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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

To Both See and Tell the Country: From the Road through North Carolina to South Carolina

Why seeing more of America matters.

‘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.

A Student Newspaper Takes on Community Responsibilities

The Ball State Daily News has filled a local journalism gap.

Turning the Tides

Turtles, and people — a connected story, with an outcome you might not have guessed.

‘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

‘When Gown Embraces Town’: Two Stories from Indiana

What is happening in the ‘Middletown’ of Muncie, and why it matters.

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.

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.   

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.

‘Mapping Common Ground’: What I learned this summer in San Diego

New reason to “think globally, and act locally.”

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.

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.

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.

A Look at Lobstering and Craftsmanship

Eastport, Maine has a long history of resilience. It’s still there today in Elijah Brice.

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.

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.

Inside Our Towns: PA Humanities

A look at Humanities in the 21st century, the power of storytelling in community development, and more.

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.

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.

Inside Our Towns: Jason Neises

Discussing opportunities, real and perceived challenges in small-town America, and the impact of Community Heart & Soul in Iowa.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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. 

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.

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.

Real Voices from Real Mississippi

How podcasts are reshaping how high-school students research and tell stories of their hometowns throughout Mississippi.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

‘We’re Speaking’ features ‘Our Towns’ in conversation

A conversation on the experimentation, renewal, and hope for America’s small towns.

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.

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.

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 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.

The Future of Power

What is the future of power?

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.

Examining Change at Global, Local Levels

How do global changes affect us on the local level, and vice versa?

‘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?

In Honor of Charly Jupiter Hamilton

A person who became the soul of his community, explains his vision—in art, and in memorable words.

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.

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?

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 […]

A New Host for Mountain Stage

The founder of a popular and influential NPR program brings on a new host.

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.

Learning to Expect the Unexpected

Anythink Libraries Serve Adams County Through a Spirit of Hospitality and Innovation

Polycentric Power in Your Community

What power do communities have at the local level when it comes to the environment?

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.

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.

Greater than the Sum of Its Parts

How Gender and Racial Biases Create Ironies that Defeat Good Organizations

‘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?

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.

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.”

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.

Organizational Irony in Small Town USA

What can a look at the paradoxes of power and failed leadership teach communities?

A Message to the Class of 2021

What’s a Mike? And what makes a Mike Mighty?

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.”

Exposing What was Already Present

The pandemic provides an opportunity to focus on justice and equity in Erie, Pennsylvania.

‘Our Towns’ Viewer Response Roundup

Viewers respond to ‘Our Towns’ HBO documentary.

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.

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

Creating and Reimagining Community through a Crisis

A look at the impact of Covid-19 on the culture sector in Erie, Pennsylvania.

“Our Towns:” From the Pages to the Screen

The filmmakers and writers discuss the story of “Our Towns” at JES Global Summit.

Revitalizing Charleston, West Virginia Brick by Brick

Revitalizing Charleston, West Virginia Brick by Brick

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.

‘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.

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.

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

‘My Friends’: Communications and a ‘National Family’

What the presidential addresses of 1933 tell us about the America of 2021.

Geo-Journalism Illustrates & Expands the Story

An interactive map of the Columbus, Ohio Library system illustrates the power of maps in reporting.

History Come Alive – and Livestreamed!

Eighth of May Emancipation Celebration in Columbus, Mississippi now available on YouTube.

‘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.

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.

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’…

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 […]

“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.

‘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.”

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.

‘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.

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

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

‘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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?’ “

Why Biden’s Inaugural Address Succeeded

In 20 minutes, the president signaled how he will approach this job and this moment in history.

Time for Consequences

President-elect Joe Biden must look forward—but the rest of us must contend with the past.

What Post-pandemic Repair Could Look Like

An update, following a report last month, on plans to repair the damage now being done.

How Biden Should Investigate Trump

The misdeeds and destructive acts are legion. The new president should focus on these three.

