A Portrait of Public Libraries
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…
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Articles & News
Dayton, Ohio, Is ‘a Place That Knows What It Is’
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…
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
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’ airplanes…
Ajo, Arizona, is the story of a better America
Take a walk through the oasis of green grass and palm trees in the central plaza of the tiny Sonoran Desert town of Ajo in southwest Arizona. You’re likely to run into…
New Jobs, New Residents, and New Possibilities
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…
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…
Report for America Goes Big
It has been another rough period for the financial models behind journalism in general, and local news outlets in particular. Last month Brookings released a sobering report about the spread of “news…
Photos Can Trigger Change in a Town
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…
The Death and Afterlife of the Mall
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…
Democrats Should Talk About Place-Based Policy
Staying versus moving is one of the eternal tensions of American life. Americans have frequently moved: Consider how the geographic center of the population has shifted over the centuries, from…
Featured on The Sunday Long Read
The Sunday Long Read describes the Fallowses’ work: “There a few couples like Deborah and James Fallows, who have spent more than half a decade talking to people and visiting…
Deborah Fallows Featured on The Rural Blog
Deborah Fallows was featured in The Rural Blog for her appearance at the first ever Rural Women’s Summit in Greenville, SC in late October. Fallows writes that in her travels…
In Defense 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…
The Modern Women of Rural America
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 California; Isabella Greenway,…
On the Virtues of Statewide Journalism
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…