Economic & Business Development

From Military Service to Civilian Leadership

Read the story in The Atlantic here. Courtesy of NationSwell Here’s another installment in the chronicle of people who are trying to take up the slack, while the national government flails rather than coping with a pandemic. Previously in this series: innovations from libraries; changes in a statewide program in California; and responses from a nationwide nonprofit network. (To […]

Economic & Business Development

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’ […]

Immigrants & Refugees

Ajo, Arizona, is the story of a better America

The village of Ajo, Arizona near the Organ Pipe cactus national monument   Deborah Fallows is the co-author with her husband, Atlantic writer James Fallows, of “Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America.” An HBO documentary based on the book is currently in production. Fallows is also a fellow at New America. […]

Economic & Business Development

The Modern Women of Rural America

Read the story in The Atlantic here. The author’s sister (on lap), mother (left), great-aunt (rear), and great-grandmother in rural Minnesota, circa 1947 (Courtesy of Susan Zerad Garau) Along the way of our reporting for American Futures and Our Towns, I ran into the stories of some remarkable women—living and dead. Eliza Tibbets, who planted the first navel oranges in […]

Economic & Business Development

Three Big Lessons From One Small Town

Connections, parallel themes, and lessons from Danville

Arts

The American Sense of Place

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

Economic & Business Development

When Small Towns Take the Big Stage

Connecting Ajo, Columbus, and Erie

Economic & Business Development

Report for America Revives Possibilities for Local Journalism

A promising movement, in discouraging times.

Economic & Business Development

A Regional Approach to Rural Healthcare Challenges

God's Storehouse, a food pantry serving low-income people along this southernmost border where Virginia meets North Carolina.

Economic & Business Development

Bitwise Goes Big

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

Economic & Business Development

A Community Within A Community

Restoring Spirit and Pride in Danville

Economic & Business Development

How a ‘Communiversity’ Works

Real collaboration in Mississippi

Economic & Business Development

What We Saw in Muncie

How a university is helping a town move forward

Economic & Business Development

Fort Wayne Makes Its Own Luck

Breadth, density, and boldness of experimentation

Economic & Business Development

A Big Step for Little Eastport

A new life for the Seacoast Canning Company

Economic & Business Development

Erie’s Unlikely Benefactor: Its Casino

Legalized gambling is a familiar part of the modern American landscape. But an innovative scheme in a lakeside city in western Pennsylvania shows new possibilities for putting casino revenue to positive public use.