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?

How to Reconnect Rural and Urban America

Some recent items worth noticing

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.

What Happens After the Election

What else is going on in the country, with less than two weeks in this consequential election season?

A ‘Climate Corps’ of California Volunteers

Designed to address both the causes and the effects of California’s exposure to climate change.

The Media Learned Nothing From 2016

The press hasn’t broken its most destructive habits when it comes to covering Donald Trump.

The Sport That’s Like Playing in a Jazz Quartet

“Rowing is a sport, everything else is a game.”

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.

‘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.

The Cool-Media Approach to Conventions

The Democrats were forced out of the old, and figured out the new. How will Republicans respond?

THE ARTISTS OF LEMMON, SOUTH DAKOTA

The role of the arts in a tiny town with its sights set high

How a Small Brewery Can Survive COVID-19

A bellwether business category, figuring out how and whether it can survive.

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.

Michael Jones Receives Royal Honors

Awarded the 2020 Patron’s Medal for his contribution to the development of geospatial information.

What happens to small companies now?

The path small, locally conscious firms are taking to survive the current economic and public health disaster.

Will Craft Brewing Survive?

Following up with breweries large and small around the country.

The 3 Weeks That Changed Everything

Imagine if the National Transportation Safety Board investigated America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Is This the Worst Year in Modern American History?

Comparing 2020 to 1968 offers some disquieting lessons for the present.

‘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.

The Post-Pandemic Future of Libraries

“I’ve never been prouder to be a librarian.”

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

‘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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

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’ […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

‘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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

‘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 […]

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 […]

The Library That’s Also an Art Gallery

A “hub of Winston-Salem in touch with the people.”

The Surprising Rural Health-Care Legacy of the ’60s

Eastport Grapples with Health-Care

‘Local, Local, Local’:

How a Small Newspaper Survives

The Gift of a Public Library

A legacy that continues.

Flying Down East

Headed back to Eastport

The Power of a Community College

Readers weigh in

The Choices Facing Community Colleges

Decisions critical to the future of these institutions so crucial to this economic and political moment

A Public Library of, by, and for the People

A “how to” on staying relevant through invention and reinvention

How a City Talks About Itself

Sioux Falls in 2019

Three Big Lessons From One Small Town

Connections, parallel themes, and lessons from Danville

Sioux Falls is Ready for Tom Hanks

A progress report

‘A River, Not A Border’: Report from Brownsville

Striving together for good health and well being in a Texas border town.

The American Sense of Place

An update: Reactions from readers and significant local-renewal developments

When Small Towns Take the Big Stage

Connecting Ajo, Columbus, and Erie

The Rituals of ‘Becoming America’

Can ‘civic religion’ help America become a better, freer, fairer, finer version of itself?

A Public Library Brings Opportunity to the Blind

The Heiskell Library in NYC provides both unique and also ordinary library services to its clientele.

Report for America Revives Possibilities for Local Journalism

A promising movement, in discouraging times.

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.

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.

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..

Bitwise Goes Big

Fresno tech startup, Bitwise gets $27 million in funding to expand its operations.

The Reinvention of a Downtown: Danville’s Story Part 2

A snapshot of the efforts paying off in reviving Danville’s downtown.

Father’s Day 2019

A tribute

The Reinvention of Danville’s Downtown: Part 1

A factory town coming back

A Community Within A Community

Restoring Spirit and Pride in Danville

How a ‘Communiversity’ Works

Real collaboration in Mississippi

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.”

An Engineering School Pulls Off an ‘Epic Trick Play’

Daring and Guts Pay off for Trine University

What David Halberstam Learned in Mississippi

A Journalistic Icon’s First Lessons

Can Schools ‘Teach Students to Think’?

