The author writes, "This is the rural America I know and love — a place rife with problems, yes, but containing diversity, vibrancy and cross-cultural camaraderie."
Well, no. That's not the rural America I've seen up close.
Maybe he's talking about southern Vermont or western Massachusetts or parts of northern California. He's certainly not talking about the rural Deep South, or the rural midwestern plains.
The only "diversity" you'll see in west Texas, or rural Kansas, or anywhere in Alabama is whether the white good ole boys' pickups are Chevys or Fords. A real outlier might drive a Dodge.
205
I live in a state that has steadfastly refused to accept expanded Medicaid funds. This has resulted in mass closings of small town rural hospitals. It will be decades, if ever, before these communities recover economically from the loss of their local hospitals.
There is no “brain gain” in communities with no hospital.
But the self-styled pro-business mavens continue to reject expanded Medicaid. They are thumping their pro-business breasts all the way to the poorhouse.
151
I am happy to read the thesis of Ms. Smarsh's article; I have always lived in rural places and have brought my brain with me when I moved. However, I am truly sick and tired of the Times's new role as a shill for major publishers. Any time a new non-fiction book is coming out, it seems the Times is ready to run a precis of the author's thesis, in the Opinions section. This isn't "opinion"--it's naked self-promotion. I can't even count the number of times I've noticed this over the last few months. Is there a quid pro quo of some sort between the publishers and the Times? If people have opinions, fine; if they write books, fine. But don't print opinion pieces that essentially say, "you'll find even more of my opinion if you buy my new book."
184
"Dang?" Really?
21
Research indicates people are happier in small towns and rural areas:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/17/people-who-live-in-small-towns-and-rural-areas-are-happier-than-everyone-else-researchers-say/
https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/property/a25724066/living-country-happiness/
https://curiosity.com/topics/people-who-live-in-small-towns-are-the-happiest-according-to-research-curiosity/
6
Ah, Lies, damned lies, and statistics
How much “rural” growth is in exurban areas like Warren, NJ, Upper Bucks, PA, southern WI, or Paradise, CA? How much of that “growth” is retirees, looking for cheap housing, cashing in on the equity from selling their suburban home, no longer worried about the commute? Which seems to have been a major selling point for settling in Paradise (and “rural” parts of central Florida, like the mega-Villages)
And how much does the crackdown on immigration explain drops in urban population?
I ride my bike in rural NJ & PA. Its dying. For Sale signs everywhere, on display for months/years. Farms going fallow. No business activity besides restaurants for the rich folks with weekend second (third, fourth?) homes “in the woods”.
95
Please, smart people are leaving the metro areas because most of them are run by Democrats, the crime rates are extraordinarily high, taxes are astronomical and the cost of living is crippling. There is no getting ahead in these places. The decision used to be move to the suburbs, but alas they too have been sucked into this angry vortex.
The surprise, that many city slickers moving out into the great expanse of flyover states will soon find out, is that things work differently there. People tend value their independence and freedom more. In simpler terms they don't like big government, and people with big mouths telling them how backward they are and how they should be doing things. People think making it in the big apple is hard, they ain't been 75 miles from nowhere with poor cell reception and a pocketful of money.
23
I’m a product of rural America: the Missouri Ozarks. Born here in 1956, I never left. As one of the first women entering the legal profession in Missouri, I often felt like a voice in the wilderness—the first female sex prosecutor and (seemed like) the only pro-choice feminist in the hill country.
I wish I could state that things have changed, that minds are broadening and diversity is growing, but it would be a falsehood. In my community, a candidate for public office recently opined that domestic violence is a problem “because women need to be more obedient to their husbands.” A member of the Missouri House, when defending our new law that outlaw abortions with no exception for rape or incest, claimed that “most rapes are consensual rapes.”
People have asked me, from time to time, why I didn’t move elsewhere. My answer? I’m an Ozarks hillbilly. Stubborn as hell.
174
I lived in two rural towns (one in the Midwest and one in Eastern Washington) for several years and found them both unwelcoming, rigidly Evangelical, angrily Republican, and openly racist, misogynist, homophobic, and terrified of urban transplants whom they equated with Jews, whether these urban newcomers were Jewish or not. Good luck if you’re looking for a home sweet home in rural America.
185
I was born and raised in a small city in the Midwest. I left at 18, rarely returned, and never regretted it. So did literally every good friend I ever had.
The result? The city has virtually the same population it had 70 years ago. And what once was a blue district elected Steve King, widely considered the single worst congressman, as its representative.
I hope the "brain gain" is real because my friends and I are gone for good.
115
Almost all the main points could have been described with actual statistics, but instead we mainly get adjectives.
Plain English is just fine, but how do you know if someone else's adjectives have the same meaning to them as to you. (My own take on most adjectives is pretty fuzzy, anyway.)
So: Is there a genuine trend back to rural America? Apparently there might be one in Minnesota. Anywhere else?
Particularly in an opinion piece it is always possible and maybe even likely that the author of the piece has some bias. That's why I look to cold, hard statistics to tell me what is true (when statistics make sense in the situation discussed). In this article there are next to none.
58
I'm from Kansas, educated in Oklahoma and have lived in California for fifteen years. My spouse is Taiwanese and we have not once felt racism when I return home. However, I have sat at a table for twenty minutes waiting on service for in Sonoma County. It's quite a misnomer to say all Midwesterners are racist and to assume those in liberal leaning communities are not. There are bad seeds everywhere. I've been fortunate to be surrounded by people who share a love for knowledge and are not afraid of other cultures. Perhaps the commenters with racist experiences should examine their interactions within their communities and ask if they purposely seek out racists as a way to vent their anger.
21
It’s great that the author imagines a rural renaissance and I wish her all the best in manifesting it but, as others have pointed out, that is certainly not the current reality. Just look at the 2016 election map. There actually aren’t red states and blue states; urban areas are generally blue and rural areas are predominantly
trump
supporters. This phenomenon is not unique to the US. Brexit was driven by rural voters and the extreme right wing is resurgent in the rural areas of France, Italy, Germany, Iran, Turkey and many other countries. Also, this is not something new. References to this rural/ urban political/ consciousness dichotomy go back to classical times. A Renaissance of thinking and culture in the US rural areas would be a most powerful medicine at this time. Good luck making that happen.
67
Anyone interested in the decline of rural America must consider reading the Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry.
Cities draw people and resources from the countryside, while giving little back, as a matter of policy. It has been intentionally done, profiting agribusiness greatly.
If we want to control our supply of resources, many of us must return to the country, and if enough people do it, the culture of the country will be revitalized, undoubtedly.
My parents grew up in a very remote small town and say they would never move back, and given what I know about the narrow culture they grew up in, I don’t blame them.
For my part, I think the countryside will have to be revitalized around cities first, before beginning to reach some of the truly desolate places. But I truly believe it’s necessary for communities to go back to the land and live locally (while thinking globally)...it may be a slogan but it’s a good one.
14
My town is in Northeast Indiana where I moved after living in Ft. Wayne, a medium sized city. Angola, Indiana has about 7,500 people. Due to thoughtful local leadership we have fiber optic high speed internet access at my office (the main line runs 100 feet from my office) and at my lakeside home. We have a successful university a new hospital that has developed a clinical relationship with the Mayo Clinic. Cameron Hospital incidentally has an African-American woman who is our board chairperson, arguably the most influential job in our community. I thoroughly enjoy the people I live and work with and although we aren’t very diverse there is a community sense that embraces equality.
Communities like mine seem to decay from the head down or thrive by progressive leadership. My daughter and her family are moving back to the area after living in New Orleans and Baltimore. She always was a trendsetter though.
30
Since Trump became the president I being a professional of Indian heritage, do not dare travel through rural America in my Tesla. No chance.
74
What are you smoking, Sarah?
Hope it makes you feel good writing this fantasy!
The facts tell a different story...but who needs data in 2019?
56
Leave my "elite", liberal, coastal bubble and move to Trump-voting, bible-thumping, white-supremacist, homophobic rural America? No thanks.
92
I don't see the South coming around anytime soon.
48
'There is a “brain gain” afoot that suggests a national homecoming to less bustling spaces.'
Good news. A brain gain will make red states less red.
20:20 EDT, 9/17
19
What I find wondrous about these comments, save for a few, is the priggish certainty with which they are delivered. Apparently, America only consists of coastal cities full of liberal elites, trash and the homeless or flyover states full of racist, xenophobic rubes. It’s pity that where you choose to live has become a political act, even when most people don’t really have a choice.
28
Millenials get (wrongly) accused of killing many things, but if there is one thing they SHOULD kill, it's the traditional 9-5 professional job. So much of the mass urbanization/ suburbanization of recent decades can be traced to our ingrained biases and expectations about work. If you want(ed) to work in a highly competitive field or at a big company, you basically have to live in a city. And you have to be in the office 8-5 (at least) Monday through Friday, which means you have to live in city or a local suburb.
But while this may have been necessary at one point, technology makes these requirements almost entirely obsolete. Why do I need to be in one office for 9 hours every day when I can do the exact same thing from home or any other office that has internet? I can interact with co-workers and clients (almost) as well through video conference and file sharing as I can in-person. It seems the professional world is simply running on autopilot at this point. People need to be in 9-5 because that's how its always been and employers like to know they "own" that time, even if you are only working a portion of it.
As a millenial, I'm hopeful that my generation will be willing to try changing how we work and our expectations about work. I think a huge amount of people would jump at the chance to move to smaller towns and revitalize these communities if it didn't require sacrificing a professional career. I know I would.
41
If nothing else, I would happily retire to rural New England or the rural southwest, but for the lack of public transit. Due to disability, I don’t drive, and whenever I bring that up with those enthusing about rural life, they have no answer for the problem.
40
@Lawyermom
Check out Albuquerque. Sun, good people, reliable bus and a level one trauma center
21
Hard to get past this: "The nation’s most populous cities, the bicoastal pillars of aspiration — New York City and Los Angeles — are experiencing population declines...."
I'm not going to speak for LA but according to US Census figures, NYC population grew in the last 3 decennial censuses (1990, 2000, 2010) and estimates are that 2020 will exceed 2010. The last time the decennial census reported a NYC population decline was in 1980.
64
More power to them, but having grown up in a rural place and escaped as soon as possible in my teens, absolutely nothing could entice me to go back. I was born in a small town, and I hope to die without ever going back that that same small town.
39
And I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, the city that everyone pretty much thinks is the coolest place on earth, and have moved to small town Indiana and I love it. So different strokes for different folks I guess? By the way, I’m quite liberal and have met many like minded people here.
16
Rural communities may have nice people, but many communities are infested by drugs, especially meth, and those addicts generally are as destructive as a twister to people trying to have reasonable organized lifestyles. The surplus of churches means a lot of under-educated chatterboxes are in the business of spouting religious platitudes without the benefit of having a good education and good understanding of what they are saying. They aren't theologians. And if they were worth a hoot at inspiring good ideals, the people of their communities would not elect so many ignorant haters to local and national office. I've seen school systems practically designed to let rich kids get away with almost anything while destroying perfectly intelligent poor kids. I've seen a very high percent of people having a poor understanding of cause and effect. And here's a key problem of rural areas: the local media is largely controlled by ignorant reactionary people who promote the various hatreds that are a part of modern conservatism (fascism).
67
Until that "brain gain" is an open-minded one, the romanticized notion of a sweet, pastoral, rural America will remain just that - unless of course you're white, Christian and straight.
And when has that demographic ever not had "something special" going on with it?
29
Comments here range from Utopian to just plain racist and uneducated. Well, that is the USA and it will always be that way. I noticed megachurches that usually thrive in rural America are hardly mentioned. A common thread is poor internet which makes it child's play for Faux news TV to wreak ignorance and present major cities where most of America lives as evil socialist, heathen capitals.
22
I'll believe they're not suffering from a severe case of brain drain they stop voting for spineless authoritarians like Mitch McConnell, the worm, and the ugliest, nastiest and mist corrupt American president ever.
48
Regional economics have almost found that place based economic policies are a waste of time. We should let these places die and do not waste more resources on keeping them alive. Annual direct federal transfer from more urban and richer states to the rural states are in at least tens of billions of dollars. That does not include many indirect transfers. The total could run into hundreds of billions. That money could have been used much more efficiently on urban areas where economic output and efficiency are much higher, further strengthening our nation. It is also important that these backwater regions are the hotbeds serving the Republican scorching the earth strategy to dismantle our democracy and republic. These regions are always fighting a civil war with the progressive regions and will be in such a mentality forever. The only way to drag the nation forward is the Sherman strategy to destroy their economic fighting power instead of prolong this fighting by subsidizing their economy.
36
@tom lee Maybe so... OTOH, If the rural areas are eliminated, where would the urbanites get their food, their beef, their fish, their electricity, their oil, their fibers for cloth, their vacation spots, their chemicals, their ski areas, their Li batteries, their diamonds, their gold, their asphalt, their concrete, their gunpowder, etc, etc, etc, etc????
19
Good jobs will not be moving to these areas as long as the people living there are xenophobic, racist, anti-choicers. You cannot recruit top women, people of color or non-Christians to live and work (and send their kids to school!) in these hostile places. Many high profile companies have left rural areas for urban and suburban ones in the past several years for this reason. People don’t want to work there and customers, especially international customers don’t want to visit.
85
My sister is a dental hygienist.
She moved to Pittsburgh after realizing there weren't enough teeth in West Virginia for her to have a career there.
108
Moving to the country always sounds romantic, and it often is for a while. In my youth I moved to rural Oregon in an area with people of similar views; it was beautiful and as a person I got a great deal from living here. I did find an individualist theme there, even though there was also a community, but that made me lonely for more connection, which as a newbie can take longer to establish. I can't say enough about the benefit of moving to a small community, even temporarily, without the distraction of a big city. It helped broaden my scope, assisted me to know what I wanted without a million distractions, and make friends with people with many opposite political and religious opinions.
17
We need to replace industrialized agriculture with the family farm. Read Wendell Berry!
18
Why does rural America, also known as “flyover country “, suddenly deserve a mention? Everyone knows that no liberal elites would ever choose to live there.
7
Well let's hope there's a brain gain going on in rural America. Maybe then more rural communities and states will separate themselves from a backward looking and white nationalist GOP and vote Democratic for a more hopeful and better future for all of us.
43
As the liberal blue coasts become home to ever-more extreme mindsets (not mention streets filled with human waste and parks filled with hypodermic needles and homeless people), it is only natural for average Americans to begin to migrate to the heartland.
8
Given the amount of support for our racist, xenophobic president in rural areas, one wonders what living next to as few people as possible does to the soul..
22
Surely this is a joke.
31
In the beginning America was the home of 500+ brown First Nations human pioneers. They didn't call themselves Indians nor Americans. They had many ancient complex diverse urban civilizations.
But then America was invaded and occupied by white European Judeo- Christians along with their enslaved black African property and their infectious diseases, arms, Bibles, soldiers, priests and clergymen. Making America a grassy desert devoid of native human and native natural animal and plant life.
21
Is this article an ad from a consortium of Chambers of Commerce?
35
How much of this rural resurgence is made possible by the internet? Thirty years ago, I could not imagine moving to a rural area. I would die of boredom, not from lack of entertainment or mindless distractions but the more vibrant life of the mind that a city offers through its libraries, live theatre, museums, concert halls, public lectures, and just plain general public conversations. Today, I can begin to imagine moving into the 'sticks', (especially in one of those towns in Italy that sell abandoned farm houses for 1 Euro in exchange for a commitment to stay for a set number of years) PROVIDED I can get high speed internet.
10
8 weeks ago, I moved to a rural town on Lake Winnipesaukee in NH.
After 30+ years in my suburban NJ town, the explosive growth of apartments, condos and teardowns, coupled with the traffic, the noise, the constant political arguments and the general one-upmanship in so many areas of life got to me.
Rural living is wonderful so far. Stunning beauty everywhere. Friendly people, where no one is wearing the latest yoga pants, or carrying the hottest bag, or sporting a fancy watch. Lord knows, there is serious money up here, but respect, kindness and a certain pride in making an honest living seem to permeate the town.
We have parades, fall festivals, farms, as well as kids walking to school and actually talking to each other instead of looking at their phones. I've met several people raised here who moved out, worked in cities, and moved back.
Here's another vote for rural living from a transplanted Jersey girl who still has her accent.
13
Good for you but when you get older and need health care and the support system of lifelong friends and family, you may miss Nee Jersey. Believe it or not New Jersey has rural areas, fall festivals, pumpkin and apple picking, etc., etc. I see plenty of kids talking to each other as they walk to school. And who cares what other people spend their money on? Nice people can be found anywhere, not just in rural areas. Good luck in your new home, hope it works out.
32
I hate to be a spoilsport, but there is a side to returning to rural cities that is overlooked and that is the negative impact it can have on the communities already there. Yes there will be more service jobs for locals perhaps if newly rich Californians who just sold their ticky, tacky little houses in Sunnyvale for a relative fortune move to town in mass but the impact they have on cost of housing for locals doesn’t always prove to be a net benefit to the community; I have seen that first hand in the coastal Oregon town in which I reside. Some of us are attempting to encourage low income housing, but surprisingly enough the NIMBY attitude that caused them so much pain in the Bay Area is brought along with their liberal attitude, they may want to save the beavers but they don’t care about often unemployed mill workers who can’t afford increased rents to the duplex’s that they bought at bargain prices. Everything is relative and the rich techies and Chinese that forced so many of us to leave San Francisco is no different than a retired engineer is to a seasonal logger in Oregon they generally create only service jobs when they arrive if that, it still doesn’t bring back the good paying old economy jobs.
20
The column fails to even hint at the political and philosophical differences that demarcate urban and rural communities and that often manifest as prejudice, bigotry and religious intolerance among rural people. The lack of mobility among those who stay in rural areas, often for generations, contributes to ignorance, suspicion and fear of others who think and believe differently than they do. Isn't that really what Trump plays on: fear of "outsiders?" Having urbanites move into rural communities does little to alter that "them/us" mentality. What is needed is more exposure to the outside world among the rural people. Travel can be a wonderful eye-opener for the "Ugly Americans."
18
I love how the article ends with how we need to "invest" more in rural America. Rural America already drains this country of a disproportionate amount of resources. We don't need to flush good money after bad. We need to invest in communities that create value, not destroy it. We can't spend money on public housing or mass transit because our rural brethren complain of socialism, but yet the pigs are always at the trough for more farm aid.
49
@Matt J. -Correct. Federal statistics show that blue states pay more in taxes than they get back in services and subsidies, while red states get more out than they put in. We're already investing in rural states (not to mention this administration's socialist subsidies to corporate agriculture to compensate for lost sales to China), and what do we have to show for it? Trump.
35
Return to places like Kansas? Enjoy the tornados. Employment? Third shift at the Dairy Queen perhaps? Your house will be relatively cheap. Just hope it doesn't get hit by a tornado.
