Northeast
Arts
‘Say Souls On Board,’ and Other Secrets of the Skies
Read the story in The Atlantic here. When I fly on commercial airlines, I always try to listen to the air traffic controllers (ATC) on my headset. On United Airlines, that would be channel 9. After 9/11, channel 9 went quiet for many, many months. Then it occasionally, irregularly returned. When I would ask the […]
Economic & Business Development
Romanesque on the Plains
The Look of Sioux Falls
Economic & Business Development
What ‘Fringe City’ Status Means for a Community’s Look and Feel
Sioux Falls: If you can make it there …
Parks, Rec & Fun
Road Report: Sarah Lee Guthrie
Why someone had to invent the word “serendipity.”
From the Readers
Everyone’s a Linguist
More on ‘Coming With’
Economic & Business Development
A City With Its Economic Bones Revealed: The Look of Sioux Falls
What factories, cathedrals, outdoor sculpture displays, and even brewpubs tell us about a town.
Economic & Business Development
Sioux Falls: It’s Been a Boom Town Before
“That’s why they call it a land-office business”
Economic & Business Development
A Dakota Boom Town, but Not the Kind You’d Expect
Why is this boom town different from other boom towns?
Economic & Business Development
Why Local Money Matters: The Middletown Story
“Absentee ownership changed everything.”
Economic & Business Development
‘When’s your birthday? January 1st Report from Sioux Falls
A school district of 60 different languages and cultures.
Reports From America
How to Make Nice With the Call Center
The language of Sioux Falls
Parks, Rec & Fun
Welcome Marketplace Listeners, to American Futures
Kicking off a new collaborative project
From the Readers
American Futures: Grand Finale Holland-Palooza
A small arena in which many dramas are being played out.
Economic & Business Development
Welcome to Sioux Falls
A successful, energetic, rough-edged, and therefore typically American town
Economic & Business Development
The Next Lesson From Holland: Why Local Money Matters
In an age of globalized companies and relentless focus on “shareholder value,” a reminder of what local ownership can mean.
Education
The Surprising News From One Small Town About Immigration Reform
In a place as unlike Miami, New York, or L.A. as you can imagine, America’s unsettled immigration policy has a profound effect.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Today’s Frightening / Inspiring Aerial Videos
How fire-fighting looks from the tanker-pilots’ point of view.
Reports From America
Rapid City Report:
What Does Green Mean?
Parks, Rec & Fun
If We’re Talking American Orientalism …
Read the story in The Atlantic here. Etching of the ominous country under discussion, above, by Janet Edwards of Redlands. … as I was doing previously here and here, I thought it would be worth going back to re-read Joan Didion’s 1966 Saturday Evening Post article that so offended my home town back when I was in high school and before Joan […]
Parks, Rec & Fun
A Theory of Mountain Flying
The safety virtues of multi-modal transportation.
Economic & Business Development
The ‘Rapid’ Story:
Trains, Planes, and the Making of a City
From the Readers
Readers on ‘American Orientalism’
Good thing I didn’t mention snowmobiles.
Arts
On the ‘Orientalism’ of the Prairie
What happens when the “ordinary objects of our culture” are treated as curiosities.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Life on the Road:
Beef Jerky, Swimming, and a Search for Spiritual Relief
Leaders & Governance
Notes From the Road: Drought, Politics
Politics as sport spills over into real life.
Economic & Business Development
Holland: Where Things Go After the Recycling Bin
Holland makes, the world takes — and Holland recycles too.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Giant Lawn Machinery Everywhere: This Actually Is a Thing
Industrialization increases productivity. Sort of.
Reports From America
Thanks Much! On the Geography of Language
“Is this your guys’s stuff?” And other linguistic markers.
Economic & Business Development
Holland, ‘Snowmelt,’ ‘Patient Capital,’ and the Revival of Downt
“I have the best location in all of Western Michigan!”
Parks, Rec & Fun
What ARE Those Weirdo Midwestern Pond-Pools? And Other Aerial Ar
One mystery solved, many to go.
Parks, Rec & Fun
Holland and the Theory of Serial Reportage
Approximating reality, post by post by post.
Economic & Business Development
Welcome to Holland
And so it begins.
Parks, Rec & Fun
The Odd Fallibilities of Flight Aware
Technology, our friend and foe: Chapter 3,189.
Parks, Rec & Fun
American Futures Takes Off
A road-trip-by-air gets its start.
From the Readers
‘American Futures’ Site-Suggestion Update
“Permanent beta” as a philosophy of travel, and life.
Parks, Rec & Fun
American Futures:
Introducing Our Project