PRESS

Discussing the 'Our Towns' Journey on The News Project

Deb and Jim Fallows explore the ongoing story of Our Towns with Andrew McKeever on Greater Northshire Access Television's ‘The News Project: In Studio’.

Immigrants & Refugees

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

Words and stories from the towns where the newest Americans live

Reports From America

Refugees, Immigrants, and the Battle Over Who Is American

Sisters originally from Darfur, resettled in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The young lady on the left was a proud member of public high school ROTC. Deborah Fallows / The Atlantic Deb Fallows has a new post up, about what’s actually involved in settling immigrants from Syria—or Somalia or Congo or Bhutan—in the American cities that have taken […]

Arts

A New Vocabulary for American Towns

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

Economic & Business Development

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

Balancing substance and symbolism in the movement toward cleaner energy sources

Economic & Business Development

Greening Up in Burlington, Rocking Out in Allentown

As American government seems ever more paralyzed at the national level, cities continue to find ways to grapple with real problems. Two more examples.

Economic & Business Development

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.

Leaders & Governance

The Vermont Lake Monsters, and Other Updates From the Road

Are people in smaller towns "nicer" than cosmopolitans? No. But their political structures are working better.

Arts

Greenville, Burlington, and American Futures

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

Economic & Business Development

Why Do Tech Companies End Up Where They Are?

"You get some clusters, and some stand-alone firms far from anyone else. But rarely anything in-between."

Economic & Business Development

Luck? Planning? Karma? The Elements of a Small Town’s High-Tech

A software company grows in an unlikely setting. "Why here?" we ask the founders.

Economic & Business Development

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

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

Economic & Business Development

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

Ever closer to the magical-unicorn ideal

From the Readers

How the #1 ‘Breakthrough’ Helps Modern Communities Survive

The importance of communities, imagined and real.

Education

What Would an Ideal College Look Like?

A Lot Like This

Education

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

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