16
Spare me the heartland nonsense. This writer is just trying to promote her podcast. I grew up in Nora Springs, Iowa. I wish her the fate of living a year in that rural area. She'll change her tune.
44
I grew up in Rural America and now live in the city. I miss the landscape. I miss fishing (Yes! its fun and I don't know why city folk hate it but won't think twice about getting sushi). I miss the animals.
But man, every time I ago back I get ridiculed for pointing out that maybe we shouldn't be using the n-word or ridiculing the waiters at asian restaurants. It's so far backwards. I will never even attempt to debate that maybe title IX, affirmative action, and diverse workplace benefit us.
66
Small correction: the Census Bureau did not find that people wished to live in rural areas. "Last year, the Census Bureau found that while roughly 80 percent of us live in urban areas, rural life was the most wished for." I don't think the Census Bureau measures attitudes. This was a Gallup poll. Needs some copyediting to make this clear.
29
Lord knows rural American truly does need a "brain gain."
29
Uh, no. People are in fact moving out of rural America for a lot of reasons. The people who are the innovators and technical gurus do not want to be saddled with the social restrictions that go along with small town life, ie "You ain't from around here." The only people who really like small town life today are the people who have a lot of money and don't have to work or those that know they can't adopt to living anywhere else.
Retired people used to like to move to small towns, but the health care facilities to most small metro areas have seriously declined to the point that retired people don't feel comfortable having to make long drives to larger areas.
The ability to work remotely is undergoing a contraction. Companies everywhere are saying no to working at home and want people to meet face to face in the office. We can disagree about the wisdom of that attitude, but the effect is to limit the ability to work remotely in a small town.
So no, small town life is not undergoing a resurgence.
21
This article simplifies a complex reality. I've lived in my small white Christian town for over 30 years. It is a college town with access to art and nice things, but it's in the middle of a hardscrabble, conservative, gun-toting Republican county. My kids will probably not come back to live here, and even after all these years I tense up when a strange white man walks or drives by without smiling.
But I think some people can move anywhere and learn to love their neighbors well enough & even put down some roots. I think of these as the "low expectations" crowd. I know many immigrants & African Americans like me & my husband, who put up with things just because we've lived here a long while -- stuck here out of habit or familiarity, or not being able financially to trade this in for life in a more cosmopolitan place. We raise children and then just kind of dig in through retirement and call it home. By then, all our friends are here.
I've worked with plenty of super-liberal sophisticated people who are nevertheless as racist as they come. And there are Trump-supporting people who have loved me and my brown children, and done things to make my house safe to live in, and come to my rescue in a crisis.
But isn't that how most people live anywhere? Wherever you are, you have to find your circle and make peace with and within it.
63
I’m not necessarily shocked but nonetheless quite surprised at the negative comments posted here. Like one negative commentator, I have traveled broadly and lived outside the U.S. I’ve worked in other countries as well and have felt at home everywhere.
Five years ago I moved into my grandparents’ home in a small, conservative college town, smaller yet than it was when I was young. My life experiences are very different from my friends and neighbors. Yet, I’m so pleased I made this move.
Life is slower and people’s perspectives are different. An hour ago I came back from a friend’s farm loaded down with fresh vegetables and good conversation. Such good times are irreplaceable.
When I want cosmopolitan pursuits I go to the big city of my choosing. Poo-pooing others’ life choices is a game played by people who believe they are too sophisticated for the likes of us. I say, stay away—please!
21
I’m wondering about the details of your “good conversation”. Based on my experience with non urbanites I suspect the focus was either how cute the closest pet was or who was sick and how sick were they.
10
Rural doesn’t mean ‘small minded’ and what is wrong with sharing concern for a sick neighbor? Someday you may be alone and old in some high rise apartment bldg and appreciate a caring community who notices if your mail isn’t being picked up.
12
I’m not buying it. The trend I see is twofold: 1 college kids seeking out jobs in cities. 2 retirees increasingly retiring to cities.
The later have figured out that that lifestyle of leisure and golf in the middle of nowhere is a farce prompted by real estate developers. Better as you age to have public transit, excellent healthcare and tons of cultural opportunities.
29
After living in NYC for over 20 years, I moved to a small town in northwest Pennsylvania for work. My brain was so unstimulated from the lack of activities going on that I told myself there is no way I could get through 1 year of college growing up here. My thought process became so slow and disconnected from what’s going on from the rest of the world. Luckily I didn’t have any kids at the time and was able to move out after 8 years. I definitely do not want my kids to be raised in that kind of environment.
19
Hard to make money in a rural area. Hard to educate your kids in a rural area.
People who have already made their money in an urban area and educated their kids might find a remote town of 1000 amenable, but everyplace is nice when you have money and the option to leave when it gets boring.
25
Rural America is no place for brown, black or gay people. I live in the suburbs in NJ. My commute to the city everyday is three hours on the bus and I pay high property taxes. But a majority of people in my township are not racist, I do not get stared at and I generally feel comfortable living here despite the high cost and terrible commute. I will not trade anything to live in today's Trump's rural America. I consider rural folks to be my fellow Americans and will do anything for them. But I am not really sure that they are accepting of the people who are not "one of them". It is really really sad.
30
I live in a small city. The closest wheat field is 60 yards away.
I've lived in SF and LA. Life is a million times better here.
But you all would hate it, Nothing to do, not enough traffic or crime or generalized human conflict. Just stay in New York.
12
What a hoot! I was just laughing during the reading of this, and thrilled to see the bulk of comments questioning the reality of this story. The accompanying photo of Sabetha brought back a flood of memories: the poor infrastructure, the nearly abandoned church, the decaying industry, the shoddy construction ... the forgotten Christmas wreath. Boy oh boy
Any film producers reading this? Let's take the Australia classic 'Wake in Fright' and remake it for contemporary Kansas
18
To each his and her own. I grew up in a small city in the Midwest and now live in a major urban area in California. You couldn’t pay me any amount of money to entice me back to the first place. Too limited, too boring, too homogenous.
26
Your right about that, they all run around in MAGA hats looking for farm subsidies.
21
My rural town and county - a refuge for wealthy NYC weekenders - is dominated by MAGAns and they were True Believers well before Trump seized the White House. Their ignorance is suffocating as is their stunning Christian hypocrisy. They are the nicest people, one on one, but the collective, Borg-like mindset harbors the dark rot that rules the land. The population is declining and the brain drain is in full force. I live an independent life and am self-employed, and I live here because the landscape is fantastic. But wow, the people are like one Fox News show away from putting on their armbands.
39
I mean, all that matters is decent bandwidth, and you can work from home for most tech jobs
3
Originally from the NY metro area, I consider myself fairly well traveled and lived half my adult life abroad. I have always felt more at ease in cities and towns outside the US than any place I have been in middle America. Rural America in 2019 is about the last place on earth I would live.
31
Another example of gross overgeneralization applied to the entire country. A small town in, say, western NY or Vermont is emphatically not a small town in Alabama, or New Mexico, or Kansas. A couple of problems, however, are universal: healthcare and broadband.
24
@Oriflamme
I live in a semi-rural place in New Mexico and it is nothing like the nightmare I experienced in semi-rural Wisconsin after grad school.
18
@Anon Same here. I moved from San Francisco to semi-rural Santa Fe County and it's nothing like NE, IA or the Dakotas - places I visit family.
The difference here is that my neighbors are outdoorsy, well-educated world travelers.
15
I guess we have survived How You Gonna Keep Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree?) and moved on to Ignorance is Bliss.
12
Another propaganda piece for the DNC. Rural areas are not flocking to Socialist causes. They understand that government only really cares about itself. So governments in populated areas will try to dictate their lives just like they've done for decades, to further the populace in those densely populated areas.
4
@Mark
Except they’re living off of socialist farm subsidies and clamoring for socialized fentanyl treatment
38
In Montana, our population has soared past the one million mark. Too crowded for me, now. The immigrants here tend to be reactionary and rightwing, fleeing the multiculturalism of urban areas, bringing with them perverse neurotic baggage and insidious political agendas and ambitions, and they easily get away with it. They expect my once-blue and progressive state with seven Indian reservations and a slightly lively arts community to morph into their Great White Homeland. A sad devolution, indeed.
56
"The grass is always greener"......or is it? Five years ago this story would have been about all the millennial moving to cities. Wonder where we go form here???? Suburbia?
3
how rural is rural?
the south east from louisiana to mississippi coast never
really recovered after katrina and then the recession and
gentrification, especially the mississippi coast,
but that doesn't keep it from the possibilities of what it can
before the future.
as far as the youth leaving, which quite a lot are from both
states for 'better opportunities',
i blame the elders.
they are too stupid to change, and know the difference
not to change.
the reason mississippi is ranked 49th in the country
and louisiana is 50th!
8
My hometown, Sioux Falls, SD, should be a gem. Green and beautiful with abundant parks, a thriving economy, two major competing health care systems and a robust banking industry, it has a lot to offer.
Unfortunately, SD, is a scarlet red, racist backwater where the governor, a dollar store Sarah Palin, thinks legalizing hemp farming is the gateway to issuing clean needles to pre-schoolers.
But the real deal-breaker? No Trader Joe's.
27
"young gay men hoping to return to their small town roots" is difficult to believe for this GenXer. Homophobia, everyone decreased anonymity, small gay population, and lack of social options are all part of the fabric of many small towns. Why the heck would we want to return to that painful closet?
21
@JBC
I know several gay men and lesbians who have moved back to their small or mid-size (pop. 15,000 - 200,000) Midwestern home towns. Some of them own their own successful businesses and none of them are closeted.
My experience in the Midwest is that people tend to be friendly, welcoming and non-judgmental once they've met someone.
8
NZ gets lots of USA visitors and tourists; you don't need a visa to visit NZ if you are a USA citizen. NZ also has a shortage of specialists so you'd get a great paying job if you are in a specialist field and live in NZ. The NZ Immigration Department page tells you what occupations are needed by NZ government. Some are labouring jobs and you're now allowed to take your families with you, under this government.
6
From reading the article it seems the writer is living in a fantasy world. I work remotely with many people from the midwest. I would not want to rely on small town values to protect my self as a gay man. Another friend has a sister that moved outside of Charlotte , NC. The neighbor mows the lawn with his shirt off proudly displaying his Swastika Tatoo. No thank you.
24
We could use a new back to the land movement. Call it adherents the ... “ nouveau rural”
5
The main message of this article is that the author wants you to buy her book and listen to her podcast. Self-promotion and branding is not what I seek in the New York Times. I'd rather it be done via book-review or journalistic reportage.
22
This is wishful thinking.
13
The grass is always greener. Medium to large cities have a lot going for them that rural life cannot match. Think films, dance, plays, bookstores and libraries, good coffee and restaurants, public transportation, lgbt communities (almost always a sign of the availability of all the above) and more. Choices.
15
Karl Marx once remarked upon "...the idiocy of rural life." Now, Marx identified problems better than he prescribed solutions, but rural living with no access to cosmopolitan urban environments can be stultifying. Having taught in a rural school district for ten years, many students have no real conception of what the modern world is like.
15
years ago moved to a small town after business school to work for a global manufacturing company. total nightmare. closed minded, ignorant populace hostile to anyone or anything that did not originate within 20 miles of their home town. Got out of there thankfully. Maybe things have changed, but I wouldn't count on it.
18
@mt
I had the experience of a semi-illiterate tech at a similar company in the Midwest telling me that my degree wasn't as valuable as his common sense since I was a woman and all. I moved to NorCal.
11
Rural is not utopia or a panacea for urban woes. Rural is red; accept that or bemoan your move to such. Red states should secede, reap their economic and political decisions, and let the rest of us in the 21st century progress w/out hindrance of bailing them out time and time again.
22
If I "go home" it's just a trip over the Brooklyn Bridge back to the Brooklyn side.
Can I even hope that enough "Heartlanders" (!) return to the underpopulated Red States, and re-brain them so much as to attract Blue State lifers to 'them there parts' (in sufficient numbers, not including 'mine') that our democracy might yet survive an Electoral College that 'so far' stands against it?
7
Reminds me of all the people moving to Canada and Europe who are -- overwhelmingly -- upper middle class+ white people. Try being a minority -- American cities have always been the place where we find refuge. Where we find home.
14
Be sure to think about health care!! Iowa is losing rural hospital, clinics the list gos on and on. Thought moving to Iowa would be a good thing. ?
13
This is not true in rural northeastern Pennsylvania.
Cities like Stroudsburg, Allentown as well as small towns like Brodheadsville, Lehighton and Jim Thorpe are mired in economic decay, high unemployment, drug abuse and general social decay.
The political climate here is abysmal; the old " deutch" ( German immigrant descents) and their kin are rabid trump people living next to hispanic immigrants with smoldering hatred.
Not a hopeful future for our country.
29
Another day, another easily refuted insult-the-urban- liberals clickbait editorial in the Times. Yes, I'm taking part right now but I stopped commenting on these otherwise because their only purpose is to drive up engagement and feed the Times' bottom line. The recent "stop mocking vegans" was a masterpiece of the genre.
10
Lots of sneering self absorbed stereotypical partisan dare I say liberal bile in most comments. The fact of the matter is that a city like Chicago and most of its metropolitan area are vastly overrated. Unless a person likes experiencing the winter and can afford to isolate oneself in a few select areas, Chicago is a pretty much mediocre at best place to live. Even if one is a Democrat as myself.
4
I personally don’t know any queer person who would move to rural areas. Same with people of color. I love rural areas. My grandmother lives on a farm in rural NY and I spent a significant chunk of my vacation time there. However, my fiancée and I would not live in a rural place right now as it’s harder to find good schools to work in (we teach) and schools that are ok with queer teachers being out. I’ve had enough homophobia and discrimination at 29 to not want to move towards it. I live in San Mateo, and hate the expense. But our rights are secure. When the Equality Act is passed, I’d feel more secure in other areas.
19
This picture of utopian rurality is intentionally myopic.
Did you not see the excessive opioid abuse? It's not that rural folk are in more physical pain than "city dwellers". They're more addicted because their lives and environments are so hopeless.
Did you overlook the lack of municipal support. If you need the police to come quickly during a robbery, forget it - they can take 10-20 minutes (ergo, the reason they love their guns). And if your neighbor's kid accidentally shoots your kid with pappi's gun, it will take 10 to 20 minutes, or longer! for an ambulance to arrive. And that ambulance will have a 30-60 minute trip to a surgical trauma center. Your kid probably won't make it.
At least now, the least of your worries are that your kid's mind was being poisoned at her under-performing "magnate" school teaching creationism (because the teachers never learned evolution). So now, that lead bullet is poisoning her body and mind.
And if your kid does survive, she'll return to a community fraught in an obesity epidemic. Nowhere else on the planet is morbid obesity as bad as in our rural south. Why exactly? Because at lunchtime your kid can enjoy a "fried corndog topped with chili and loaded cheesy fries" (at the school cafeteria) so that her mind (now in a food-coma) can ignore her teacher's opinions about "The Confederacy" and "Creationism".
In rural MAGA Amaricka!
20
Everyone has his or her own thoughts concerning the quality of life. Some dream of a quiet,congenial life in a small town or a farm like setting not far from town. And it's true that our cities have some problems, particularly with congestion and what some see as a hectic pace of life. However, population changes in the near future will be determined more by catastrophic climate change than romantic whims, especially in the West where a water shortage will affect life choices.
10
We moved "Up North" to rural Minnesota this year. Best decision we have ever made-fresh air, friendly people and an abundance of nature. We grew up in NE Kansas and had lived on an island in the Seattle area for 20 years. We are not into socializing so rural life suits us well. The internet brings anything to our door. Trips to the big city (pop 15,000) takes the same amount of time as the ferry did in WA. We are the happiest we have ever been, life is too short not to live ones dreams.
5
I think one ideal is pedestrian friendly, classical main street "small town" type living. And that can be found in larger cities or more rural areas. Too rural and suburban and people get isolated and lack community. But even bigger cities if they are not designed right, if they are more auto centric, can also be just as isolating and lack community. Basically suburbia done tall. Depression and suicide rates are higher in these areas whether rural or urban.
I think back when Tulsa was called "the most beautiful city in America" it had around 150,000 people but had a very bustling urban core with skyscrapers, immediately surrounded by "old fashioned main street" type areas connected by trolley, then next to that beautiful neighborhoods then country. Beautiful skyscrapers and then very close to trees, hills, rivers, lakes etc. all in a very compact area. Almost a perfect scenario. If only we had grown by adding more of those beautiful "islands" connected to each other by transit or a main highway, instead of endless sprawl. The land use would be better, everyone closer to real nature and real urban living as well, great sense of identity and community. The best of both worlds if you ask me.
8
Dream of on, Sister. Revivals will be the exception. My little northwest Illinois hometown, three hours from Chicago, lost an Army Depot during the Clinton years and a factory to Mexico in 2014. Now meth is the only thing produced. The school consolidated with the next dying town. None of the churches have full time ministers. No grocery store. Nearest hospital is a half hour away. Good luck attracting folks to that.
23
Is the author straight and white, because I can't imagine anyone else feeling that welcome in "rural America"? But that's just my personal experience.
29
@KP
I agree. I had to live in North Dakota for a couple of years for my husband's work. We had a joke: you better bring your friends because you aren't going to make any.
I used to tell my family that ND was fine if you were a white, Christian, conservative, heterosexual Republican. The only thing I miss about ND is the sunflowers. Certainly not the people, who were the most closed-off, reactionary, fearful of change, resistant types I've ever met.
18
If we could make it a national priority to have high speed internet connection everywhere in the country, then young people could work from home, move to Wyoming and have 80,000 the political power of a voter from California! Make it a crusade.
10
I fled the midwest to the coast not for economic purposes, or even jobs, but for cultural/political reasons. My mixed race, nonreligious, liberal minded family just did not fit into the culture in the bible belt. On the coast I can be me, and so can my family.
38
It is okay to take a mainly evaluative view (good or bad) of rural and small town America, as so many comments here do. But another way to look at it is to realize that this country simply has a whole lot of land that is just livable enough to be somewhat populated. Unlike Australia (vast hot desert) or Canada (vast tundra), there will always be enough opportunities for some sort of civilization throughout the vast expanses of this country -- at least in fertile agricultural areas and along interstates.
There may be net migration to metropolitan areas, but US population is increasing rapidly too. I don't see true emptying out of the hinterland. We should do our best policywise to help the rural areas and small towns thrive.
But not forget relative carbon footprints either.
6
Maybe if the US had good internet infrastructure outside the city, I'd consider it. I work remote most of the time, but can't even consider moving back to rural Texas. The lack of good broadband (i.e. 1Gbps or better) is a dealbreaker.
When will the US realize that internet is just as important to modern jobs as the national highway system? Without it, rural jobs are limited and getting people like me with good tech jobs to move there is impossible.