A reader’s response

National Policies Have Local Effects

Changes — in trade policies, and for refugees — are making the United States more closed, rather than more open

How to Teach Students to Think

Students getting a ‘first chance’ at MSMS

The Last Family-Owned Daily in Mississippi

How one local paper survives

Dead Malls, Everywhere

Readers weigh in on malls past their prime

On Emancipation Day, Back to Mississippi

A return visit to the Golden Triangle

Dead Malls, Reborn Cities

Ideas from the readers

What Happens to Abandoned Malls?

Opinions differ

‘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 […]

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 […]

What We Saw in Muncie

How a university is helping a town move forward

Fort Wayne Makes Its Own Luck

Breadth, density, and boldness of experimentation

A Community Finding a Path Forward

The civic-renewal mix in Angola, Indiana

The Reinvention of America

Americans don’t realize how fast the country is moving toward becoming a better version of itself.

Eastport Postcard

A report on progress in Eastport.

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 […]

Meanwhile in America:

‘New Americans’ in the Rust Belt

‘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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

A Big Step for Little Eastport

A new life for the Seacoast Canning Company

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 […]

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, […]

All Progress Is Local:

New Year’s Notes from Around the Country

Happy New Year:

See You in June

Returning to Ohio

How a small, Midwestern town has changed over the decades—and where it aims to go

A Post-Election Field Report From America’s Refugees and Immigrants

Words and stories from the towns where the newest Americans live

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 […]

The Treasures of Birmingham

For almost a century, the local library has guarded its city’s history.

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 […]

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 […]

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.

Update on the Eastport Saga

The never-say-die city

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 […]

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.

Annals of Renewal:

MTP Podcast, Knight Competition

The Generational Difference in Optimism: A Video Look

Older People Moan, Younger People Hope

Is America in a Boiling Fury About Immigration?

Not the America I Have Seen

And Now for Something Saner and More Positive:

Fresno, Erie

Life in the Air

Getting from here to there by small plane

Old City, Old Buildings, New Life

An art museum with a long history reinvents itself with passion and an entrepreneurial spirit.

The Ebbs and Flows of Coastal Maine

Quoddy Village was built ahead of its time

Beyond Books:

Libraries Reach Out to the Public

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.

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 […]

Little Town, Big Art

The arts at the center of economic and civic plans

A Waterfront Library

In Erie, Pennsylvania, a public institution is building on its nautical past to open a world of opportunity for local residents.

The World Comes to a Tiny Town

Eastport’s Lesson in Globalization

Eastport Update: Electric Power from the Sea

Generation from currents

Notes From the Rest of the Country:

‘Now That I’ve Got a Look at This Place, It’s Not So Bad!’

‘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?

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.

The Education of Ryan Lochte

What he could learn from America’s public pools

A Carnegie Legacy in Dodge City

Synergy of arts and civic life in a Kansas town

Dodge City Postcard

Notes from the ground, from the sky, and from the people of Dodge City, Kansas

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 […]

Educating Migrant Children in Dodge City

“We’re a port of entry 1,000 miles from the border.”

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 […]

Dodge City’s New Frontier

A high school in the famed Kansas town is embracing its rapidly changing demographics.

New Pioneers in Southwest Kansas

Mexican immigrants on the Great Plains try to build new lives, with hope and help.

The Story of Ernestor

Dodge City, Kansas relies on undocumented immigrants—from meatpacking workers to the city’s assistant finance director.

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) […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

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 […]

The Multi-Dimensional Reality of the Nation,

vs. the Flattened Reality of National Politics

A Good Start

Bobby’s Story

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 […]

America by Air:

Whitewater

The Maker Movement:

If Hamilton Were Around, He Would Be a Fan

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

The Surprising Problem With U.S. Manufacturing:

It’s Creating Too Many Jobs

The Maker Revolution:

What It Has Changed, and What It Hasn’t — Yet

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.

‘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 […]

‘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 […]

Budget Challenges at a Remarkable Mississippi School

An update on what’s happening at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.

Farming in the Desert

A small town in Arizona grows a thriving food scene.

