Articles & News - Page 20 of 60

Shelli Stockton
December 28, 2019

In his December 27, 2019 opinion column in The Hill’s ‘Changing America,’ George Washington University Professor Richard Tucker champions reversing economic decline by “starting local.” He references Our Towns and…

A "fly-brary," courtesy of the Deschutes Public Library, at the Redmond, Oregon, airport.

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Libraries

Looking at Libraries

Deborah Fallows
December 26, 2019

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…

The children’s space in the Brownsville Public Library.

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Libraries

A Portrait of Public Libraries

Deborah Fallows
December 23, 2019

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…

Sinclair students in a machine-tool workshop.

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Community Colleges & Technical Training

Dayton, Ohio, Is ‘a Place That Knows What It Is’

James Fallows
December 19, 2019

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…

The Tides Institute & Museum in Eastport Maine (left) and other historic buildings along Water Street, (Courtesy of the Tides Institute & Museum of Art)

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Arts

How Artists Build the Spirit of a Town

Deborah Fallows
December 16, 2019

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.

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)

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Colleges & Universities

The University of Dayton Is Reinventing Town-Gown Relations

James Fallows
December 11, 2019

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…

The village of Ajo near the Organ Pipe cactus national monument.

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Civic Life

Ajo, Arizona, is the story of a better America

Deborah Fallows
December 6, 2019

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…

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Economic Development

New Jobs, New Residents, and New Possibilities

James Fallows
December 6, 2019

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…

Artist Richelle Gribble with her cotton spider web on kozo washi paper, created during her artist-in-residency in Japan. (Naoki Isoda / Awagami Factory)

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Arts

An Artist-in-Residence Creates a Sense of Place

Deborah Fallows
December 5, 2019

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…

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.

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Local Institutions

Report for America Goes Big

James Fallows
December 3, 2019

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…

Hand holding camera lens that is magnifying a city.

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Arts

Photos Can Trigger Change in a Town

Deborah Fallows
November 22, 2019

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…

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Economic Development

The Death and Afterlife of the Mall

James Fallows
November 21, 2019

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…

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.

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Governance

Democrats Should Talk About Place-Based Policy

James Fallows
November 20, 2019

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…

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Media

Featured on The Sunday Long Read

Michelle Ellia
November 16, 2019

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…

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Press

Deborah Fallows Featured on The Rural Blog

Shelli Stockton
November 14, 2019

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…

Mark Russell, executive editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.

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Local Journalism

In Defense of The Commercial Appeal

James Fallows
November 13, 2019

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…