23
This is a deeply unfortunate trend. Rural living brings with it a number of inefficiencies that drive up carbon emissions and contribute to urban sprawl. These communities further lack the diversity and exposure to other cultures that inspire tolerance and understanding within urban settings. Rural living is untenable both for our planet and for our culture.
11
Both of my adult children left the urban environment with its high costs and returned to the rural life. They moved back in with their mother and I.
2
The best sought rural living answer is choosing the one located nearest a progressive city, methinks. Last friend of mine to move out of California was to Minneapolis. Loves it (so far). Affordable (not for long), welcoming folk and...a city. Rather that than a place set in it's ways - most often rural.
On the other hand Trump came to San Francisco for a fund raiser! Wha?
9
Kudos to the author for encouraging the rurally inclined to leave the city. My rent is too high.
7
Many people can now work from home as does my neighbor, who works for the provincial health authority. And he chose to do that work from a rural setting.
Technology can make living in cities redundant if the purpose of living there is accessibility (to shops, restaurants etc).
We can get virtually anything on line now except gourmet food. But then there's those drones.
6
There's rural and then there's rural... This rural area, originally settled about 1,000 years ago, now with about 30,000 people spread across an area the size of many eastern states has F/O ISP at 50MBPS for $50/mo, mountains for skiing, rivers for rafting/fishing/etc, a branch campus of the UNM, tons on sunshine, solar power, a major art center, a world heritage site, frequent fairs, a vibrant music scene, stalwartly blue and beauty beyond belief. It's not an Aspen/Vail though, lots of poverty and folks struggling day to day and there's no big airport for handy travel. Anglo's are a minority and many families have been here for countless generations. So far, few floods, few hurricanes, few tornadoes, few big fires, few earthquakes... it could get really arid we're told. Kinda expensive compared to many other rural areas.
4
A few good points, but the author is about as white as it gets, and although she references race, she clearly has no real understanding about how unlivable rural America is for non-white, non-straight people. It's not just about tolerance, it is DANGEROUS for some people to simply drive through parts of rural America, let alone live there.
But sure! For white people, rural America could be a great option.
40
Another benefit of living in a rural area is that you have disproportionately more political power than those in metropolitan areas, politicians and the media tell you that you are the real Americans, and you get far more tax money from the federal government than you pay (so the folks living in cities provide you a subsidy). It does sound attractive, no?
17
This article lacks the statistics to support its arguments. What is the data regarding the net flow, and is there a net out or into rural America? How many "brains" are moving to rural America from urban areas? Are these rural areas attached to metropolitan areas or truly rural as in no big cities within 100 miles?
10
I grew up in a wonderful small town in Colorado. Since then, I have lived in college towns, a tiny midwestern town, several mid-size western cities, and I am finally living back in my home state in a rural area. While I prefer rural areas and small towns, they are by no means all equal. The town of my youth is gaining population, is no longer affordable for the average person, and has many amenities associated with much larger cities, while the small midwestern town is losing population and businesses are closing. And, while I do agree that many rural areas can be close minded about the world, I have found just as much provincial thinking in metro areas. (By the way, not all rural Americans are Republicans).
As cities become more expensive, it will be interesting to see where young college graduates chose to live.
As for me, I love my small town. We have a caring community, a small college, and many cultural events year round. I can ride my bike anywhere in town within 20 minutes, housing is affordable, and we have 14,000 foot peaks as our backdrop. You couldn’t pay me enough to live somewhere like Denver.
13
@CW
Young college graduates will choose to live where there are jobs
6
If there is indeed a rural "brain GAIN" going on, will that change the electoral map for Trump next year?
Clearly there is an inverse proportion between the number of fully-firing synapses in a given electoral district and the number of Trump votes cast there...
12
Very interesting article. However the writer hasn’t mentioned employment opportunities available in rural areas.
Rural areas have certain advantages in the sense that they are less populated as there are less number of vehicles, less or no traffic jams and more fresh air to breathe. Further there must be many agricultural farms in these areas.
The disadvantages of rural areas being less and less number of employment opportunities. Even though cost of living in rural areas is much less when compared to cities, lack of employment opportunities make people reluctant to go back to their native places.
Federal and State governments must see that more jobs are created in rural areas by resorting to revamping infrastructure so that reverse migration takes place.
5
Except that in the cities you don’t need a car. You can get everywhere by walking, biking ( cities even provide you the bikes) or public transportation. My experience in rural areas, while often very enjoyable, you need a car. To do anything. And often you drive long distances to the the things us city folk walk to. So I’m not sure about the vehicle situation. Certainly cities are more environmentally friendly.
11
In Europe, I am looking to move out of the city, and to a nicer place, less people.
But in the back of my mind, I worry that what I really want is to be among affluent and educated white people, of Christian backgrounds.
It scares me a bit to think that I might not be any better than some right wing, anti-immigration nutcase.
9
@David Martin You should not feel guilty about wanting to be around people with similar backgrounds. Don’t let the PC Police make you feel that way.
3
I don't think you mean "rural." I think you mean small university towns. These are truly the gems of America. I've been to several lovely small towns around the country where you might expect there would be nothing of interest. But if there was a university, even a satellite of a state university, in the town, there was a good number of interesting people and thriving businesses. It was the best of the city and the best of the country. Those places can also be expensive.
35
Not convinced in the slightest.
Sound like wishful thinking.
12
I’ll believe the brain gain when the voting results show it.
54
I am happy to fly over those places.
12
@Surya Why? It is America. The coasts where we live are not the entire country, thankfully.
6
@Olivia
I am thankful for where I live.
I think the main reasons for this are that the costs of living are much cheaper, availability for family & friends to lend a hand (e.g., in babysitting), folks are just working less (and so don't have to be in the city to find work), and of course, the internet makes distance a meaningless condition.
3
Describing a “brain gain” as metros move to rural areas is really quite insulting. The implied snub is precisely why rural America despises elite liberal snobs that don’t know how to change a tire.
4
@zcaley
I live in rural America, mostly surrounded by people who have had no access to a decent education. Anyone can change a tire. Not everyone can read or think analytically.
29
@Mary
"Anyone can change a tire" Really? Most urban dwellers don't even know where their spare tire is much less how to fill the washer fluid bottle.
4
The problem isn’t when people have different skills. It’s when we stop respecting the skills of others.
14
Everyone talks and acts like it’s either a big calamity or definitive proof of the failure of progressive politics when big cities like Los Angeles lose some population. It is neither and I would welcome the smaller population of the LA of my youth. Most come here from elsewhere with baggage and preconceptions and then leave the former while taking the latter with them as they move out in a huff over “traffic!”, “illegals!”, “Hollywood!”, “liberals!”, [fill-in-the-latest-California-trash-talk]. Good riddance!
But be careful with assumptions about home-grown tomatoes, fresh-baked bread, and stunning natural settings when it comes to big cities. I’ve grown beautiful tomatoes within LA city limits (even grew a few beauties in containers on the balcony of my Hollywood apartment in the mid-‘90s). I and many Angelenos bake fresh bread and enjoy it as well at unique and varied bakeries across the city. And if you can’t see a big sky stretching across stunning natural settings from atop the surrounding mountains, the depths of the deserts, or the beaches of an ocean that reaches Asia, then you’re either blind or not looking very hard.
I’ve driven through all 48 states over 30 years and while I’ve loved and explored the many small towns I encountered, I was always keenly aware that I may not have felt as welcomed if I wasn’t white, female, and basically conversant in Christianity. There may be hope in these towns but it will take many years of hard work and generational change.
24
@left coast finch Why do small towns have to change and in what way? So they’re just like big coastal cities with their liberal and leftist residents because anyone with differing views is not acceptable?
1
@left coast finch. Yes, this is so true regarding "the good life" of urban vs. rural areas. There are wonderful rural areas with beautiful small farms and farmers' markets, or markets right on the farm, and fresh, healthy, and unique food cultures. But there are also even more rural areas with very limited or no farmers' markets, and hardly any good produce available anywhere, and surprisingly, a lot of people in those areas don't seriously garden (from what I've seen0. In the cities I have lived in, farmers' markets are abundant, restaurants with great local produce are everywhere, and groceries stores carry quality food. All of my son's urban schools have had thriving gardens, and there have been community gardens within walking distance of everywhere we've lived. I bake my own bread, and scones, and many other delights, and we cook from scratch regularly. If we don't feel like cooking, we have many options for affordable, fresh, and healthy takeout. We grow lush, beautiful herbs in pots right outside our backdoor (and front door!). Friends get together to knit. Our coffee and beer is roasted and brewed locally. I have been to small towns that offer those things, but most don't. All cities do, though.
8
@Olivia Small towns don't have to change at all. But then they stagnate and wither as the decades and centuries pass, and become antiquated relics. There are plenty of ghost towns in the West that didn't adapt to new technology, infrastructure and new ideas, and those residents thought they would do fine. Perhaps so, but not so for their children, grandchildren and neighbor. Change, whether technological or sociological, is affecting those small towns whether they like it or not.
7
I would label this article "incomplete journalism." Von Thunen's isolated state diagram from the 19th century, featured in Cronon's Nature's Metropolis, still holds. If you are retired or already wealthy, you can move back to a rural area, but you will probably not pick one in western Illinois, affectionally known as "forgotonia," where the winters are brutal, the summers humid, and the meth everywhere. I would like to see the entire balance sheet of the folks bringing in the money for their cattle. Alternative agriculture is not yet viable unless you are near a large urban area. I would recommend Lenz' GodLand as the book to read on the Midwest.
7
There is no evidence that the so-called brain drain in New York City is being driven by unaffordability
2
Dont know where you got you data from, but both the cities of New York and Los Angeles have gained population, jobs and GDP. You seem to have a rural perception of evil cities. Almost all major cities haveseen substantial increase in population and jobs.
13
I grew up in the High Country of the Appalachian mountains and could not wait to get out, having always been a bit of a square peg in a round whole and rubbing up against the religiosity and conservatism of the area. Having left for California and finally "making good", I actually bought up a patch of our family land in the mountains and maintain a house up there. I would love to be able to go up there more, but the lack of broadband availability makes it very difficult for me to work and stay up there for any extended period of time. I also could never put my kid through the schools up there, because they are woefully underfunded, completely (and proudly) insular, and frankly I want her to grow up around the diversity I wasn't able to.
I have romantic notions sometimes of just living in our house up there, the "ancestral manse" if you will, and trying to really reconnect with my roots, but the reality of that means willfully diving back into a group of people that are perfectly nice until you're not like them and then.. not so much.
42
It seems to me Ms. Smarsh is talking about the circle of life as manifest in where one was born and then chooses to live. That said, most people prefer to live where their income or trust fund affords them the ability to enjoy the American dream as defined by personal preferences. The reality is that there are good/bad people, educated/worldly people, educated/narrow minded people, bigots/accepting people, honest/dishonest people everywhere — urban centers, suburbs, small cities and rural areas. Only hermits and antisocial people can avoid the personality diversity of most communities.
What I learned over the years is that if you start at the low end of the economic bandwidth you must be willing to move to get an education and take advantage of opportunities for income growth. If you plan, and are lucky, you can circle back to that place where you feel most at home, where ever it might be.
That is easy to say for a 71 year old person that dodged the realities of the Reagan revolution and its negative economic impact on the 90%. Young people, not born with a silver spoon, have a much greater challenge to succeed post Reagan, than the boomers. Also, there is an argument to be made the rural brain drain is directly linked to the policies of the GOP post Reagan revolution.
27
Truth!
2
I live in a rural town of 5,500 but it is a metropolis compared to the smaller towns around it. I am tired of the same scene and the lack of diversity. The racism and sexism is bad but not as horrible as surrounding areas. I lived in suburbia for half my life and experienced horrible racism and sexism there as well. The advantage of living here is that housing is cheap. The disadvantages are numerous, including limited job prospects. I consider myself lucky to a certain extent because my town has a few progressives to counter the majority of conservatives. When choosing where to live, there are always compromises that occur.
25
But it's so boring and you have to drive so far for everything. As Those Darlins relate in their song about living in the sticks: by the time you get home from shopping the milk is done gone sour.
12
Rural people tend to be taken in by Trump. People who come back do not.
20
"Young gay men hoping to return to their small-town roots"??? Perhaps you're mistaking lamenting for being driven away. Queer people -- men, women and non-binary -- continue to flee oppressive small towns for cities where we can escape hatred and find community. As our nation grows ever more polarized, the Trump-land of rural America is becoming MORE hostile, not less, to people who look, think or love differently.
43
My wife of 40 years was born and raised in Canton, Mississippi and has never pronounced tomatoes as “maters” or uttered the word “dang.” In fact she doesn’t even have a Southern accent and never did.
She still has family there and occasionally visits them every few years. Every time we go it confirms her decision to never live there again.
46
We moved to rural America. So much to be said for it. But on Sunday we found ourselves at a dinner table with a couple of people telling us that all Muslims want to cut off people's heads, and that the Germans are in a plot for world dominion. That's the downside.
Fox News has a lot to answer for in rural America. We lead a rather reclusive (and very happy) life that lets us avoid the worst you can find here.
763
@Kirsty you can find way more people in the city with those same views and worse.
32
@Kirsty
Well said. I am on friendly terms with my neighbors, but mostly because I avoid any political conversations with them. When the second place loser was "elected" to the WH and my municipality voted big for him, I realized I didn't really know the people in this area. I could never have any respect or trust in someone who supports trump. They abound here, so I maintain my distance.
164
@Casey
Maybe, but at least in the city you stand a good chance of not bumping into too many of those.
73
No doubt some great small communities will be revived by educated, affluent folks doing cool things. But most of rural America won’t attract them. Not enough of them and “too much” of it.
9
Until Christian evangelists stop the assault on women’s health care, I will not be moving to a small town. To be clear, access to safe and legal abortions is essential in allowing women agency over their lives. All the perceived benefits of a small town mean nothing if you take this away.
36
@Marie, yep. As well, I'm not moving anywhere where rape culture/misogyny dominates--and cops are pretty much guaranteed to not care much about rape and/or domestic violence.
11
I know this is an opinion piece, but opinions should be based on facts, not a few anecdotes. Please look at the data on changes in populations and educational achievement of adults in non-metro counties and come back with an informed opinion. The biggest population gains (which somewhat offset the horrible picture of depopulation in rural America) have occurred in carbon-dependent, hardly the "something special" the author has in mind.
8
You must be kidding. The American rural areas are poor, ignorant, and religious. They have no high level jobs and few middle class jobs. There is no internet, theater, or conversation. Buts its the ignorance that is stunning. Rural areas are conservative, right wing, narrow minded, and racist. They are sure of their beliefs and will make no attempt to learn more. And in this day and age they are fast becoming part of the Trump cult. These are areas that are full of guns but no one hunts; they use their guns as symbols for political beliefs that are really just the age old rural self centeredness and lack of concern for their neighbors or for the country as a whole. These areas cannot truly be considered American in the final sense. They disdain the concept of a united country and they hate the idea of equality and they send representatives to Congress to force those views on the rest of us. They are politically anti democratic and they are not tolerant of "liberal" beliefs or people. So in fact rural areas are shrinking not growing and most young people in these areas who have an opportunity to leave get out as soon as they can. In the future these areas will be wastelands controlled by industrial farming and horizon to horizon fracking wells. The land and houses are cheap because no one wants to live there. The only zeitgeist out there is the ghost of old Tom Joad.
40
@Bobotheclown Surely you're painting with an awfully broad brush although I'm sympathetic to your outlook...
4
New York City is not undergoing a population decline.
13
Reading this, it seems as though the author is claiming to be the prophet, the Virgil, inspiring and directing Americans to return to their roots. Please a little less self-reference, self-aggrandizement, and be focused on the phenomena.
7
I live half the year in deeply rural Iowa, considered to be a prosperous, progressive state. Here is the reality: the schools and health care are mediocre at best; social services largely absent; cultural and intellectual outlets few; plenty of blue collar employment but low wages; poor housing stock; provincial attitudes toward ideas and outsiders; generally poorly informed citizens; large numbers of the left-behind class, young and old; rampant poverty; lots of drug use; younger generation with any prospects leaving rapidly; bad food; polluted air and water. The pluses: no traffic; very inexpensive; lots of very nice people; good outdoor sporting opportunities including the best Whitetail deer hunting in North America, and lots of natural beauty; dirt cheap golfing; traditional churches; lots of interesting characters; good cities within 100 miles.
18
@jim
"Very nice people" sometimes only seem that way on the surface.
8
@jim, yeah, boy--you really have to take in account social services and the politics behind them. No way would I ever move somewhere where the Republicans are constantly playing games with Medicaid/Medicare and using low taxes as an excuse to make a region unliveable.
8
Having lived in more rural areas for 25 years, I can safely say that my experiences in 3 different states was not good - I'm back to better food and healthcare.
18
Americans are aging.
They always went to the big city when young to make their fortune, then retired home to enjoy it.
Along they want, they invested what they'd made back home, in things they knew.
This is more of an old pattern, just apparent in a new way because of aging population.
6
Except that a city is the best place to retire to. Public transit for that time when driving becomes a challenge. Excellent health care. Tons of diversions.
5
Personal anecdote from road tripping around the country the past few months: no matter where, if I can find a brewery in town I’ll always find cool young people there. Holds true for rural, city, east coast, west coast, and everywhere in between.
15
We have a beautiful house with a view of the ocean and enjoy the sea's changing colors and our wide horizon. We want to sell our house but would be in no hurry to do it if we didn't feel the need as we age for specialized medical facilities since my husband and I are both aging. We are native New Yorkers whose careers as professors was at Michigan State. Many of our neighbors have college degrees. Our internet is very fast and we get cable, too. Yes, you can work from home here! Our neighbors--photographers and lobster fishermen and writers and artists--are friendly and helpful. And the pizza shop in this town of about 1200 is fantastic!
4
Just returned from rural Idaho and Wyoming. Where I visited, no one locks their home or car, there is no crime. People help each other and everyone seems modestly prosperous. People are informed about the goings-on in metropolises and say thanks but no thanks. I hope this America survives, it would be a terrible shame if it was swamped and obliterated by those who do not subscribe to the ethos, the deeply ingrained integrity of the culture.
7
@Kai
Of course there is crime. There is nowhere without it. Is there a Child Welfare agency? Of course there is. Ask them; I'm sure it would open your eyes about how calm on the surface masks rapes and beatings underneath.
I bet that in proportion to the population, there is as much crime in small town America as in any big city. And due to lack of resources, much domestic crime is hidden.
I have spent time in both types of places. No problem in NYC, but mugged while giving directions here in my little community. And plus I had to hide in a closet when the bank was robbed as I was opening a new account. Not to mention, that child abuse is quite a problem, exacerbated by poverty and lack of decent education. And this county has had the distinction of having more murder trials annually than anywhere else in PA. And drugs? Do you really think they don't exist in small town America?
If you think you know place because it is pretty for tourists, think again.