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.

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 […]

Awards for Civic Engagement:

37 New Examples

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

On National Beer Day, Craft Brewers Improving Water, and Life,

In More Ways than One

Hmmm, Why Does This Sound Familiar?

Part 1,293

Craft Breweries:

No, I’m Not Kidding, They Actually Matter in Civic Development!

From Fresno to Duluth to Allentown, with Montana in Between

Civic Updates

Checklists for Success,

from Knoxville to Salt Lake City and Beyond

Language as Art in Pittsburgh

Exiled writers use words as art and inspire a community.

Startups Creating Jobs in the United States, Around the World

— and Now in Cuba

Listening to Montana

In Chester, Montana, a world away from city life inspires an artist’s music.

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 […]

How Libraries Are Becoming Modern Makerspaces

They’ve long served as communal gathering spots, but these civic institutions are becoming gateways to technological tinkering.

With the PBS NewsHour

in Greenville, SC

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.

Local Success, National Paralysis:

How Does it Balance Out?

Tech Meets Art in Middle School

A South Carolina public school gives tech-savvy students a sense of humanity.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

‘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.

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 […]

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 […]

Mississippi Students Write About Life in Their Home State

Inspiring young writers connect with their literary legacy

Pitching in to Save a Library

In San Bernardino, one way to help save the city is to save its library.

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 […]

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.”

Welcome Our Newest National Monuments!

Often it seems that modern presidents can’t do anything — except wage war. Here’s a heartening exception.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Another Look at Maine Maritime:

Who Is Providing Value, to Whom, and How?

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.

Jim and Deb Fallows Talk “American Futures” with Kai Ryssdal

A Library Writes Its Own Story

A California library becomes a living legend.

Gone Swimmin’

How public swimming pools show you the heart of a town

A Library of Good Ideas

Formula for success in Central Oregon: know the users, spot the opportunities, act with vigor.

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

Why an F-16 Hit a Cessna, and Some More-Upbeat Updates

Sobering news from the NTSB, but encouraging news from Maine to California

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.

The New New York Public Library

Preserving tradition while expanding offerings for a bigger, broader audience.

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

When High School Means a Build-It-Yourself Education

A charter school in Oregon encourages students to shape their own learning

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.

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

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

Building for the Future, In California’s Famously Failed City

Can education save San Bernardino?

Sports and Civic Life, Bend Elks Edition

An evening at the ballpark, with Vinnie the Elk and friends

Summer in the Pacific Northwest

The Bend, Oregon, Elks open their baseball season

American Futures: The Pacific Northwest Edition

It’s still a bigger, more varied, and more vigorous country than most people would guess.

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

A High School That Changes Lives, One at a Time

Teachers and students in a bankrupt California city, determined to make progress

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.

Isabella Greenway, Pioneering American Woman

The first Arizonan congresswoman, a lifelong friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, lived a remarkable life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

California’s Improbable Navel-Orange Queen

Eliza Tibbets was a suffragist, abolitionist, and spiritualist—and the mother of California’s orange industry.

Cars, Pedestrians, and the Struggle for the Future of Downtowns

Plus: how much is any discussion of “downtown” a coded talk about race?

Fresno to South Bend to Louisville:

The Elusive Elements of Civic Success

Can Cars Save Downtown?

Fresno, California prepares to rip up its landmark pedestrian mall and replace it with a street.

A Word Cloud of Ajo, Arizona

The words we use about ourselves reveal surprising truths

‘Generation Now’

What people do when there seems to be nothing to do.

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.

Equal Time for Tampa, and More on Asheville Too

Catching up with changes in major cities, and in the Atlantic’s own web site

A Visit to the Shanghai Public Library

Aging manuscripts share the building with makerspaces.

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?

The Dilemmas of Maker Culture

Thinking through the consequences of the proliferation of powerful tools and technologies

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.

