Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Americana
When I say “economic development”, what comes to mind? Is it big industrial plants and multi-million dollar tax incentives? I wouldn’t be surprised. That is so 1960s. Welcome to the later 2020s. For many years now, especially in small towns and rural places, economic development looks a lot more ordinary—and a lot more interesting. It […]
Why does your town exist? What makes your community thrive? How is that for holiday time existential questions? Recently I revisited a recording by Minnesota Public Radio of a community meeting up in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in the heart of 10,000 lakes country. Two University of Minnesota Extension educators in the Community Vitality program, Ben […]
“At Strong Towns, we push back on the concept of a “solution.” There is no solution to the housing trap we find ourselves in… it’s always been an approach… People need to be able to try things, to respond to street or opportunity as it presents to them. Those responses need to be incremental, a […]
Diary of Orrin Brown, outside Savannah, Georgia Thursday–Dec. 15th We had to put our camp in order today. The rebs threw some shell into our camp today but done no damage, we also improved our breastworks today to shield us from the rebs shell. The day has been very warm. Back in the Western Theater, […]
Diary of Orrin Brown, Louisville, Georgia Tuesday–Nov. 29th The day has been clear and warm, there has been some of our foragers killed by Rebbels today, we are still in camp here one mile east of Louisville. War is hell. There should be no illusion when men take up arms against other men, with the […]
It used to be that at the very least you could count on the trains running on time. Not anymore. The Red River Farm Network out of Grand Forks, ND, has great coverage of agricultural issues across the northern Great Plains of Minnesota, the Dakotas and somewhat into Montana. In this week’s news digest, they […]
August is back-to-school time (unless you’re in Minnesota, then it’s one-last-trip-UpNorth time). Two months on my new job trail and things are looking up, but if the usual suspects don’t come through, there’s always the option to go back to school. Source: Online-PhD-Programs.org .
The Center for Small Towns of the University of Minnesota at Morris presents an excellent conference each spring on small town and rural issues. This is where I met Ben Winchester for the first time and started learning about his work (now with Extension) on rural migration. I really wish I could make it back […]
Twelve months have flown by since I moved back Out West to join the Laramie County Planning & Development Department, here in Cheyenne, Wyoming. There are many differences between the eastern side of the Great Plains in Minnesota and the Dakotas, and the western side here along the Rocky Mountains. While population continues to contract […]
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 […]