10
My sister is a principal at a northern Idaho school, very close to a very prosperous tourist area. The poverty is dreadful, drug addiction is rampant, not just meth and alcohol but opioids! The only way to really know about Wyoming and Idaho is to live there for several years, those areas look good but they have serious problems. And the children are suffering.
9
I am a gay native of one of the south's largest cities, which is booming and now one of the nation's 20 largest.
I lived there again 2007-2016.
Neighbors still whispered malevolently about the gay. My yard was vandalized. When I stripped the shutters off my house - even the shutter salesman agreed with me that it looked better - a neighbor wailed that I was destroying the 'look of our traditional neighborhood.' A colleague asked me why I had never married.
I can only imagine how much worse it would be in a small town or rural area.
I sold my house and left, tremendously sorry I believed all the nonsense about how it was different now.
I'll never go back, not even to visit.
28
I'm not going to list all the reasons why many people don't want to live in rural areas. I'll just say that rural America is not a welcoming environment for people who don't fit the mainstream idea of being an American.
34
If you are lucky, people will look at their shoes, or the ceiling and say “ that’s interesting “
If you’re unlucky they’ll make a rude comment, or worse.
5
Four years ago my husband and I left Tampa and moved about 80 miles north to a small town in a fairly rural county. We have never looked back. We still commute, but we do not miss the overdevelopment or the traffic. Yes, we would love a Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s or Sprouts, but we do have a local health food store and our Walmart carries a ton of organic and natural products. We would also love better restaurants and not fast food, but those things aren’t deal-breakers. We are surrounded by a ton of public lands and we purchased our home for less than 70k. It’s not perfect, but it’s close enough.
143
@GC We should absolutely stop subsidizing gas and reduce vehicular travel generally, and you're right that it would have an effect on where people choose to live. However, we should invest in broadband and encourage telework in non-service and manufacturing jobs so that more people working desk jobs have the opportunity to work in and develop the economy of rural America or wherever they choose to reside.
57
What if gas was priced fairly, as it is in the rest of the world? That is taxed sufficiently to pay for roads and in recognition of the tremendous portion of the defense fund that goes towards defend the Middle East - essentially protecting oil interests.
Would you still not mind that 140 miles of daily round trip to Tampa?
53
Congratulations. May you live long and be happy.
6
I grew up in the suburbs of 2 of the largest and most affluent cities in the U.S. I then lived in large cities or, occasionally, in their suburbs.
I have relatives who still live in rural areas.
You couldn't pay me enough money to live in rural areas or small towns where there are fewer people with college or graduate degrees, less tolerance for minorities, fewer cultural amenities, less opportunity.
If other people want to live in those places, have at it. The people in my family who did well all left. Those who stayed behind are basically....left behind.
22
I don't buy this article for a single second. Sure, there are some dynamic rural places, beacons of prosperity if you would. The fact remains, most of the exurbs and rural places I've been to are remarkably depressing places. The small town my wife's family is from in Rural PA just lost its mall (probably to Amazon) and its movie theater (probably to Netflix) and is facing (or rather not facing) raging racism and an opioid crisis. As far as I'm concerned, if a place overwhelmingly supports Trump, it's not a place I would want to live, and I couldn't imagine anyone else like me wanting to live there either. Luckily, I don't have to! My wife got out of there as fast as she could, and never looked back.
31
When I was a kid, if you were smart, Black, gay, creative, or different, your teacher or a trusted adult took you aside and said, “You need to further your education. You will have more opportunities outside of Alabama.” I did that and then came back. There are lots of people here trying to make our communities better. It takes resourcefulness, patience and optimism.
It is really pretty here. The soundscape is beautiful (tree frogs and quiet). The people are mostly sweet and kind and community minded. We even have craft beer here now and coffee shops, and the gay teens fit in with the artsy crowd. It’s not Atlanta, but it’s less backwards than you might think.
Read Wendell Berry. Our rural way of life has a sustainability that’s appealing. It’s not for everyone, but we would be better off with a few more blue dots. Be creative. Be the change you want to see.
19
@Bamagirl
How can you have quiet with tree frogs?
Throughout the summer and until the first frost, their noise is deafening.
@Bamagirl Now why is this not an editor's pick?
If this could turn into some kind of trend, it would lead to profound political changes, as formerly deep red states started to turn purple, and eventually blue.
This is possibly the best way to a Blue Senate. Instead of buying the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos should have spent some of his billions creating work environments that could attract voters from the coasts, inland to the bucolic heart of America.
To see this sort of thing in action, look at places outside of Raleigh, NC. Places like Cary, for instance.
13
For me and 200 million other Americans it is all about jobs. I live in a huge metropolis because I have found work here. Rural villages remain small and quaint because many of the children who are born and grow up there have no career opportunities there.
The children leave and go to the big cities leaving populations of older people who have no experience with an overpopulated world. Those folks have escaped. Escaped from the pollution and traffic jams and somehow believe that by voting for Republicans they can continue to avoid the existence of the world's problems.
Just wait, folks in rural utopia. Global warming is affecting you with droughts and floods destroying your farms and wildfires burning your houses. You cannot dream it away and you can't vote it away.
Cute story, but delusional and escapist.
23
Homecoming for who? White Christians? My family's ancestral US home is the Lower East Side. I'm not going anywhere without a Reform Temple and good Chinese food.
43
No brainer, to an extent. Where will you live? In ridiculous CA or NYC or Boston where only a million $ can bring you some sort of decent life? The companies should be more serious about relocating to not-on-coast areas, re-vamp and re-establish cities inland.
Alas, there is a big problem with this - it is the loneliness that is pervasive in the modern USA and which is a plague that attacks young people mercilessly. Thus you need a large population around you to try to find a partner since the job can take you way off from where you grew up, way apart from your college friends, and you are all alone, and what will you do if not surrounded by thousands of humans in a similar situation. That's why (figuratively) Wichita KS may never have a serious chance vs. CA or NYC, or such, because of us being humans and not robots who get moved as jobs dictate.
3
I agree with those who worry about the intolerance and closed-mindedness of rural areas -- There isn't any place in NW Iowa (Steve King territory) to consider. However, there are attractive towns in Iowa, like Decorah and Grinnell. I suggest looking for two things in a small town: a hospital and a college (non-evangelical), because they attract (and often keep) well-educated young professionals.
41
In NZ we have free hospital services, and if there is an emergency and people have an accident then you get flown to hospital by the Westpac Trust helicopter and you don't have to pay. The government and donations pay for its operational activities. WESTPAC is a big Australian bank operating in NZ and it is a service they provide. Individuals don't pay for any helicopter flights in an emergency to hospitals, and that includes kids who need flying to a children's hospital.
There must be some kind of service available throughout USA that flies people in emergencies from rural areas to city hospitals.
Also, it is the USA central governments job to ensure that cell phone coverage is in most rural areas where small farming and other populations live. NZ government is the most progressive in the world in this area; especially broadband.. Telecommunications is very important for growing rural areas.
9
@CK
New Zealand is slightly smaller than United States of America, isn't?
1
My fiercest hope is that internet access is so widespread and reliable in rural America so that more progressive and open-minded people of all types can live there and provide some desperately needed diversity. It could help our archaic Electoral College.
14
Referring to rural America is overly broad to say the least. Communities in the same state, even in the same counties can have very different personalities. Let’s put broadband everywhere there’s electricity and see who finds their way where.
Building concentric, congested circles around financial services and media hubs has its limits.
9
haha, no. Talk about wishful thinking. I've been in a few rural spaces this summer and no. Ain't no brain gain going on.
See: Health insurance and rural hospitals.
31
This article strikes me as mostly wishful thinking. There may be some small towns with a hook to bring people in, such as a college or university or reasonable proximity to a thriving progressive metropolitan area. But mostly these places are isolated and ugly. And now that they have wed themselves to Trumpism, virtually nobody with education, talent and drive will want to move to them.
39
While this article is thoughtful and well taken, the premise that New York City is losing population is factually inaccurate! According to reliable population figures, New York City has gained almost a quarter of a million people between 2010 and 2018! And that does not include all those living in the shadows!
10
According to her biography, Sarah Smarsh is the Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Governmen--in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her goal in life was apparently to become part of the East Coast academic cognoscenti. But I doubt if many of those who live in or move to rural America feel compelled to listen to her views. Her vision of how "black women,...young gay men,...and Muslim women" are transforming rural America may be playing in the right key for those who live in Manhattan and Berkley, but it's unlikely to resonate in most of the heartland.
After almost three years of post-election head-scratching, and after sending the best and brightest east coast journalists on intellectual safaris to explore the inner workings of flyover zone America, it seems all the progressives have learned is how to bend narratives, that only they themselves read, into shapes that fit their own view of the world.
16
USA is it's own Continent as it is so big so why this government doesn't pump more dollars into tourism and promoting tourism is beyond me. Firstly, though, you have to have environmental policies so the rural areas remain pretty and that requires laws so mining and other companies don't just gut the areas and leave a scenic mess behind so tourists don't want to visit. That horrible industrial building behind that beautiful historical building, in the photo, is one example.
Tourism is one of New Zealand's biggest income earners and is no different to exporting to get down government debt. Now, I always hear people moaning about the USA government debt and one way to get that down is tourism.
. You need lots of rules and regulations to police businesses, including setting large fines for businesses that don't demolish dangerous buildings that are not an asset to the town and its tourism growth.
Lots of farms in NZ do homestays and run tours of the area. USA could learn a lot from NZ when it comes to tourism. Lots of NZ farms don't put all their eggs in one basket and do farming and tourism. There's lots of beautiful old USA barns and buildings around and you could do those sort of tours. You could even do tours of historical cemeteries, pubs, and every other type of tours; even for city dwellers as well. USA has history and some nice scenery.
Government needs to generate funds for start ups in rural areas and help promote local and foreign tourism to USA rural areas.
4
My African American husband’s mother was born in Sabetha. We think about returning to Kansas all the time, but I worry about the Trump influence.
349
@Sherril Nell Wells - not sure what you mean by "Trump" Influence - but there are those with narrow minds no matter where you live - If you wanted a larger city - Wichita and KC would fit the bills or Topeka/Lawrence would be close to his roots - My wife and I are a mixed race couple (she's from Kenya) we live rural Topeka - we get looks nothing nasty so far - lived in Wichita before that - maybe look are out of curiosity - I dunno - we dont care - we just do us. I'd be more scared to live in the Deep south and it's a no go on relocation - most people here just want to be left alone. Plus about Sabetha - you'd be close to everything you ever wanted in KC. You'd also probably be blown away by Wichita.
9
@Sherril Nell Wells plenty of African Americans live in Kansas?
5
@Sherril Nell Wells Hi Sherril, with all due respect I went to my Uncles funeral in Fresno not long ago, I couldn’t believe how much it had changed from the really nice little town with its “ Christmas Tree Lane “ that I remember from visits decades ago, so sad, the traffic, crime and ghettos in place of formerly charming neighborhoods. I don't think the Trump influence would be any worse in Kansas and I imagine it would be less traffic and much safe, lots of nice folks in the Midwest.
6
Virtually every single “it spot” trumpeted as the place to be or live in no time becomes just as expensive as the last or the one to come. The reason is what it’s always been- income disparity, runaway healthcare costs, and an indecently low minimum wage to name a few- but for one exception, the Internet. If it’s hot and on the Internet, it’s not.
4
My daughter and I returned to NH this summer -the first summer trip in seven years- and I was amazed by the prosperity of the bustling small towns, and also the expense of home prices in them.
2
@Josh Wilson Lots of NH is within a comfortable drive of Boston, not to mention vibrant smaller cities like Portland, ME or Portsmouth, NH...Not sure that's exactly the kind of "rural America" the author is referring to.
4
When I went back to my tiny upper-Midwest home town for a 30-year class reunion, I was treated to diatribes about that N------ in the White House that ruined the country, and tee shirts supporting legalizing the hunting of wolves, saying "Smoke a pack a day." I think I'll remain "fled", thank you very much.
35
For 45 years, we lived in central NY, outside Syracuse, NY. It was a small town that turned from rural to suburban while we lived there. Once the town became more cosmopolitan, we had two kinds of residents.
Much of the town and its government was run by locals--people who grew up there and often their parents and grandparents as well. Then came the "people from away" invading the town from elsewhere; not much socializing between the two groups.
If you were not one of them, the locals didn't much care who you were or what you had accomplished. They believed themselves to be the entitled status group in-charge, who knew what was best for the town. There was some local corruption favoring the old guard class. Outsiders were tolerated, but made barely a dent in town decision making.
Most of our children and their friends who grew up there, went off to college, took jobs in big cities, and settled elsewhere. But a few of their friends went elsewhere to college and for their early jobs, but once they had children, came back to the little town to raise their children. Some became teachers in the local school system.
We moved to northern Utah several years ago--a pleasant university town surrounded on all sides by mountains. We are seeing the same pattern: kids who grew up here, went to college here, then got jobs elsewhere. After having children, they move back here to raise their children in what they remember as a good place to live and grow up.
No 1 size fits all
5
I guess I don't have enough resiliency because as a gay women living in a small Southern city in the Upstate of South Carolina my life was a living hell for nine years. I barely escaped with my life because of the severe depression caused by the lack of connection. I couldn't find anyone who thought like me (progressive and well educated), the lack of an LGBTQ people and not being an Evangelical/Southern Baptist Christian or religious for that matter. There is a real reason people like me escape to large cities.
722
@Sasha Love Ditto!! I think the author makes some good points, but is speaking from a cis-heterosexual perspective. I think she also glosses over racism in rural areas way too easily.
87
@Sasha Love That's the one thing missing from this author's blissful picture-- if you "return" to those places, you'd better be prepared to conform to what they consider the right way.
And whoa unto you if you're different, or, God forbid, opinionated.
Your experience of a lack of connections because of your differences has NOT changed "back there". Don't let anyone tell you differently.
92
@Sasha Love Years ago, I had a friend - someone who lived in the liberal "west side" of Los Angeles - who followed her then-boyfriend to rural Missouri. She lasted a year before deciding he wasn't worth it. As she told me, as a liberal Jewish woman, "There was no one I could talk to." I'm sure it would have been worse had she been gay or, heaven forbid, black.
54
I agree, moving to rural America would be fantastic and much more affordable than living in urban areas. With the internet and retailers like Walmart and Amazon you really can close the gap on the convivences of urban areas.
The only thing in the article that made me take pause was mention of the New Green Deal. This government intrusion would break the back of most small town economies and most likely rejected as an overreach.
@Duffy That's right, embrace climate catastrophe!
Much better to die of heat and thirst than succumb to that meddlin' fedural gummit with their "New Deals" whether FDR's or AOC's!
8
I love living in a large metro area (Phoenix). Now approaching 70 years old, I am grateful for the availability of every kind of medical speciality, a large variety of good restaurants, reliable municipal services (water, sewage, police, fire, etc.), shopping and entertainment. And as I get older, I will have many options for assisted living.
But most of all, I wonder how people in rural locals deal with medical emergencies and ongoing healthcare.
I understand that many people want a natural environment close at hand. But the long range planner in me keeps me where I am.
8
That’s nice, but you know, Richard, time is running out on Phoenix. Water is going to scarce with Climate Change. Good luck.
1
"...in spite of economic and health concerns, most rural Americans are pretty dang happy and hopeful. Forty percent of rural adults said their lives came out better than they expected. A majority said they were better off financially than their parents at the same age and thought their kids would likewise ascend..."
Um, so why the hell did so many of them vote for Donald Trump? The story is, supposedly, that Obama's recovery had left them behind - including their quasi-rural manufacturing worker brethren. Maybe the problem is that they can't make as much in the sticks as those in the urbs, and they feel resentful? Maybe there are resentful of other benefits - cultural? educational? - that aren't as plentiful there? I don't know, I'm just guessing at things.
It's sounding as if they want to have their cake and eat it too, sociologically. It's also sounding as if the biggest obstacle to happiness, at least in America, is the way we implement capitalism. Including using socialistic policies to make capitalists richer.
11
Rural America - trying desperately to be 1950 again.
This is why Trump won and why the young leave in droves.
Boomers have tanked this country and we want it back. Your time is over - why are you imposing your values when you won't be around to see the consequences of them?
10
"Less bustling places" is a relative term. The byline for this piece is from Wichita, Kansas. Wichita just happens to be the largest city in the state, with a population of around 390,000. If you live in NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston or Phoenix, that might make it a decent-sized suburb. In Kansas, it's the big city. To get a taste of truly rural America, try going a little further afield, and see what you find. It probably won't be a "brain gain."
20
I hope you're right. It is way too overcrowded and my vote doesn't matter here. But if these areas don't stop their assaults on reproductive choice or curb the dominance of religion in the culture, I don't think they are going to come roaring back anytime soon.
On the other hand, if Jeff Bezos opens his 2Q there…
9
"We often refer to this as 'brain drain' from the hinterlands, implying that those who stay lack the merit or ability to 'get out.'"
Says who? A brain drain usually refers to the young and recent graduates leaving an area, without the moral judgement the writer lumps on top.
In fact, this whole op-ed is full of unsupported statements and a general air of wishful thinking. "an exodus afoot"? Really? 80% of urban dwellers would like a rural life? Surely there has never been a time in American history when most everybody didn't fantasize about rural life. A 2018 study says "most rural Americans are pretty dang happy and hopeful"? How did they even quantify that?
Amidst a flurry of anecdotes and personal observations, the closest this article comes to listing any study supporting the idea of an exodus is citing a researcher whose study, confined to Minnesota, goes from 2000 to 2010.
Really, having read the whole article, I have no way of knowing if it actually said anything useful.
14
There are a number of choices besides New York City and Los Angeles. Try a smaller city. Try a mid-sized town near an urban area. Try a small University town. Try a small arts community. You can try all of these before you actually get to blacktops and gas station rural. They all have different personalities and some people are quite happy living in all these kinds of places.
For all the haters, I suggest you stay right where you are and I wish you well.
3
First, my mother recently had to drive her cat 100 miles each way to see the nearest vet. Thanks but I'll stick to urban living.
Second, returning home shortly after college is normal. It's what older generations disdainfully described as boomerang-ing among millennials in the wake of the Great Recession. You return home after college because you need to find a job and raise enough money to launch a career and move out. If you can make that work in rural America, good for you. Most people can't.
Third, a growing rural economy is a sign of successful policy. I know. I was involved in creating some of it. We've spent years trying to revitalize and diversify rural economies. Often dragging their inhabitants kicking and screaming through the process. If rural America works, it works because we are investing countless time, effort, and money making it work.
We obviously need rural infrastructure to support urban populations. The United States, as a rule, has allowed this infrastructure to decay. However, please drop the romanticized "by-your-boot-straps" nonsense. We're subsidizing rural Americans at a net loss to most tax payers. Most rural Americans had the courtesy to thank us with Donald J. Trump.
Forgive me if I'm not exactly excited about rural revitalization anymore.