How Makerspaces Help Local Economies

New technologies like 3-D printers and laser cutters have boosted entrepreneurial activity in American communities.

Three Ways of Thinking About Fresno (and Why You Should Care)

A beleaguered city shows the path toward revival.

Boulder, Colorado: A Special Kind of Community

An exaggerated version of a college town, it’s the perfect setting for an unusually participatory conference.

Growing Up in Ajo

What it takes to get from the desert to college

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.

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 …

Ajo, Arizona: Oasis in the Desert

How a city with century-old “good bones” tries to reinvent itself.

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

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.

Downtown Fresno Kicks Off Its Campaign

Why “unapologetic” may be the most important word in a city’s recovery plan

‘The Blue and the Gray’

A historically oriented performance comes from New York to the Southern site that inspired it.

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.

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.

Fresno’s Tiniest Citizens

An elementary school of and for the urban community

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.

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.

Reinventing High School

How Fresno prepares the kids in the middle

Welcome to American Futures 3.0

A new season of reports on a renewing America

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.

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.

Ask and Ye Shall Be Told, Mystery Airplane Edition

Sometimes crowdsourcing pays off.

When I Grow Up …

Darth Vader vs. Casper the Friendly Ghost, on an airport tarmac

On SOTU Day, Some Next Steps in Civic Life

A conference in Washington, a development across the country

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

California High-Speed Rail: A Minor End, an Important Beginning

Who should get the benefit of the doubt when we consider the unknowable future?

How to Create a Tech Startup Scene

Pittsburgh’s success provides important and surprising clues.

A Rural High School with a 21st Century Outlook

A California school prepares its students for success.

The Long Stretch Home

The fourth day of a cross-country flight

Revisiting The Atlantic’s Dust Bowl Series

The third day of a cross-country flight

That Winning Bid for California’s High-Speed Rail:

Is It Suspiciously Low?

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

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

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.

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.”

Connecting Dots Over America

The second day of a cross-country flight

Another Look at Salt-Harvesting in West Virginia

Combine ancient ingredients with a modern sensibility, and a new business takes form.

Flying West From the Winter

The first day of a cross-country flight

On the Politics of American Resilience

One reader urges me to embrace my inner conservative. Other readers say: Not so fast!

Thanksgiving in the Dust Bowl

A new understanding of bravery and independence

How Political Leadership Makes City Streets Bikeable

Pittsburgh’s Mayor Bill Peduto shows what political will and determination can do.

What Millennials Love About Pittsburgh

‘Land of Opportunity’ has real meaning here.

A New Vocabulary for American Towns

Three 21st-century words that are driving the nation’s most dynamic municipalities

How Green Riverfronts Transformed Pittsburgh

The City of Bridges revives the rivers that helped make it an economic powerhouse.

A Field Trip to America’s Public Libraries

How they serve the needs of their communities

America’s Tiniest Innovators: Report from Pittsburgh

Teaching technology and life lessons in an urban elementary school

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.

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.

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.

The Company That Turns Plastic Bottles Into Fabric and Jobs

A startup in Pittsburgh shows what a social enterprise is capable of.

What a Library Levy Means to a West Virginia Town

Charleston votes to save a community pillar.

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.”

The Hard Road to Making Hard Liquor

A look at a nascent distillery in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley

Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum

In the City of Bridges, an eclectic community embraces writers in exile.

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.

The Flying Housewife

50 years ago, Jerrie Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world.

Hip in the Heartland

It’s not just Brooklyn and the Bay Area any more

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.”

Today’s Mid-Air Collision Outside Washington

“This reminds us how vulnerable we all are.” Lessons from a tragedy

Going Home to Columbus

A generation returns to build lives and a town.

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.

In Which I Am Recruited to Switch Political Teams

“What you are discovering on your road trip is the genius of conservatism.”

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.

National Problems, Local Solutions: More Reports From Ohio

America and Americans in the active, not passive, mode

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

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.

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.

