Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Americana
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently reported 96.9% of Americans have access to 100/20 Mbps fixed terrestrial broadband. I guess that puts me among the 3.1%, despite a 44% reduction in unserved populations in rural America over the last two years. I was reminded of that report listening to Deb Brown and Becky McCray […]
Somewhere between the power plant and the water tower, most communities hide a third piece of critical infrastructure: the signal that carries their stories. It’s easy to spot the pipes and the poles—harder to see the newspaper office on Main Street, the AM tower out by the highway, or the fiber buried under the county […]
Why Community-Driven Development Works This article continues our November series: From Ideas to Action — A Month of Praxis and Implementation in Rural Communities. In week four, we spotlight the engine room of rural resilience: community and economic development. In small towns, these aren’t just planning categories—they’re everyday work. It’s neighbors drafting grant applications, local […]
If you create a city that’s good for an 8 year old and good for an 80 year old, you will create a successful city for everyone.— 8-80 Cities A well-designed place works for all of its residents, from the youngest family to the eldest veteran. We seem to have forgotten that in our rush […]
Diary of Orrin Brown, Goldsboro, North Carolina Friday–Apr. 7th The day has been cloudy with a few light sprinkles of rain. I received a letter from home today and answered it. There was a funeral procesion of some officer passed our camp just after noon. I am no better than I was yesterday. I read […]
Diary of Orrin Brown, Chesterfield County, South Carolina Thursday–March 2nd We were on the road at 6 AM and found very good roads for 4 or 5 miles and then the road was dreadful muddy and we marched very fast. It rained some through the night and it has been misty and wet all day. […]
Diary of Orrin Brown, Chattanooga, Tennessee Sunday–Oct. 23rd I was quite sick all night on account of my cold but I feel a little better now and hope I shall get along. It was a little warmer last night but there has been quite a chilly wind blowing today. There was a large squad of […]
NPR this morning followed-up on my blog yesterday on the boom in rail freight, especially in the Bakken. Amtrak’s Empire Builder follow’s James J Hill’s pioneering Great Northern Railway route, from Chicago & the Twin Cities to Fargo, then parallel to US 2 (the “Hi-Line”) across North Dakota and Montana to points Northwest. Oil business […]
Intelligent Community Forum partners with Blandin Foundation to close the digital divide for rural Minnesota communities $6.6 million project monitored 11 communities over two years and tracked increases as high as 60% in the use of broadband to boost their economies (New York City, New York, 12 June 2013) — Connecting rural Minnesotans with the Internet boosts […]
The Internet most people use is an antique. I hadn’t thought of it that way until I was invited to participate in a bonus session on Broadband Planning & Big Data, during the #APA13 National Planning Conference in Chicago last month. The International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) at Northwestern University focuses on developing […]