25
I wonder how much of the return to rural american is just boomers who have retired and are looking for cheaper cost of living. My parents are getting ready to sell their 700k house in SoCal and buy a 150k house in Tennessee. But that is just because they don't need to work and have the privilege of choosing a locale with fewer job opportunities. They are also lily white and looking to escape the immigrants. I laugh when I think about them having to maintain a 3000sqft house on 5 acres in the heartland without their landscaper and cleaning lady. The grass is always greener...
14
Being from Nebraska, I’m surprised to see how closed minded both urban and rural folk have become. It is certainly possible to do good work anywhere, but places are no so specialized it is hard to escape the overspecialized local economies. Whereas before an architect could start small, building houses in the country and then go to larger and larger urban schemes, today there are high density specialists and country specialists. Look at Frank Lloyd Wright, who worked everywhere, now scored by NYT critics who flyover Louisville to bash highways and any single Family housing.
Even so, our rural and urban areas (and suburban) are more interconnected and transcend stereotypes when you look closely. More tech companies are coming out of rural and mid American places. And we’d be much smarter to restitch the country back together with a federal high speed rail system overlapping the obsolete highway system — and get more people spread out to the interiors rather than hyperdensifying already dense and overcrowded urban centers like NY and LA. It’s true, most people want to have their cake (cities) and live in the country too.
4
Most of the improvements I've seen in rural areas are where urban tastes and sensibilities have taken over. I just love my cappuccino at TipTop cafe in Thomas, West Virginia. And there's that new bakery in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania that caters mostly to wealthier urbanites that come to raft the river or bike the trails.
I don't have to go far off the beaten path to see all the reasons I'm glad to have spent most of my life in the city. Much of Appalachia now looks like the worst parts of the developing world, but absent any hope. My trip to visit distant relatives in small town Nebraska emphasized the obesity epidemic, and reminded me of their stereotypes of city dwellers: Was everyone in San Francisco gay? Rich? Or just weird? Then they expected me to pay the tab at the TGI Friday's knock-off that served a 4,000 calorie meal.
In short, it seems the only appealing rural places I've visited are those to which urbanites have moved. But sure, the landscape is sometimes pretty.
8
I moved from NYC to a small town of 4,000 people in central New York 9 years ago, and it was the smartest thing I ever did. I work remotely for the same company I worked for in NYC, meaning I have brought my NYC salary to a small town. I bought a house for the price of a decent SUV, I had money to pursue dreams like getting my pilot's license, I spend 5 minutes commuting every day, and the cost of living is about half. And there are more and more people like me coming to the area.
9
Like with cities, it depends on which rural area. A rural area on the East coast or the West Coast near the big cities is way different from certain rural areas in the middle.
I find the east coast overall very crowded and while we live in a rural/exurban small town (I love the astronomy and astrophotography I can do: http://ram.org/ramblings/cosmos/ and can see the Miky Way at night) it is not a big deal to be 45 min to 1 hour from major cities and highly desirable. The small towns around me have a lot of charm.
This isn't true of the college town I went to undergrad in (now much bigger and less rural - Delaware, OH and only minutes from Columbus) and many small towns of that nature today which are dying.
2
A rural town that flourishes must have a population that brings in dollars from somewhere else. Those coffee bars and yoga fitness studios only exist as long as the economy stays healthy. A major economic downturn will see most artistic, artisan, and cutesy businesses fail, both urban, suburban, and rural. No one really needs a $3 coffee.
6
The truly rural areas of NY and PA that I'm aware of (first hand, experiential knowledge) might as well be rural Jim Crow South...most won't change for at least a few generations without outside intervention, or total economic collapse.
Lots of urban people might have second homes, or vacation there, but few could stomach these areas as full time residents.
11
The depletion of oil and global warming will kill suburban sprawl and rural living in the next 20 years. No future there.
8
From what I've seen and read, it is easier to have a digital career in a city in Thailand, than in rural America.
3
I just came back from a motorcycle trip in southern Quebec province, and (I also motorcycle in rural areas in the U.S.) I found that small towns in Quebec seem to be doing much better than their U.S. counterparts - in fact many are what I would describe as thriving and"trendy."
5
This morning, while I was putting seed in my bird feeder, I heard somebody ranting in a ear-splitting scream. I came around the side of my house and there, in the park across the street, were three police cars and a cluster of officers around a tree. The foul-mouthed screaming was coming from up in the branches. They finally got her down and took her away in a patrol car.
I'd like to say this is a rare occurrence in this small town, but it's not. I see police arriving at houses in my neighborhood every week. I've had times I've sneaked around my own yard because I'll be hit up by drunks or drug addicts for a ride in my car, a cigarette (I don't smoke,) to use my phone, or sometimes for money.
I saw in the local paper that 33% of the teen girls here are pregnant before they're eighteen. The paper bragged that this was lower than the state average. A case worker told me meth use was high in this town. I know from talking to people that alcoholism is high. This is a town under 5,000 people, 99% white.
In the ten years I've been here I've tried to help make things better but the residents don't seem interested in a better life. Do I want to stay here? No. I hope I can save enough money to get out, even though houses will cost far more wherever I move. I don't wish to be an elderly person where my neighbors are arrested on a regular basis. I want to enjoy the last couple of decades of my life.
61
Yes there are some growing and dynamic smaller cities, but my experience that many of them have a major college or university, and then with that good hospital. For example Harrisonburg VA or Blacksburg VA. People from the over-priced DC suburbs are moving there and boosting business, changing local politics, and having a good life and owning a house. However, jobs are limited and salaries are well below what one can earn in No VA. My small town of birth in central Illinois is still shrinking and many young people go elsewhere including Chicago.
10
It would be very interesting to see the percent increase in small town population as a function of original population size. How fast are tiny town (fewer than 100 residents) growing? Small towns (fewer than 500)? Large towns (fewer than 1,000)? Small cities (fewer than 5,000)? Medium cities (fewer than 10,000)? Larger cities (fewer than 20,000)? My home state of Nebraska contains 93 counties. In the last century Nebraska's population has grown by about 800,000 to about 1,800,000. That increase is about twice the current size of its largest city Omaha. Nevertheless, 80 of those counties reached and abandoned their historic high populations over 75 years ago - before the U.S. entered WWII. And only 13 of the 93 are now at their historic high populations. About 100 Nebraska municipalities have fewer than 100 residents each.
5
I've been back to my birthplace, as small town at the eastern end of the cornbelt, less and less often as the years go by. Still, I have been there enough to know that for every generous, salt-of-the-earth resident there are at least two who are bitter, angry, and motivated.
If you are somewhat of even temperate liberal views and are planning to scale down your life by moving to a rural community--don't. It's probably not going to go as you hoped, and you may not even be safe.
28
This article and these comments encapsulate what I love about America: there is something here for almost everyone. The sooner we join together to solve our common problems, the better off we’ll all be.
2
It is obscene that administrations of both parties have not made national high-speed internet a priority. Sure, it's costly, but just a few of the military millions (billions) would take care of it. Just spread it around fairly to accomplish what needs to be done and many places now considered undesirable to live in would be attractive again.
As for the social justice issues in many parts of the country, it seems right that they are being emphasized these days and in the runup to the 2020 presidential election. This country will not survive if we don't lessen the hate towards non-whites. The idea is that we are Americans, remember?!
The only real impediment is the people who would discard/ignore our Constitution, which guarantees the balances and freedoms we enjoy.
8
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s in a small-ish, blue-collar, Midwest area that was heavily dependent on agricultural manufacturing. It wasn't terrible until the manufacturing left, soon after I did for college and a life elsewhere in larger metro areas. Seven years ago, I returned to my hometown to help with my elderly parents' care. What I found was a place still struggling to pull itself out of its economic funk from 30 years earlier: weeds still growing in the middle of main thoroughfares, abandoned buildings, a plethora of casinos. The area looked worse than even I remembered from semi-yearly visits. When I left at 18, I vowed I'd never return but an only child has few choices with stubborn and unrealistic parents.
Rural-ish areas are fine for those who want to live a good portion of their lives driving in their cars. With the exception of driving my MINI on a race track and an autocross-type stretch of I-40 in the Smokey Mountains (done both), I abhor driving anywhere. At 56, after both of my parents' deaths, I picked up and moved to Chicago, having loved this city from afar as a kid. Yep, I have a small apartment, which forces me to not hoard. I ride my bike almost everywhere or take the many public transportation options. I have a membership to the Art Institute where I go to escape and relax among the beauty there. I live in a highly diverse neighborhood filled with artisan cheese mongers and a small homeless population.
It's glorious humanity.
21
Why wouldn't the young and smart get out of the cities. If you have broadband you have the world. If you live and work online why not do it looking at an empty blue sky and quiet. You can have free solar electricity, rain collection systems and live comfortably at 1/4 of the cost of a city. A monthly run to Costco and you're set. I'd do it in a minute.
3
@markd Part of the problem is a lot of rural American does NOT "have the broadband..." And the Republicans in power in those areas seem just fine with that...
4
For those of y'all slaggin' off on rural America, please remember the Electoral College, which isn't going away without the consent of those rural areas. Those rural areas collectivity chose our current president. If you want to change an area's politics, move there and vote.
12
Nice try. Living a rural life means giving up museums, art shows, concert festivals, and the ability to engage with people from all walks of life. It also means have to endure the usual question "where did you grow up," answer "New York," and inevitable response "I hate New York" for the thousandth time. No thanks.
29
@Kristine True about the museums and art shows,and I sometimes daydream about those. But I would miss being able to step out my door and hike or cross-country ski, as well as being able to grow my own food, as well as knowing many of my neighbors... Here on my small farm/intentional community in upstate NY we've had guests from many countries of origin and from all over the class and political spectra.
I am glad you enjoy the place where you live. I enjoy this place as well.
4
@Joanna and @ Kristine,
Based on your comments and many on this thread, I wonder if most folks are wired for a preference and I'm not sure that changes often. Having grown up in a small rural town but living in a city for two decades, I'd never go back. I know a lot of rural transplants with my same experience. I do have a few friends who didn't like city life and moved back to the country. Sadly, that may also be an indicator for our increasingly polarized society: People's values systems may also determine whether they gravitate toward wanting to live in a rural or urban setting, and we wind up self-segregating. Hope not.
6
@Kristine
Replace the lost museums, art shows, concert festivals by learning to play a musical instrument yourself.
2
Hospitals and clinics are closing all across rural America, nursing homes too. If you are planning on starting a family, or have started to coast into your elderly years, make sure you look at access to medical care before relocating.
13
@doug mclaren
This is a HUGE problem. After a lifetime in extremely beautiful rural places from Maine to the PNW I moved to a small town with a real hospital and real doctors. The wonderful old country doc of yesteryear is myth. Instead, rural places get the incompetents who count on ignorance to not recognize their lack of expertise. And read a medical journal? Ha ha.
5
It varies by State. Minnesota with its Scandinavian heritage isis different from NY State, where Upstate continues to lose population
The reason : State Tax policy
Minnesota does not have the ever increasing local property taxes that strangle rural NY. 75% of local property taxes in Broome County go NOT into local services - roads, sewers, roads - but into State mandates on services such as medicate that should be paid for by income tax The reason: NY State law makers are reluctant to raise the State Income Tax (top 8.82%) to California levels (13.2%)
for fear the NY City financial industry would object (including stop its campaign contributions)
Re Poland
Poland eliminated the income tax on people below the age of 26 NOT to lure the back to the country side , but to STOP
the depopulation of its CITIES. Deserted by people who moved - under the EU regulations of free movement to the Netherlands,, Britain and Germany where wages are much higher . As explained on on the French evening News: Lodz, its 3rd largest City , lost more than 150 000
Watch
https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/europe/pologne-l-exode-de-la-jeunesse_3612851.html
6
"As for cultural woes, those among them under age 50, as well as people of color, showed notably higher acknowledgment of discrimination"
Are we to take it from this that the "under 50" figure refers only to white people? And that all previous statistics from that study about "rural adults" refer only to white people?
1
Thank you for this.
Eighteen years ago I moved from a small town which was getting swallowed by suburbs to a smaller town in a depopulating area where I took up farming in lieu of going to college. I hope to spend the rest of my life somewhere like this. I value the ways in which living on the land enables some degree of independence from a destructive global economic system as well as some practical ways of helping neighbors and building community. I am grateful for the kindness of my neighbors and for the various folks who've taught us to do things, or helped us out and learned what we knew how to do.
I do also see massive problems:un/underemployment, rising addiction rates, lack of transportation access, and weakening community bonds, and also lately a troubling increase in the open display of racism, besides the usual human faults which show up in all times and places. And also the shame/scorn which tend to be tossed at manual laborers and rural poor folks. I am still looking for solutions which make it easier to live here well, rather than treating this place as a discard to be fled by the 'best and brightest.'
5
This article resonated with me. To begin with, I am originally from Chicago, but, lived out most of my youth in Papillion, NE. Despite what people may think, it was wonderful. I graduate from a private college, obtained my Ph.D., and went west where I was a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley and then Stanford University. I went onto the job market and interviewed everywhere, but, I wouldn’t interview in CA. California was wonderful, but, I knew what an affordable and reasonable life looked like and CA was neither of those things. I spends hours a day in the car and thousands on rent (greater than 2,000 dollars) per month (for a one bedroom) and child care (2,000/month for one child). I felt like I had no security while I lived there. There didn’t seem to be economical common sense and people were being taken advantage of in an attempt to live. Coming from the Midwest I knew I could live better. I recently took an Assistant Professorship at South Dakota State University. I own a 4,000 square foot home (a 1300 dollar mortgage) and my son goes to an early learning center, the same in CA, (650/month). I also make double the income. I was skeptical moving to a “red state,” but I find that I am among progressives and liberals. We celebrate pride and encourage diversity. People need to experience different areas for themselves and make up their own minds. We buy into a narrative without any evidence for the truth. In the end, I believe I am the smart one moving away from CA.
14
@Rachel Alexandria Rachel, good for you! I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for about 50 years, after spending a few years in three other states. I think that California's population has doubled over the past 50 years. I dream of moving elsewhere, perhaps to one of the states I used to live in, to a calmer, quieter place. I hate driving on freeways in California and take public transit when possible. The cost of living here is outrageous, and the quality of my life is not great. I have to convince my husband to move.
3
Thank you! I miss many things about CA, but, we left behind a strong community. So, I look forward to visiting and staying amongst friends. Once we had our son we couldn’t justify living there anymore after my postdoc. It was too inconvenient and costly. I felt very oppressed in the end. It is better now. :)
1
I don't know about USA rural areas and I presume it's no different to rural NZ when it come to childrens education, but from my experience of living in rural areas, the schools there seem to have better teachers who enjoy the lifestyle, and rural schools seem to have smaller class numbers, so that is another plus for your kids going to rural schools; I've noticed that most poor kids in rural schools don't get left behind and are very well educated when it comes to going to secondary schools in the city.
Kids in rural schools also seem to have a better well rounded education and do lots of outdoor activities and go on camps etc.
Rural schools seem to be better at educating their students than the bullying, over crowded city schools. (In my opinion)
4
@CK I went all over NZ for two months and thought all the people I met in your small towns were friendly, well informed and secular in their point of view. The same can't be said about rural people in the majority of our country.
2
While I don't live in the rural midwest, I do live in a small city in upstate New York. I fell in love with this place the moment I visited, bought a home here 16 years ago and every time I return to NYC for a visit to friends and family, I wonder what took me so long to leave that busy madness.
4
There is something to be said about rural life -- it is calm, quiet and usually friendly. As for people moving to those areas who are different from the traditional population, well, it's still calm and quiet for them but not as friendly.
Mid-sized cities, close to the countryside but with a small-town vibe, like Kingston, NY, are great alternatives to rural life. A lot of young people, as well as retirees, are moving here. The arts are booming -- music, visual arts, comedy. The restaurant business is off-the-hook, local produce and animal products readily available. And the city is really diverse, the public schools far less segregated than those in New York City. If I was younger with kids I would want to stay in a place like this.
12
Big city metro areas is where the majority of well paying jobs are. But it is also expensive living there. And crowded. So it kind of makes sense for retirees to chose a quieter location to downsize and live.
If they move back to the towns they grew up in they likely have a built in set of friends and a comforting familiarity of their surroundings. Housing can be a fraction in small towns compared to cities. Health services which may be 30 or 50 miles distant take about the same time to get to them as it does to get to your doctor in the big city with all the traffic.
Selling the big city home and buying a cheap place back home could still leave enough for snow birding in the winter (if back home is in the northern states).
Retirement income might also go much further in small towns. And on some level, isn't it natural to return to the place you grew up? Almost every migratory animal species do so.
2
Homecoming, eh? And the color of those returning "young people"?
The obtuseness of this essay, and the partiality of its data, are crystalized when "get out," in scare quotes, appears in graph one in blissful ignorance of what that phrase has come to mean for a historically aggrieved US population toward which rural America historically has been anything but welcoming.
13
You clearly didn't read or understand anything. Her analysis and podcast INCLUDE the stories of black and Hispanic farmers and their families.
@Ani
Partial data.
Immune to Urban culture.
From what I have read, the population decline in New York City is driven more by the Trump war on immigration, both legal and illegal. I would not be surprised if that explains the changes in Los Angeles also.
3
I have trouble believing that genuinely happy people would vote for Trump. But that's what rural America did.
45
Over a million New Yorkers voted for Trump, and tens of millions of rural people, even white rural people, voted against Trump.
2
Correction: the Census Bureau did not find that "rural life was the most wished for" — that was the finding of a Gallup poll that the author or an editor conflated with the Census statistic.
Anyway, the comments seem to show that the full picture is more complicated than presented. All I really care about at this point is whether some of those more rural states are turning Blue as a result of the "homecoming." And if the Tech industry wants to accelerate the "blueing" of rural America with tech job centers and an infrastructure of fiber, hospitals, Amazon outlets, craft breweries, locavore restaurants, music festivals, crossfit gyms, yoga studios, farmer's markets and fair-trade coffee shops, I'm 100% in favor.
4
@Yojimbo Note: I wrote this about four hours ago. The error I pointed out has since been corrected.
The future of the American family, and our country, is in a return to the rural areas.
This is where to find the beautiful land, clean water, clean air, and a life of one's own.
We moved our family from Bergen County NJ to Cooperstown, in Otsego County NY, in 1970s and we have never regretted one day of that decision.
Our children went to Cooperstown Schools, are all college educated, and are all doing very well in their chosen fields.
We live the life that most people only dream about.
We have safe schools, excellent hospitals, historic small towns and villages, museums, spectacular lakes, restaurants, recreational opportunities, sports centers, highly educated friends and neighbors from all around the world, and beautiful homes at reasonable prices.
Fifty percent of people in New York City cannot afford to live there and it is getting more expensive by the day. Fifty percent of people in New York city live alone. If that sounds like it makes no sense to live there, then you are right.