Pennsylvania’s Beer Economy

Brewers have been perfecting their recipes in this part of the country since the middle of the 19th century.

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.

Ingredients of a Better City: How Arts Play Their Part

A soft-power approach to hard economic and social problems

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.

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

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.

Not Your Mother’s Library

How Columbus, Ohio, is building community spaces for the 21st century

Urban Comeback Stories in 2 Swing States

Tales from two cities, plus the secret of the writing life

Wasted Waterfronts: Why Cities Struggle to Build Along Rivers

The story of Allentown, Pennsylvania, as it turns its attention to a long-neglected asset

Remaking Columbus’s Most Downtrodden Neighborhood

Franklinton long has been called “The Bottoms.” But not for much longer.

A Day on the Road: A Story-Map View of Allentown

What you find is usually not quite what you were looking for.

Iron Pigs Rising

Another strand in the fibers of civic connection

The Iron Pigs Come to Allentown

Changing the spirit of a town with sports

Water, Water, Everywhere: Lehigh Valley Edition

Allentown deals with fiscal problems from its past with a bet about water supplies for its future

The City That Turned Its Water Into Cash

“We’ve got unfunded obligations in the hundreds of millions. What can we leverage?”

First Bowling Alone, Now Vaulting Together

From Tocqueville onward, observers have thought that informal organizations held America together. Are any of them left?

Vaulting to Great Heights in Allentown

How girls from the Lehigh Valley become world-class gymnasts

The 100% Renewable-Powered City: Too Good to be True?

Balancing substance and symbolism in the movement toward cleaner energy sources

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.

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.

Countdown to Tonight’s Arena Debut in Allentown

Is the city ready for its close-up? The locals say it is.

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.

California High-Speed Rail No. 11: Thinking in Time

Everybody talks about the future, but nobody does anything about it.

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.”

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.

California High-Speed Rail No. 8—More Questions and Concerns

“Bad, bad, bad,” and other critiques

The Courts Speak Up for California High-Speed Rail (No. 7)

And so do some readers.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Americana: Wade Stadium, Home of the Huskies

An evening in the ballpark, a look into the sports-in-America beat.

Now That Mississippi Is in the News

Can the media avoid a freak-show tone?

Build Your Own 3D Printer

High-school science projects from Mississippi

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?”

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.

The Modern Orphans of Mississippi

“Actually, the children live very well.”

Heavy Industry in the Mississippi ‘Prairie’:

Why Are These Factories Here?

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

Mapping America’s Prospects, in Mississippi and Elsewhere

Images that illustrate the challenges and opportunities Americans face region-by-region

A Real Story of Memorial Day

The origins of this weekend’s holiday, linking Mississippi and The Atlantic

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?

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.”

A Mississippi School Striving for Excellence

“I am so happy to be here. I have so many opportunities. I am so fortunate.”

Emancipation Day Commemoration in Eastern Mississippi

“It’s not a black thing. It’s not a white thing. It’s an American thing.”

The New Industrial Belt: The Deep South

Does America still “make things?” Come take a look … in Mississippi.

Beer Notes From All Over, Starkville Edition

This is the new America.

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.

The Spirit of Easter, Small-Airport Edition

Unexpected hospitality on the road.

Swampwise!

Dipthongs turn into monopthongs, and other adventures among the cypress knees.

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.

St. Marys Interlude: The Okefenokee

Ever wondered what one of America’s most famous swamps looks like? Wonder no more.

The Transformation of a Company Town: St. Marys, I

What happens when the company shuts down?

The Word Cloud of a Town

How the people of Sioux Falls describe themselves and their hometown

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.”

‘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.

‘Where Do You Go to Church?’ The Video and Mapping Versions

More ways of taking the measure of this vast country.

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.

The Glamorous Life of a Journalist, Couples-Getaway Edition

Addressing America’s infrastructure crisis, while people are staying right in the infrastructure.