Many people want to live somewhere else, and can afford to do so, but they do not know where to go.
Upstate New York, and Otsego County in particular, is a great place to live and raise a family.
The City of Oneonta is rising quickly as an arts and business center.
Go to ThisIsCooperstown.com for an overview of our pride of place.
Come live with us and bring your business with you.
You can go home again.
1
@James Dean
Check the "clean water, clean air" bit thoroughly. Rural places are where the paper mills and disposal centers go; bodies of water supplying what people drink are usually ringed with houses with old and leaky sewage systems. Look in the summer when eutrophication is stalking the waterways. There is a LOT more pollution in the hinterlands than most folks understand.
7
Who can stand the weather though? I lived in Oneida and Tompkins county for many years and will never be back. Too gloomy. Too cold.
4
@dressmaker
New York City residents are drinking millions of gallons of clean fresh water, every day, delivered to them from Upstate New York reservoirs. This water is considered to be some of the highest quality water in the world.
"Government agencies have made piecemeal efforts to attract professionals to rural America, offering loan forgiveness or other incentives to teachers, doctors, home buyers. To make the burgeoning rural return feasible, we need big structural fixes for a big problem, such as Poland’s recent scrapping of income tax for young workers in an effort to keep them in the country."
So what you're saying is that young people have to be bribed to live in rural America? Based on what I see in my small fishing/lumber town, the only ones who stay are the ones who can't compete elsewhere. Those who go away to college tend to stay away.
8
I lived in a rural area for a long time in Nicholson pa. We had two nice grocery stores there until 1991. We moved to a better place in Lewes ,De in 1989. Walmart moved in 15 miles away in Tunkhannock ,pa and the two grocery stores in Nicholson went out of business. Now Nicholson is just a place to live and die. I was glad we made the change . Plus i heard and read on the Northeast Pa cable sight 3,500 ways their cable company is lousy. When Trump gets reelected and he privatizes the U S post office in those rural towns that will really be hard to deal with. Give me city life any day. As you get older you want to be closer to stores and a hospital at least.
4
The commodity in shortest supply in any democracy is intelligence. We watched the distribution change drastically over decades as talent fled to the coasts and a few other areas where the good jobs were. Maybe as opportunities for high level work are tied less to location, we will see a more equal spread return. This points to the motive of a more pleasant life. That's what it is going to take to break up the Republican hold on the Senate and Electoral College.
6
i live in nyc have a tiny apartment.
my sister lives in rural delaware and has a decent home with her fiancee.
i never try to explain to my sister why i chose to live in nyc. but constantly, she tries to convince me to abandon a city and move to delaware -- us both being from a large city.
she insists the people who fly their confederate flags are nice people.
i'm not buying it.
56
I have close ties to Northeastern Colorado and I still travel there for business and to visit my family. I am struck by the extent of sprawl or leapfrogging of development adn investment even in the smallest of towns. Large new houses and businesses in unincorporated areas, just beyond walking distance, surround many communities while the towns themselves are a deteriorating and trashed mess. As is the case with larger towns and cities the lack of enlightened land use planning continues to plague this country.
19
I live in the suburbs of St. Louis and frequently visit more rural areas in the state. I see zero evidence of any rural resurgence. In fact I see the opposite: increasing economic desperation, decreasing job availability, increasing intolerance, and nothing that would appeal to any more moderate or liberally minded person. i see blight.
39
@Rich
Same. My family lives about 120 miles north of you, in a supposed "tourist" area. The hospitals are closing, the churches are closing, the factories are just simply gone. The grocery stores left over a decade ago b/c of Walmart, and the closest shopping is 30 miles away (& across state lines) but that is closing now too. The farm auctions of the 80s are also back.
There are people in town who drive 3 hours a day to get to work so they can "Live their values." That's not living.
22
@Rich
I grew up across the river two hours east of STL and every time I go home it gets more bleak. You either farm, which is scary right now, or you still work the mines and hope they don't close. Health care industry is big because the population is so old. Otherwise, you eke out an existence with retail or other low-paying jobs. Walmart has driven out just about everything else and meth is still everywhere.
And everyone there talks about how lucky they are not to live in St. Louis!! (Everyone thinks all of St. Louis is East STL.)
10
After living in cities, I have lived in rural America for 25 years. Each region is different. Most readers will agree that this piece is vague and lacks substance and reason; it sounds merely self-promoting. This paragraph, for example, makes no sense whatsoever -- what big structural fixes is she talking about and why is she mentioning Poland?! (many states have no state income tax; is the author suggesting we eliminate federal income tax on rural workers?!):
"Government agencies have made piecemeal efforts to attract professionals to rural America, offering loan forgiveness or other incentives to teachers, doctors, home buyers. To make the burgeoning rural return feasible, we need big structural fixes for a big problem, such as Poland’s recent scrapping of income tax for young workers in an effort to keep them in the country."
Surely there's someone who could cover this topic better?
7
On a recent jaunt through the West, my wife and I passed through a small town in Wyoming on a scenic two lane road. The middle school had bicycle racks. And, lo and behold there were plenty of bicycles in the racks. Kids riding their bikes to school not being hauled by their helicopter parents! The few streets in the town looked bike friendly and trash free. Somebody was doing something right.
12
States must provide their rural towns with 21st Century Internet. Democrats if smart should promise that Internet
23
@Doug
I never did and still don’t understand why the Democratic Party fled and still seems to be avoiding any discussion, let alone celebration, of the groundbreaking success of the policies of the New Deal era. Those policies laid the foundation for America’s midcentury global dominance. The twisted and corrupted love of money and its powerful worshipers is what has defeated Democrats repeatedly over the years. Dump the oligarchs and get back to FDR!
16
Yeah the problem here is that these areas are substandard places to live compared to SF and NY. Most of these states have cut taxes back to nothing, stripping funds for colleges, public health (like food safety and disease prevention) parks, transportation, schools, etc. because of years of hard right politics. And the people that did this will be your neighbors and community. I'll pass.
30
@Bompa, ironic when you consider that Florida is and has been getting overrun with the retiring 'Boomers from Blue states. In particular it's always interesting to note how many folks born in the 5 Burroughs end up in Florida. I guess it's the case that everyone loves the perks that come with yuge taxes in CA and NY, yet nobody wants to pay with it out of their savings.
5
@Mike S, to put it bluntly, people go to states like FL to die from blue states where they actually lived.
3
The Boomers paid taxes to get their kids educated, then the subset who didn't want to pay taxes for 'other people's children' fled, like the spoiled petulant humans they are.
3
How is selling $52,000 worth of beef in 9 months an indicator of opportunity in a small town? What was the cost of that beef and getting it to the end customer? That defines whether this is an actual opportunity to make a life in small town America.
9
The rural areas and small towns that are doing well are nearly all those that are proximate to middle or large cities. And they are prospering because of a synergism with those cities. Rural areas and small towns not near cities are not doing all that well.
29
The ONLY thing that rural towns NEED and desperately lack is proper Internet backbone (in their area) and proper last-mile access.
I lived in a rural area just a **half hour's** drive from a major metro area of 1.7 million people for the last 12 years until I was forced (by an abusive ex) to move back into the city. What the did the rural area lack that the city bring me? Only three things:
1) Someone to mow the lawn
2) Safe water/sewer and regular trash pick up
3) 21st Century Internet
Of the three ONLY the Internet had any real impact on my family. The internet was a CONSTANT, daily problem. My kids could not do homework (and the local library hours had been cut due to tax shortfall). We had to ration videos so as not to "go over" our monthly allotment of bandwidth and fall into speeds that would rival those available in the early 1990s. To allow bandwidth for my husband (who watched pr0n) and the kids (who needed it for homeschooling) video, I couldn't watch ANY at all.
If the US really wants to revitalize rural areas, We need a 21st century Rural Internet-ification, like we had a rural electrification in the 1930s. Private companies WON'T DO IT. Electric co-ops were given grants 10 years ago. They ran out before they got through HALF the counties, leaving the OTHER half they were SUPPOSED to serve, without service.
I know, our rural county was one of the counties left high and dry. My business, left without proper Internet... went under.
17
@Dejah Absolutely right, Dems should make aggressive "rural internetification" a key plank of their party platform.
Good policy choice, and one that might remind people just who brought the New Deal as an alternative to Hooverian austerity!
1
I'm glad for the rural revival the writer paints. But to Ms Smarsh needs a more precise definition of "Rural America." It seems the working definition is anything not NYC, LA, or Chicago. That is too broad. Later in the article, she seems to imply Seattle counts as part of this rural America. And Seattle is certainly not rural.
Even the two pictures chosen, one of Wichita KS and the other of Ouray CO, conflate a mid-size city of 390,000 people with a remote town of 1,000. The two are not comparable. In fact, neither seems "rural" in the common sense. Wichita is urban and Ouray is frontier.
13
When my partner received an offer of a tenure-track in the Midwest, we briefly considered relocating. That is, until we realized how few amenities and what a dull culture one finds in small town USA. I'm into music and software publishing. What a wasteland a Midwestern college town is. College life seems exclusively focused on American football — I'm not certain other sports are played in Ohio. Basketball? The town has no community theatre and no live music venues. The restaurants are mostly fast-food or chain franchises. Bleak. Too much religiosity.
I've lived in small towns before (Germany, UK, Canada) but small town USA is parochial and conservative in comparison. I remember living in a small town in Germany across the border from Switzerland, driving 40 minutes into Konstanz to see a Fellini play on the Lake, or heading 40 minutes the other way to see the opera in Bregenz. Even the worst backwater Canada is more liberal and enlightened (there are a couple of small towns in Canada where I'd happily hang my hat; in the Maritimes, on Vancouver Island).
What does Ohio have to offer in comparison? Very little.
57
Could not agree with you more... You think Ohio is bad, try eastern Kentucky! Left there many years ago - never looked back...
3
I am a recent college graduate and now work at corporate for a large private company that has it's main office in a small town in the Midwest. The county and surrounding area has benefited greatly from this business. My fiance and I just bought a 1400 sq ft, one and a half acre yard home in a smaller town ten minutes away. My mortgage is half the price of what I would pay for renting a room half the size of my home in a city. I bought a home at 22, who in NYC can say that? I would be absolutely miserable in a city. But, I understand we all have different values and goals in life. Anyway, this area is full of well educated people, albeit we have our fair share of uneducated people. (Which come on, is everyone in Chicago or other big cities the picture of perfect education, tolerance, friendliness, etc.?)
The point is, well-educated people who enjoy the rural life are out there.
But, our satellite internet does suck. We get good cell reception though, and they are expanding their fiber network in our county :)
204
I’m guessing your employer has lots of trouble when it comes to college recruitment. You need the best when operating a global business and while not all grads want to be in an urban environment, most do.
Hence Caterpillar moving from Peoria to Chicago, GE from Fairfield CT to Boston, McDonalds from suburban Chicago to downtown.
39
@GC
They have a pretty successful paid internship program (which I was a part of in college) that I was hired through. I work closely with, but not in, recruiting and I have never heard of any troubles when it comes to filling positions that require degrees. So no, I would not say we have "lots of trouble." The company has several locations across America as well, some of which are in or near major cities. Corporate just happens to be based in the small town it was founded in.
19
@GC
I think you are generalizing based on your own experience and desires. Where do you get the idea that "most" grads want to be in an urban environment?
21
Read years ago that the average American retiree wants to live in a rural area. We do, but be prepared to drive significantly for services. It is beautiful, serene, and less expensive than urban living, but services are not close by. So, don’t make your decision romanticizing the rural life but with eyes wide open.
Looking forward to the Podcast, “Homecomers.” Thanks for an interesting article!
We need to push for employers to let employees work remotely as much as feasible for their roles. I would certainly like to move further away from the city both for lifestyle and cost reasons but would only do so if I could reduce my commuting to work by at least half.
4
Given all the horror stories of commenters about some small towns' xenophobia, nativism, racism, small mindedness, etc etc., one wonders how much of this op-ed is driven by
a yearning for escape from urban congestion and poor quality of life to be paid for by any social price. It is hard to make any reasonable generalizations at all since the underlying social dynamics within rural communities vary greatly.
That said, the fact that rural parts of the country could experience significant growth with broad availability of
high speed internet, 3D printing, manufacturing and installing of renewable energy projects, and drone facilitated product deliveries is quite likely, were there to be a focused
federal effort in that direction.
Since "federal effort" requires a competent executive branch, capable of focusing upon policy longer than the time required to tweet out texts that substitute for policy, it is highly unclear how a deficit strapped congress can get the ball rolling by itself.
But it could try a lot more.
One example of this inertia, due to budget constraints, is how the FCC has apparently hobbled rural broadband installation initiatives that have been promoted in the past. This type of no brainer rural improvement initiative seems to be underfunded, as are comparable projects in urban areas that are equally still stuck in the internet's slow lane. Whatever the ideological obstructions are to this, they
really do need to be overcome.
3
@bl I don't doubt that commenters who left their small towns experienced xenophobia, nativism, racism, and small-mindedness there. I did, too. But I also experienced it when living in big cities (Boston, DC) and in big suburbs (Long Island). I don't know where this egalitarian utopia is that some of these people were lucky enough to escape to, but I'm skeptical that it exists outside their own self-congratulatory minds.
4
Reads like an ad for somebody's podcast and memoir. If some of it is true, great, but all that happiness she describes kind of conflicts with higher suicide rates in less-densely-populated areas than in urban areas.
We do need both parties to pay attention to rural concerns as well as those of people in metropolitan areas, and I'll be happy to hear the Dem candidate's plans - like Hillary had a plan to help with skill training and financial support in coal mining areas.
8
I'm always a bit suspicious of declarations of rejuvenation without the evidence. Just starting to pay attention to the so-called "rural policy plans" from progressive Dems, but wonder how "robust" they can really be when their origin is in traditional liberal (urban) minds. Progressives will first have to confront rural Americans suspicions of "big gummint" plans, policies, and taxes that promise alot without obvious beneficial payoff and upset their expectations of life.
1
@Tom I dunno, how about a guarantee of decent affordable healthcare for all, paid family leave for new parents, a living minimum wage--are all those "progressive" ideas really so hard for rural folks to handle?
But maybe you're right, maybe rural Americans would prefer to continue their own immiseration while inflicting it on the rest of the country via their outsize power in our electoral politics.
I guess 2020 will tell...
4
I think this article has hit on a truth that isn't often reported. We moved to a rural area 20 years ago to start an organic vegetable farm, selling at markets in Washington, DC. We didn't know what to expect from this community, and I find it as various as other places we've been. I now serve on oru School Board and our kids are in the improving public schools. We have seen a reawakening of our small town and more diverse population moving in and starting small businesses, some who grew up here and are moving back. We need to do the hard work of being good neighbors with people who haven't ever lived anywhere else, and it has been rewarding to be here and a good test of communication skills. I realize it's different in the west, farther from large metro areas, but the trend is positive; our local House of delegates candidate, Laura Galante, has signs posted everywhere, reading "The Future is Rural"
1
This trend won't do anyone as much good as it should if we don't take the opportunity to work toward making rural communities sustainable and livable in the longer term -- through policy decisions and tax treatment that favor walkable village centers with shopping options, public transportation wherever we can make it work, and cleaner transportation everywhere.
I returned to my rural home state five years ago and have been very happy here, but I'll also admit that I didn't return to my home town, but rather to a larger city an hour away.
2
I would be happy to live in a rural area - depending on where. But I also wonder the degree to which "wishing" to live in a rural area has a lot to do with romanticizing it. Would those people actually move there if given the chance, after taking a look at it and trying it out? My husband and I discuss this regularly, as we are likely to move in the next year or so. My husband is from a semi-rural area of a very rural state, and though I am from a city, I have spent lots of time in rural areas, and lived for many years in a smallish town surrounded by farmland in a rural state. The truth is that rural areas are very different from one another. Rural Vermont or New Hampshire is completely different from rural Oklahoma (we have spent time and have family in both). We would never, ever live where my husband is from, but have seen lovely smaller areas across the east coast, in the mountain states, in the Pacific Northwest, etc. I would have been curious to see more a local breakdown of this author's "data" - I'm sure not all rural areas are experiencing a brain gain.
8
Check out Camano Island, Washington. Gorgeous!
@Mari. I will, thanks!
@Mari - :))) shhhhh!!!! Quit telling folks how cool the Northwest is. It rains all of the time and is dreary, remember?
https://vimeo.com/196978542
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_kMEByftgU
Great. People should be allowed to live where it makes sense for them to grow, raise a family if they choose, work, etc.
We'd be better off if we could guarantee national health care (however or whatever you want to call it), so folks could leave their employer-based programs to move 'home' or to a new version of 'home' without fear of an illness or accident.
One thing to be mindful of as you move around: some folks who don't choose to move around, just don't like it when you show up. They don't know you lived there as a kid and are returning -- they just assume you're bringing your 'city values' to our town'. It happened when we moved from our industrial hometown in Michigan to Charlottesville and now to Raleigh.
I guess we aren't all 'American' unless we carry our birth certificate with our city of birth listed. Not very neighborly.
10
I've lived in West Virginia the past 40 years. Most of the state is rural. Natural beauty is ubiquitous. But: there are few decent-paying jobs and not a large tax base. Truly small towns and rural counties are struggling to maintain water treatment plants and clean water, fire departments, all the services urban dwellers take for granted. Some counties no longer have grocery stores, just a scattering of Dollar Generals (no fresh fruit or vegetables or unprocessed meat). Internet outside of the few metropolitan areas is either unavailable or through satellite: my sister could only stream things for a few hours late at night on the computer due to the restrictions. In too many of the more rural counties, textbooks are out of date and teachers are paid a pittance. Yes, there can be many moments of bucolic wonder in rural America, but until someone finds a solution to the economic issue of almost no jobs outside of retail, fast food, and health care (which for most means $10.00 per hour as a medical receptionist or phlebotomist or some sort), the natural beauty only distracts from desperation.
19
For a look at real rural America do a search for Sebeka, Bertha, Eagle Bend, or Clarissa Minnesota. While you are at it go to Street View. What you will see is virtually every store has closed. The remaining stores are a convenience gas station, a Dollar General and a couple more stores. It's nothing like it was in the 40s - 70s. Our town had 5 grocery stores, a hospital, 3 auto dealers, a tire shop, pharmacy, library, bakery, 4 gas stations, a creamery, grain elevator, pickle factory, 3 restaurants, 2 beer joints. Sadly, it's mostly all gone and it's not coming back.
29
I live in a suburban area that is close enough to Chicago to enjoy its cultural benefits. I did not consider coming from a rural area to be of any benefit.
I grew up in poverty in a rural state that still has difficulty accepting gay people or poor people. The schools are at the bottom of funding for the nation. A recent popular vote by the people said they wanted Medicaid expanded. The GOP politicians are still insisting that Medicaid people should work to get benefits.
Obviously, I grew up in a red state. More people from California are moving to this state. Sorry, but fishing, hunting, backpacking, horseback riding and walking mountain trails are not for me.
8
The following is the Survey Background:"The survey was conducted June 6 – August 4, 2018, among a nationally representative, probability based telephone (cell and landline) sample of 1,300 adults ages 18 or older living in the rural United States."
According to Wikipedia: Approximately 97% of United States' land area belongs to rural counties, and 60 million people (roughly 19.3% of the population) reside in these areas.
The troubling aspect of all surveys is, they attempt to paint a huge portrait using minuscule numbers to convince us of an accurate rendering. Just who were these 1,300 individuals; where were they located? Is rural Oregon, rural Ohio, rural California and rural Mississippi the same? The only areas surveyed were:
Appalachia 212 +/-8.5 19
Midwest 371 +/-6.4 32
South 590 +/-5.6 42
By Race/ethnicity
White (non-Latino) 776
Black (non-Latino) 232
Latino 233
By age
18-49 383
50+ 915
By education
College graduate 407
Not college graduate 888
Is this a real snapshot of "rural" America or a snapshot of poverty?
2
There is a price to be paid to live in a place that has internet access, art, culture, food, entertainment, and people who are able to converse about something other than fishing and hunting. People are willing to pay that price because it's worth it. If I want to visit the heartland, I can take a vacation. It's a nice place to visit, but after a week, I've had enough. Give me the excitement of a vibrant city any time.
20
@Jim Dennis
I don't fish or hunt, and have no interest to do so, and have never had an issue finding something else to talk about during my 22 years spent in the rural areas of the Midwest. And some of those conversations have even been *gasp* inclusive and educational :)
3
Diversification of rural areas matters. Whether a small city, town or village you must create job options, connectivity, acceptance, high quality schools (that may cost more than the tax base allows) and transportation to break the models we have that “force” people to relocate. Rural policy should matter to coastal urbanites. If nothing else, remove the “us vs. them” framework.
2
I've contemplated this type of move, as well, but the state itself would still need to be a blue stronghold with a demonstrated commitment to reproductive healthcare and public schooling, and sensible limits on firearms in public spaces. There's no way I would ask my children and future grandchildren to grow up without these basic necessities. In the meantime, I bake bread and converse in the streets with my neighbors and sometimes offer them my homegrown tomatoes, despite my urban environs.
11
Very much enjoyed "Heartland", Sarah. Nostalgia maybe? I am one who left, more than thirty years ago. Born to parents with post-Civil War western KS roots, raised in Wichita, I am nevertheless not one of those interested in returning. Having had occasion to visit Wichita and western KS frequently in the past few years for family reasons, it seems a foreign land to me now. Fun to visit again though!
But you make a key point, and with this I certainly agree:
"The future of rural is intertwined with suburban and urban outcomes by way of food production, natural resources, the economy, political movements and beyond. We need policymakers who understand this (and care about it)."
4
I hope this is a viable trend and do see some of this happening in the area I am growing old in. For me personally it has pretty much been a story of left behind, exile, and irrelevance. Outcomes for women in Indiana health and income, are on par with the deep south. I have seen this in the lives of my female friends.
My educated and wise, children seem committed to this tiny, small minded, stingy hearted, state, Indiana, and we do have some of the best universities and colleges in the country. If more would stay here and not just live in the progressive places of Indy and Bloomington. Our GOP dominated, religious fanatic dominated politics and culture are pretty grim. Our cynical cities and Pol leaders create culture zones that diverse people may want to live in. If they dont get shot randomly since gun violence in Indy far outpaces LA or NYT. East side of Indy is unsafe to drive in thanks to random gun shots. Change cannot happen fast enough, IMO.
10
@hoosier lifer -I grew up in Indiana, gay, and once my brother and I were old enough, we got on the first Greyhound bus and went to San Francisco with a backpack and nothing else. Neither one of us has ever gone back east and its been close to 35 years since we left.
Its next to impossible to get me to leave city limits now. If you wanted me to go on vacation with you the choices are limited to Portland, S.F., or L.A. but I won't cross the Cascade Mountains. But, the incredible beauty of our diverse country is that for every person like me, there is at least one person who would never want to visit the west coast:))
2
I would love this to be true, but I don't believe it. I am an avid cyclist and reader of cycling blogs especially those people who ride across the United States. Without exception, every blog I read this summer of cycling trips across well-navigated routes spoke of dying towns and little or no services. Cyclists eat many of their meals at gas stations as the nearest grocery stores and restaurants are spaced many miles apart. The WalMart and Amazonification of our country has destroyed small town commerce and left a path of shuttered store fronts and food and service deserts in its wake. On the plus side, cyclists spoke enthusiastically of the welcoming, friendly and helpful dispositions of the rural residents they met. I would like to see our government invest in rural America -- rebuild our infrastructure (roads, bridges, schools, etc.) and economies and create real, meaningful work that big companies won't move away two years later to the lowest bidder. As long as we put low taxes and corporate profits first, this is unlikely to happen.
11
I hear you, and yes, many small towns are dead or dying. However, in regards to Amazon, in my sister’s small town, an area of deep poverty, Amazon opened a gigantic warehouse and distribution center! Which now employs thousands of folks who would normally not have good jobs with medical insurance and a 401K. So please go easy on Amazon, they are not WalMart whom I condemn for destroying small towns in America.
4
@Mari that's rich. WalMart employs many more people in small towns than does Amazon.
1
@bx
I think the reference was to how many other local businesses shut down because of the nearby Walmart.
2
Just image how great our cities would be if we could get rid of trucks and cars burning fossil fuels. Or just get rid of them altogether in lieu of well planned out inner-city transportation that was above ground, like a magnetic monorail system. Wow! Stop the siphoning of US money from the Deep State and update our infrastructure. End the endless wars.
7
I find these articles irritating baloney. We went through this experience to my wife's home town in eastern Kansas. To do this we had to be looking through rose colored glasses. The core of the town is empty. What was a nice rural town in 1960 was now drug infested with payday stores literally on every corner. We were just on the outskirts of the town and of course there was no high speed internet. What is required basic infrastructure was not there. The friendly town of old days was gone on top of what turned out to be dysfunctional family relatives. So it turned out to be a disastrous move for us. The only saving grace was that of course there was a Super Walmart in town serving the whole county. The nearest metro area was Kansas City so we made many trips for shopping and eating there. You have to be very realistic about these types of moves.
40
@Richard Whew, when having a Walmart is the highlight of the place, the place has no highlight.
7
It’s all good until you’re old and your eyesight goes or you can’t drive for other health reasons. Then you’re marooned and isolated in a place built for cars. I’ve seen it with my parents. (Uber finally arrived but my father can’t see the app.) Give me a big city with buses, subways and taxis please.
31
My experience as a native Nebraskan has more to do with the kind of communities a young person may want to live in and possibly have a family.
I left when I was young because I could not stand living among a poorly educated hate filled hillbillies.
Too much religion as well.
50 years later I'm glad I escaped.
38
How this author could think that the Green New Deal will lead to nothing but economic collapse is mind boggling.
14
How see a ship half afloat. I see a ship half sunk where people escaping to small towns are just manning the lifeboats.
5
A small garden behind the ranch house, growing vegetables, a hen house to get fresh eggs, a barn with a few horses.
On a crisp clear summer night, break out a telescope to stare up at the skies. Cool blustery nights, light the fireplace, get a hot cup of tea, a good book, a few hound dogs sleeping on the rug next to me, a cat snoozing on the couch.
Ok, this is my fantasy.
4
If Apple, Google, Amazon and JPMorganChase want to do something good for America to show they are not just bloodsuckers, they should commit to bringing broadband internet to every corner of the USA. That would show real patriotism!
11
@Madeline Conant So Google announced around 3 years ago it was coming to Raleigh/Durham NC with affordable high speed internet- 1,000 mps for $70 a month, with great fanfare.
Then suddenly without great fanfare, they decided not so much. because the business model wasn't as profitable as expected.
And when a couple of small municipalities in NC decided to build out their own high speed internet, the Tea Party NC legislature passed legislation to stop them.
Wouldn't want to threaten the bottom line of Spectrum, the big internet monopoly in the state which only recently begrudgingly increased speeds and coverage with the threat of Google and AT and T fiber coming in.
Nothing will happen to rural internet until the fed comes in with a massive project akin to the TVA which provided electrification to the rural south in the 30s.
13
@winthropo muchacho
It's funny how these companies are supposed to be "patriotic" to support Republican strongholds but then Republicans vote to keep them out.
3
Rural life will never be JUDGED fashionable as long as the coastal elites determine our tastes - but it will BE fashionable. The streets of NYC and LA are a hellish behaviourial sink, and most folks yearn for quietude and green spaces.
Of course, we want culture, too! Luckily there is the Internet. I'm here in Malibu reading my beloved New York Times.
I guess I'll miss out on standing in line at an Instagram happening for half an hour to get a hipster doughnut.
But I won't have to hear my upstairs neighbor practicing his cornet at 4 AM either.
Country life is best.
Good luck seeing that ethos celebrated in my beloved New York Times.
3
@roger
You mean a newspaper that is based in one of the largest cities in the world doesn't celebrate a certain rural ethos? Say it ain't so!
1
@roger - :) I have never thought of living in Malibu as country living. I grew up thinking of country living as a place where you slept with your shotgun, were surrounded by corn and soybeans, had a couple of barns with some chickens and a couple of dairy cows, and had to dodge the occasional Amish buggy when you sped to the nearest town to get cigarettes and beer.
I just don't remember passing by any multi-million dollar seaside mansions with pools and tennis courts on my way to grandpa's.
2
Malibu? rural life? Seriously?
4
That would be great news. I am in the hippie generation that idealized the country and many of us left the city to raise our families. There was a romantic notion of the countryside- part pioneer and part English pastoral, that has increasingly begun to look like an illusion, as the country has been abandoned to poor struggling families, trailer parks, meth labs and Trump supporters. At least it seems like that a lot of the time. Which is a shame, because rural living and small town living can be ennobling and are the historic norm in the US.
6
“They are black women missing their families in the rural South, Muslim women organizing workers in meatpacking towns on the plains, young gay men hoping to return to their small-town roots.”
This I find hard to believe.
28
Believe it - from one of those lucky to live in rural America: exactly those kinds of things are happening here. In the midst of what most city/suburb dwellers would consider a 40-year Depression. Have more faith in your fellow Americans.
7
The idea that Charlottesville is a rural, cheaper place to live is ludicrous. Try buying even a very modest house there or in the environs.
17
@Nancy
True.. what I find most scary about Charlottesville is the heavy fast moving traffic and the (how many 3,4?) Interstate highways one seems to have to use to get place.. It certainly is NOT rural...and it is hunt country -- always an expensive place to live.
2
These folks are just so dang happy that voting against their own interests again and again is fun.
31
However, there are few doctors and even less reproductive, women's health care, no hospitals, no dentists, no libraries and internet, no retail except a Walmart or Target 120 miles east -- but heigh ho! for the revival of the High Street, er Main Street.
14
Good luck cracking the Chamber of Commerce veneer in a lot of these small places. Ride around the back streets and count the confederate flags (in some cases the swastikas) you see. Let me paraphrase Trump: Some, I am sure, are very good places. But if you look different or sound different or worship differently (or not at all) your life is likely to be lonely; if not subject to outright hostility.
15
You're visiting (very briefly I can tell) the bad parts of town.
Another false narrative becomes news and 'truth.' Rural America is largely the base of 'MAGA' and I assure you, there is no 'brain gain' going on there.
34
Yeah, go back to rural America and enjoy the racism, religious bigotry, ignorance, provincialism and devotion to Trump. Sinclair Lewis's MAIN STREET still hits the mark. The old German saying still is true: "the air of the city makes one free". ..
19
I fled the racist and narrow-minded Midwest small town I grew up in and will never romanticize it as a rural utopia. I’ve been back on and off for family funerals but would never consider going back to an environment where the N word is used without shame.
1001
Ditto... I have absolutely nothing in common with my Midwestern family members. My dad moved us west shortly after my birth and the family never forgave him. We became "the other" to them. Actually had to tell my gpa to refrain from using the N word if he ever wanted to see me or my kids. That is truly "sad"...
269
@Mary A
I recently spent several months in my rural home town, and I couldn't go back, either. Their hate for the "other", their inability to recognize their own hypocrisy (hate people receiving "government money", but applauding bailing out farmers because "that's different"), and their just general intolerance is really difficult to live around. And what's most amazing is that there is no place like a small town to assure you that NOTHING is secret. You'd think that after knowing everybody's human frailties for generations, they would have a bit more compassion, but that's a big "NOPE!" I love the people who live their, but could never go back.
139
@Mary A For me to return "home" would be a degrading admission of defeat.
39
I still think you have to be white and straight to make a life in these rural areas. And church going. Atheists need not apply.
44
$52,000 of beef in 9 mo? Sounds suspiciously like a cattle farm — or at least a cattle farmer — subsidized by parents. I don’t see a lot of room for profit there.
2
Please let me know when these folks plan to leave NYC, so I can get a head start in renting their apartment...
29
Many young people are returning to flyover country and starting organic farms, direct-to-consumer organic meat, other businesses and a respect for the land. They have a new vision for the plains and it's great to witness and even better to take part in their delicious products.
6
Rural areas are great if you don’t care to participate in the global economy, want to live several miles from quality health care, and live in a food desert of restaurants and grocery stores.
19
I too bought in a small town to relocate a small business. I made the pick for three reason, the people I met and connected with, The high elevation, It is near coastal plain, and the price. Now 4 and a half years later I see plainly, I, like 75% of the people trying to better this place, am from"away", local politics are all about infighting, and if I get sick I have to go one to two hours to get to a decent hospital. As one friend there says, you can get anything you need within three miles. Anything you want comes by truck. Add to the mix, it is row crop and factory hog farm kingdom, so don't criticize agricultural pollution and don't drink the water.
Still, when I see my blood pressure decline after a short while there, have a conversation in the middle of the road bothering no one, and only have to slow down for a tractor and a school zone, I notice the ever present ability to live in the now and have a chat with neighbors and passers by that urban life does not give second pause to.
3
I was very fortunate to have been born and raised for the first six years of my life in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, New York. I recall a very vibrant and safe city. It was also largely uncrowded, affordable and exciting to live in. Going to Manhattan to see a Broadway show, or the museum of Natural History, the Hayden Planetarium, or the Central Park Zoo with my parents was exciting, fun and a great learning experience. New York food was also special with a large variety of restaurants. And the boroughs were all different and diverse. Traveling to Port Jefferson on Long Island was also special. Orchard Beach and the Rockaways were also super fun all summer long.
But then my parents moved upstate to Glens Falls/Lake George ad. I was transformed from a city kid who walked or took trains everywhere to a country boy who hiked in the woods, camped out, and went horseback riding in the Summer. We also left the doors open during the day and never feared for our safety or security. And my father bought a car, something that was a luxury in the City.
Having experienced both worlds I understand why people would return to a rural life. I also understand why city life is wonderful too.
If we're going to have a new "Green Deal" and jobs, housing, education and health care restored to rural America then we need to remember our cities too. We need both worlds. I love both. Let's make an effort to keep our cities and our rural towns and communities too. We live in both.
23
How many restaurants, craft breweries and unconventional farm operations can exist without customers that have the money to buy their products and services?
12
A few years back, my husband and I spent a few wks in my home town. This is a place that used to build cranes, ships, & aluminum kitchen products like pots & pans. We seriously considered relocating there.
After a week, my husband was bored out of his mind. The only life he's ever known came from living in areas like Montreal, London & Chicago where there is ALWAYS something to do and someplace to go for a cup of coffee or purchase a book or newspaper.
The internet service was spotty, at best, slower than molasses on average. Cell phone service was hit & miss too. Other than my family (who all worked during the day and lived their lives at home at night) he didn't know a single soul.
We realized that a 1/3 of our life we sleep, a 1/3 of our life we spend with family & friends, and a 1/3 of our life we run errands, medical appointments, prepare/eat meals, do household chores.
We would also miss what was familiar & comforting to us & what we trusted, a.k.a. our doctor, dentist, vet who loving cares for our cats when they are sick, etc.
Relationships aren't built nor sustained over or around holidays but rather on the proximity of each other. Countless times we'd run to our son's house for dinner or meet up at the local diner for a cup of coffee to chat & shoot the breeze.
We realized starting over wasn't for us, especially to a small, sleepy area where the many things we take for granted aren't there, no matter how quaint and special rural America seems on paper.
12
As someone who drives across country at least once a year, the photo of Sabetha, KS pretty well encapsulates my feelings on rural America. I grew up in rural Maine and, while it had its positives (super safe, easy access to the outdoors) I would never go back to living in such an insulated, monolithically white place, nothing going on place. I do enjoy driving to or through rural 'Merica to get my fill. But I enjoy returning to Denver more, with all its relative diversity. And microbreweries.
12
As a professional in the computer security space, I see more of my co-workers going 100% remote in more rural areas, or in the second and third tier cities around the country. Chico, CA; Jeffersonville, IN; Traverse City, MI are examples. The key is good internet access and also decent schools and medical care. For the ones like myself who remain in the big city, we shoulder more of the face to face tasks. It works, but it has to be managed well. Yes, internet access must be prioritized, but the cost to pull fiber miles to serve one person is prohibitive.
4
@denverandy A local telephone company recently wired our rural road with fiber optic cable. There are few than 15 houses on the 3 mile stretch, some too far from the road to get cable without their digging a long trench to set it in.
1
@Froon Then you are lucky. I have property in NW Lower MI that is fortunately served by cable, but many people who live in the less densely populated areas nearby are left out. Some line of site services are stepping up, and some communities are taking matters in their own hands. But the poorest residents are usually left out. I'd be curious what your "rural road" looks like... is it trailers or 4000 sq foot custom homes? Makes a difference.
@denverandy
Not sure Jeffersonville is the best example of "rural." It's four miles from downtown Louisville.
The question is why do you need to spend .150,000 dollars on college to sell meat or be a farmer. Maybe the government could set up a program to give young people money to help them get started.Let's see a cruise missile cost a million bucks take that money and give 20 people 50 grand a piece. I would much rather spend my taxpayer dollars on that.
9
I am part of the brain gain. I live in a small rural farm community in the Midwest. I work in IT specializing in Enterprise Analtyics. I moved here via NY, SF and LA.
There are a lot of very smart people where I live. But if you are young it isn't exactly exciting. If you are a foodie or a locavore it's heaven. So much going on!
I like my big old house on the river with a swing on the porch and flowers in the yard. It's like a long weekend.
7
Where are you exactly?
1
Rural America or one lane America as I call it is not a panacea, it is highly time consuming to get anything done as drives of 30-100 miles to just shop are not uncommon. Prices at the store down the street are ridiculous unless you buy it when its on sale. Speed limits are a lot lower wasting more time. Try getting something done on your car or home and you are waiting for weeks not hours or days and then the people are likely to cancel you and put you off for a better paying job. I would prefer the city again.