Greenville, Burlington, and American Futures

“I loathed it with the heat of a thousand million suns.”

What ‘Career Technical’ Education Looks Like

From a High School in Southern Georgia

What My School Means to Me: Essays from 3 High Schoolers

How students at an unusual school think—and write—about their experience.

On the Road Again: St. Marys

Starting the Mardi Gras festivities early in southernmost Georgia

East, West, and Points in Between

Where the Pacific Ocean is east of the Atlantic

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.

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.

The Power of Mapping

Geospatial information is changing the way we approach the world around us. Here’s an example.

There’s a Reason They Call It ‘Eastport’

East is east, and west is west, and the twain can meet — sort of

What We Mean When We Say Hello

The curious geography of American greetings

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 […]

Dreaming Big in South Carolina:

A Public Boarding School for the Arts

Dadgum! Katy, Bar the Door!

Speaking Your Mind in South Carolina

Smaller-Town Startups: ‘Stopping the Brain Drain’ in SC

‘People say, this is my ticket Out.’ Then, they want to stay.

America’s Tiniest Engineers:

Report From Greenville, South Carolina

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.

Welcome to Greenville and ‘The Upstate’

A region that has willed its way to a new economic and civic identity.

Separated at Birth?

Greenville, Sioux Falls

Ice Cream, Chocolate, Coffee, and Beer

Take ingredients and blend, for small-town synergy.

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.”

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.

An American Dream:

A YMCA With a Circus

On the Character of a Community: What Local Narratives Emphasize

The role of universities, and our un-loved public efforts.

A City’s Turning Points

The steps toward success, or failure, and why our understanding of them matters.

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 […]

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.

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.

On the Limits, but Also the Power, of Local Narratives

The stories cities tell about themselves, and the difference that makes.

Inside the Packing House

Viewing an ordinary fruit with new respect.

Reports From the Road: Hangar 24 and a Student-Run Farm

The variety of America, chapter 12,825

When Rails Make the Difference, From Down East to the Southwest

The loss of rail service into a small Maine town has been crippling

American Futures Heads West

Back on the road and in the air.

‘Springbok, Cleared for Landing’:

More on the Language of the Skies

Building a Museum: Report From Down East

A Maine couple defies the odds — and helps to build community in the process.

‘Tis the L.L.Bean Season

For Pinball Wizards and Wicked Good Wieners

Career-Oriented Education vs. the Liberal Arts

Readers weigh in with compelling opinions on Maine Maritime Academy, liberal-arts colleges, and big questions.

Do You Speak Eastport?

A town teaches itself to talk positive.

Who Are You Calling a Vocational School?

In Defense of Maine Maritime

An Educational Surprise From Down East: Maine Maritime Academy

How a school you’ve (probably) never heard of is preparing students for good jobs.

Report from Rural Maine

What it takes to make a school

America-Going-to-Hell Watch, Heady Topper Dept.

Ever closer to the magical-unicorn ideal

Down East Down Under

When ships sailing downwind are sailing east

Small Town, Big Tides, Bigger Ambitions

Ocean Renewable Power in Eastport

How the #1 ‘Breakthrough’ Helps Modern Communities Survive

The importance of communities, imagined and real.

Two Ways of Looking at a Landing

“The sea gull … that would have been the worst.”

Between Flights

Recognizing a kindred spirit.

Flying Up Down East

Travel to Eastport

Eastport Road Map

Global Meets Local in a Very Small Town

Eastport on Marketplace

Hearing voices you won’t forget, from a small group of inventive and determined people.

Eastport, Maine, Population 1,300

On a per capita basis, one of the grittiest and most inventive places in America.

Notes Cheering and Otherwise, From an American Frontier

Where the country first sees the sunlight each day.

What Would an Ideal College Look Like?

A Lot Like This

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.

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.”

ITAWT ITAWA PUDYE TTATT:

The Secret Language of the Skies

How Did a ‘Public Ivy’ Take Root in Vermont?

And the remarkable symbiosis that enriches both the city and its university

The Question We Keep Running Into: What Turns a Town Around?

Plus, a nationwide golden age of beer.

Vermont Report:

Shaping the Soul of a School

A New Type of Growing City

“This is where the talent wants to live”

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?

Magical Roundabouts and the Language of Signs

Exploring the sociocultural landscape of Burlington

On Making and Taking, in Trenton and Around the World

Respect for the Garden State and its industrial heritage.

Buying Local: the Google Angle

OK, I’m biased — but I think this is an interesting new project.

Burlington Makes, the World Takes:

The Story of NRG Systems

From Burma to Burlington: The Story of ‘Brings Luck’

A refugee finding a new life.

If You Thought a Profitable Newspaper Was Surprising, How About

More strange tales from the North Country.

Strange Tales From the North Country:

A profitable (print) newspaper

Beer Porn: The Alchemist Cannery

Going to the source, to find a highly celebrated and nearly unobtainable beer.

‘Baltimore Altimeter, 30.46’

Snapshots From a Clear Day in the Northeast

‘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 […]

Romanesque on the Plains

The Look of Sioux Falls

What ‘Fringe City’ Status Means for a Community’s Look and Feel

Sioux Falls: If you can make it there …

Road Report: Sarah Lee Guthrie

Why someone had to invent the word “serendipity.”

Everyone’s a Linguist

More on ‘Coming With’

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.

Sioux Falls: It’s Been a Boom Town Before

“That’s why they call it a land-office business”

A Dakota Boom Town, but Not the Kind You’d Expect

Why is this boom town different from other boom towns?

Why Local Money Matters: The Middletown Story

“Absentee ownership changed everything.”

‘When’s your birthday? January 1st Report from Sioux Falls

A school district of 60 different languages and cultures.

How to Make Nice With the Call Center

The language of Sioux Falls

Welcome Marketplace Listeners, to American Futures

Kicking off a new collaborative project

American Futures: Grand Finale Holland-Palooza

A small arena in which many dramas are being played out.

Welcome to Sioux Falls

A successful, energetic, rough-edged, and therefore typically American town

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.

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.

Today’s Frightening / Inspiring Aerial Videos

How fire-fighting looks from the tanker-pilots’ point of view.

Rapid City Report:

What Does Green Mean?

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 […]

A Theory of Mountain Flying

The safety virtues of multi-modal transportation.

The ‘Rapid’ Story:

Trains, Planes, and the Making of a City

Readers on ‘American Orientalism’

Good thing I didn’t mention snowmobiles.

On the ‘Orientalism’ of the Prairie

What happens when the “ordinary objects of our culture” are treated as curiosities.

Life on the Road:

Beef Jerky, Swimming, and a Search for Spiritual Relief

Notes From the Road: Drought, Politics

Politics as sport spills over into real life.

Holland: Where Things Go After the Recycling Bin

Holland makes, the world takes — and Holland recycles too.

Giant Lawn Machinery Everywhere: This Actually Is a Thing

Industrialization increases productivity. Sort of.

Thanks Much! On the Geography of Language

“Is this your guys’s stuff?” And other linguistic markers.

Holland, ‘Snowmelt,’ ‘Patient Capital,’ and the Revival of Downt

“I have the best location in all of Western Michigan!”

What ARE Those Weirdo Midwestern Pond-Pools? And Other Aerial Ar

One mystery solved, many to go.

Holland and the Theory of Serial Reportage

Approximating reality, post by post by post.

Welcome to Holland

And so it begins.

The Odd Fallibilities of Flight Aware

Technology, our friend and foe: Chapter 3,189.

American Futures Takes Off

A road-trip-by-air gets its start.

‘American Futures’ Site-Suggestion Update

“Permanent beta” as a philosophy of travel, and life.

American Futures:

Introducing Our Project