10
As the Canned Heat song "Going Up The Country" goes...
So goes America....
I "Moved Up", "Where the water tastes like wine"
at the turn of the century... and glad I did.
NOW....
Everyone else, stay away, paradise is getting crowded and expensive.
3
When Ms. Smarsh's rural utopias drop their allegiance to the Republican Party and start providing substantial majorities to Democrats, I'll believe things are really changing. Until then, her article is little more than a bunch of wishful thinking.
17
@Michaelira Our rural area, formerly staunchly Republican, elected a Democrat to represent us in the House. There's hope.
Some links to demographic trend statistics that reveal regional and class distributions of this phenomenon would help to counter the impression that your thesis is mostly wishful thinking.
8
Why not live in a pretty unpolluted spot with low-cost land and housing and friendly values? It's possible now if there's a wifi connection and a post office. You can order and shop for whatever you need. Amazon drops it in a couple days. You can even work from there in many jobs. Technology made this possible.
4
I grew up in rural Kansas, have lived in suburban NYC for 30 years now. I visit the old hometown once a year and get looked at as if I'm from Mars. As for the surveys that find better rates of happiness in rural areas, all I can say is --- Ignorance is bliss.
I would never move back there. There's terrible internet, and if you want decent health care you have to drive 100 miles to get it. And God help you if you're a senior needing home care assistance.
29
Wow, this piece perhaps applies to a few "rural" areas, but I don't believe there's an overall demographic renaissance in rural America. This article is also overly promotional for the author's work.
Why might some young professionals be returning to small towns? These areas certainly remain bigoted and relatively culture-less, but young (especially...) liberal-arts educated professionals can't afford to live in the larger cities with their low-paying jobs and student loans, so back they must go. Hopefully these people add some new views to these areas, but they aren't enough to overcome the economic and cultural decline there.
On the upside, for SOME small towns, the existence of the Internet allows small business owners and creatives/crafties to bring qualities and style to their work which is on par with national trends. For example, in some small towns, one can now find restaurants and boutiques that mimic the styles found in Brooklyn or San Fran. But how much of an impact does 2 or 3 cool shops have on an area?
And broadband is a HUGE issue for work in rural America.
As for professionals working remotely from anywhere, well, per above, Internet access!... But perhaps the first obstacle is that most 25 yr olds are not yet established enough in their careers to work from long distance or have enough clients, etc. Remote work is more for established professionals, who have first built their experience base and clients in...you guessed it!...a larger city.
9
I'm always conflicted by pieces like this. Smarsh is excellent at emphasizing the political and intellectual complexity of rural life; despite the stereotypes, there is often a lot of diversity in even the most remote locales. But there is also a lot of hopelessness that attends living out in the country. Some of this is unavoidable, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that our society does not value rural life, and spends very little time working on improving it. Emphasizing the positive aspects of the experience is a necessary coping mechanism and certainly can't hurt in encouraging folks to try it out. On the other hand, overemphasizing these positive aspects puts you at risk of diminishing the pain, which is very real and very expansive.
5
In response to some of the more negative comments it seems important to acknowledge that of course, Smarsh is not claiming that ALL rural locations are experiencing the kind of revitalization that makes moving back an appealing concept. The very term "rural" is a designation that can be attributed to an enormous number of locales, with very different regional values, opportunities and challenges. But while it's undeniable that many rural AND urban areas are less than attractive options, it is also true that many people are investing in smaller local communities and making rich progress. I grew up in rural New England and moved back after several years spent studying and working in high density coastal urban cities. The reason was simple: despite my misgivings and fears that I was giving up the "right" kind of urban, cosmopolitan lifestyle, I simply could not ignore the pull of being closer to nature, and living a simpler life that allows me space to breathe, contemplate, raise my family, and work to live, rather than live to work. It is a decision that was hard to make, since few, if any, of my friends made the same one. Years later, I have found an incredibly diverse, supportive, and intellectually satisfying community in a small New England town (or really, network of towns) and I would not trade my choices for anything. It is not for everyone, but it is for some of us.
14
I like this article. I read all the time about the decline of rural areas. I've lived in DC and Seattle and recently made the move back to rural Eastern Washington (lived here for 8 years, moved back to Seattle area for 2 years). I love it. When I mention my life here to friends in the city they wonder at the lack of privacy when I know all my neighbors, the lack of diversity (yes, this part is true when you compare us to urban areas. Though I think it depends on who you are spending time with in the city. Easy to get caught in your own bubble there also. Especially when you're busy working to pay the bills), and lack of good restaurants, etc. I'll trade those things for the almost daily opportunity for time with friends, the long term relationships with people I would not normally associate with in the city because our lives and political beliefs are so different, and the regular opportunity to spend time outdoors without driving for hours and battling traffic to get back to the city. It's true that the career options are more limited but there are trade offs to everything. I'll also admit this this is a "mountain town" and has become increasingly expensive (though second homes are contributing to this. We're at about 40%). So with all the articles about the decline of rural America it's nice to see one which points out that some of us are living good lives out here (& did not support Trump, and have traveled and lived other places, & are curious about the world, etc).
9
The big problem with rural and smaller city America is LACK OF TRANSPORTATION. People without cars or drivers cannot get out of town. Not to mention distance from hospitals, etc.
I am hopeful that Google transport can solve this very real problem. Many people in many places--young, poor, elderly -- are literally stuck because there is no transportation. And poor web access has also been mentioned. Walmart has put small downtowns out of business. Kroger put local food stores out of business. There are fewer and fewer jobs -- the steel mill and shoe factory closed eons ago. Perhaps we should study the history of the self-sustaining town of 170 plus years ago.. and meld with modern technologies. (Solar, wind..)
9
Although not as traveled as some, I have taken many-a-road-trip through rural America, visiting over half of America's counties in the process. My mother's side of my family is from deep eastern Kentucky and I spent a lot of summers down in that area -- time I look back upon with fondness.
That said, in my travels by car, I see more evidence that rural America is still dying out rather than being revitalized. I have seen countless slowly decaying communities that had been centered around a single industry that is now long gone.
Even in my mother's hometown, I've seen it have some economic activity due to mining operations restarting back in the 1980s and then it being decimated due to the mining stopping -- the high school was demolished, the couple of limping local businesses closed, town pool was filled in -- finally the rail line was ripped out altogether.
It comes down to the core reason why communities exist: Settlements pop up around industry, whether farming, manufacturing or some sort of service industry. When the industry ceases to exist, the town's core purpose for existence dissipates.
I have no idea what the specific solution is and promises of rural revitalization over the decades have been frequent and unfulfilled. But without sustainable employment, all the nostalgia in the world will not bring rural America back. In today's age where the lack of geographic importance to businesses actually lends them towards cities, it is difficult to see a way back.
9
In my heaven on earth in western Wisconsin (45 miles from St. Paul as the crow flies) there is no cell phone service. In 2019. Even a 20 year old flip phone is a paperweight until you drive 4 miles into town.
7
The internet is likely a — if not the — primary underlying factor in this trend.
Why pay a premium to live in the suburbs or a city to be close to an office when practically everything, including meetings, may be done over the internet? Why spend the time and money commuting via unreliable mass transit? Why spend time and money on work clothes? Why contribute to climate change?
Why live and raise children in traditionally hyper competitive environments in an era where following well worn paths leads to a) working for people that didn’t follow well worn paths and/or b) working constantly for decades to possibly earn a mid six figure salary that is spent trying to impress others that are blindly following the same well worn path. It’s no longer 1985.
Yes, there are hold outs and, yes, some office jobs will always require a physical presence, but it’s clear that the physical professional workspace is rapidly becoming an expensive, distracting relic. The need by some to have daily “face time”, “quick catch ups”, “sit downs”, yet another coffee break, etc. is far outweighed by the benefits of telecommuting for both organizations and their results-producing employees.
If this trend continues, commercial office and residential real estate prices in cities and suburbs will fall while residential prices in high quality of life areas that suffered “brain drain” in the past will rise. The latter is certainly already happening.
4
I worked for a global farm equipment company for 20 years developing their dealer computer systems at their 1400+ U.S. dealerships in every state. It was a pretty though look at life in America.
There's a key to where living in rural towns that works. The key is living near medium cities that have colleges, arts, entertainment, medical care, good jobs, etc...
When you can live 10 miles from all the resources and then go to the country, that's when you get the best of both worlds. Living in communities that are too far away from the cities leaves you in isolation.The extent of your world is that community and its more of an existence than a life.
11
Hi Phil, would it be possible to interview you for a research project about digitisation in agriculture?
3
Good article with silly photos in the online edition. Wichita KS has 400k population and is in a CSA of 600k. Ouray CO is a beautiful tourist town with a high cost of living and the usual social problems for a town in which only the wealthy can buy homes.
I detect a bias in favor of the author's sthick and related business; promoting the rebirth of rural areas. Based on my home state my opinion is that while a few rural area with ideal situations are showing signs of life it's far from widespread. Beef sales at $52k in one year? Whoopee, even if that was pure profit (it's not) that would be enough to support maybe one person?
2
"Rural life was most wished for" - this is often true for us in the same way that in our 30's we wish we were in our 20's, that is until we actually hang out with 20-somethings and then we're reminded we definitely don't want that and we're sure we're in our 30's.
I consider myself a Midwesterner, having grown up and gone to school there. We sometimes think about the affordability and charm of moving back home. But then we're reminded of the harassment, hate crimes, and vandalism if you're not straight, white, and Christian. The lack of job opportunities. Depressing landscape dominated by dying industries, cars, and heartless chain stores. I'm glad there's evidence this is getting better, but it's hard to believe in progress when the representatives of these areas want to actively hurt women and minorities.
8
Small towns have been and are continuing to fade. Without massive government subsidies most small towns would be ghost towns.
8
So if things are going poorly in the rural America, the answer is a giant government spending program to get things back on track. And if things are going well, then we should aim higher and go full Green New Deal. I would say that you have a solution in search of a problem, but there doesn't appear to be any correlation between your solutions and problems - it's all solution.
Please. Stop. Trying. To. Fix. Things. You're just making it worse.
It’s funny...never heard you guys let out a peep against rural electrification, the Federal highway system, farm subsidies, education funding...
By the way, she’s talking about Obama’s initiatives to get rural wifi and internet services somewhere near to what you’d find in, say, France.
5
I’d say this is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. While it’s true that NYC, LA and Chicago have seen modest population changes, the majority of population growth is occurring in counties in more vibrant metropolitan areas like Seattle, Austin and Atlanta and in counties directly adjacent to major metropolitan areas. This is more about the balancing act of affordability vs. commute times. True rural America continues to empty out at even faster rates over the past 40 years.
6
If people in their 20s and 30s are moving to rural areas in mostly rural states, let's hope they can recruit health care professionals to follow. That's the bane of the small town where I grew up. In the 80s the chamber of commerce was actively recruiting retirees to move there. But so many of us who left see that the medical services are now failing our aging parents.
8
Oddly enough, the picture of a "rural town" in the article is of Ouray, CO; about 30 miles south of where I live in Montrose. Montrose, although improving with younger management moving in from out of the area, has been run by Republicans for decades, and has been a hotbed of the religious right and otherwise backwards thinking. Ouray, on the other hand, is a tourist town, very expensive, and therefore populated by the rich and privileged. Ouray is hardly a good example for "rural revival", but instead of "1% retirement". Still, I think the gist of the article: people are moving back to rural areas and bringing their skills/education IS happening here in Montrose; and it is definitely improving the situation. Montrose is now well run, and is thriving from people moving in from too-expensive cities, bringing with them their education and desire to improve our town.
6
Lots of commenters here with examples that contradict the opinion piece.
It's true there are rural areas that are probably a lost cause. But there are plenty of urban areas that are as well.
I moved from NYC to rural California and would never move back to a city. Urban people don't realize how much stress their environment puts on them, how much noise and other unpleasantness they have to filter out every day. Not to mention how much paid entertainment they need to keep themselves happy. Then there is the comically sad lack of living space and their pride in achieving a tiny bit more of it for an astronomical sum. I could go on but it doesn't matter because nothing will ever convince them that they don't live in the best place.
8
Just as nothing will convince you that you’re not living in the best place. A fulfilling life is not dependent on one’s geographic location. You can find peace and satisfaction in any environment if you get your mind right. If you prefer rural, good on ya. I split my time evenly between town and country for thirty five years and once retired went urban and am quite satisfied with my decision as I find rural life boring.
5
I'm sure some rural towns are going to be revitalized, but not all or even most of them. Small rural towns originated as farming, mining, logging towns. Those are mechanized industries and don't need all the workers, or towns to support those workers. So instead of having a little town every 5 or 10 miles there will be bigger towns every 30 or 40 miles. It makes sense.
My husband was one of the internet connected, gig work from home, people. (One of the much vaunted STEM jobs) Most businesses want people on site, they're moving away from remote workers. In our case,(pharmaceutical R&D) the pay is dropping radically. (Better to be poor in S. Oregon than poorer in S.F. making five times as much.)
3
Many “rural” towns are hardly environmental oasis’s. They are industrial scale farming communities. There is nothing beautiful about a huge swath of barren earth after the harvest. There is nothing beautiful about living anywhere near a pig farm.
34
Why is this article about rural areas illustrated with a photo of Wichita, KS, population ~390,000?
11
You’re free to prefer rural life but get your facts right. The data showing population decline in big cities resulted from a change in the counting methodology.
2
I am a Californian who recently moved to northwestern Virginia after living for many years in suburban Washington DC and in South Florida. This is heaven, but took rigorous research and planning. I second comments urging outside income sources and reliable cell phone and internet, which is hard to find and very expensive. Because good healthcare was a top priority for me, I mapped a 30-mile-diameter circle around an excellent regional medical center and searched for housing within that circle. I am living just outside a very small town, but, as I like to say, I can "get out" when I want to the DC metro area about an hour away. One thing many comments have not mentioned is how lovely it is to live with people who are not obsessed by ambition and money and have a strong sense of community; the kindness of strangers is remarkable . The downside for me, however, is the scarcity of diversity. I am searching for more colors and textures that contribute immeasurably to the fabric of our lives.
9
Nicely said! I live in a little village in a rural area, but there are 3 cities within 20 miles of my home. Each has several hospitals, many entertainment venues, lots of restaurants and all the stores I will ever need. I'm retired now, but when I worked, my commute was about 25 minutes except when accidents snarled traffic. In the village itself, there is a post office, a small grocery store (part of a chain of independent stores), 3 churches, a bar serving very good food, an ice cream shop, an American Legion post, a mechanic's garage, a volunteer fire company, an ambulance and an abundance of lovely people.
If a member of the community has been badly injured, has lost their home in a fire or other disaster or is suffering from cancer or another life-threatening disease, everyone bands together to raise money for them. There are 2 parades every year, one on Memorial Day (with a ceremony and speaker at the cemetary, the endpoint of the parade) and the other at Halloween, complete with bands, floats and costumed walkers and riders. Where else do you see people in costumes on riding mowers? And there are free drinks, hotdogs and other food at the end, where people wait for the judges to choose the winners of cash prizes in many categories.
It's so peaceful and quiet here. The most exciting thing that's ever happened was in 1979 when the incident at Three Mile Island occurred. Other than that, the siren at the fire company goes off occasionally. Wonderful!
We are experiencing growth, revitalization, and an opening of minds to more diversity of all types here in rural Ohio. Not every rural place is turning around. But I suggest that the real way to make political change in this country is for progressives to move out of the few zip codes they’re willing to live in to somewhere where you can join in this kind of change and thereby also change the voting trends in that area. We’re doing that here.
8
This will never happen unless high speed internet is built everywhere in America! We need a national project, like building the interstate highway system, to make this happen.
9
@sjs:
It would be great, but with today's Republicans, it's a 'snowball in hell' likelihood.
For one thing it would cost "too much money" (even if a tiny fraction of, say, the military budget). For another, it would threaten the monopoly on information held by Fox 'News' and conservative, 'Christian' radio stations.
Republicans want to keep 'their' voters as dumb as possible, lest they realize how they're being fleeced.
4
Certainly this is good news, that populations from urban, suburban and rural areas are mixing and sharing their particular identities. Often in these pages and elsewhere a conflict between these parts of the country are emphasized, but really the movement between these areas has been happening through out our history. one example is the huge migration of people of color from the south to other parts of the country in the 20th century, then the return of some of them to the south when things became somewhat better for civil rights.
Every where we choose to live have their advantages and disadvantages which drive us to move from place to place seeking the perfection that does not exist.
One related point. Perhaps these movements may support the rural hospitals which are dying on the vine without political support that may be aided by an influx of people needing services.
4
A lyrical tale, unsupported by facts. Still, returning to home is a myth that lies deep within us. No matter where we come from, we all want to go there -- mythical home.
6
"My memoir instead seeks, through historical facts and cultural analysis, to reveal the immense public forces of policy and socioeconomics that shaped my family’s behaviors, opportunities and outcomes. I wrote affectionately yet unsparingly from that area, where I still choose to reside."
Purely anecdotal!
Here's the actual big picture based on income demographics and lifestyle:
"American readers love a tale of escape from such places, populated by characters who exemplify addiction, abuse, bad decision-making. "
It's NO tale!
1
While I am glad there is a trend towards rural migration, I think the article gets caught up in the rosy glow of some places, places that have become diverse, that offer access to things people want while remaining rural, and is leaving out that large swaths of rural america are monocultural, and firmly held by the red state attitudes towards minorities and LGBT people. It is all great and good to find an enclave, like a college town, but look at North Carolina as an example of what living places like that are, where your relatively liberal enclave is surrounded by Trump nation attitudes. Also, while shopping online makes life easier everywhere, shipping to rural areas is much more expensive because the density isn't there, so you might have to drive to pick up your packages.
And while broadband should be in rural areas&the government should pay for it, like they did telephone and electric service, that alone may not help. A lot of companies (despite ironically outsourcing work to India) hate remote working, the company I work for only reluctantly allows people to work from home one day a week, and they have all kinds of crazy rules around it (they claim it is 'collaboration', when it is really "I want to make sure people are working").
I really hope that there is a movement towards rural areas, but I think it is going to be limited to areas where people feel comfortable, where they feel welcomes, and where the larger state seems hostile to the very notion of diversity.
11
I was on assignment in Central MI last year. The main complaint of all the locals? Young people and talented people leave because there simply isn't an economic base or opportunities to keep them there. There are only so many hamburger joints that can support the local economy. When all the real industry has gone, people don't stay.
12
I live in a part of the country that experienced an influx of “back to the landers” in the 1970’s. You can still see A-frames and geodesic dome houses that are now relics. A few of the operations these idealistic young people established are now profitable businesses, looking to a third generation to take over. Some of the most highly rated organic farms in terms of quality and treatment of animals are within a few miles. These are being joined by young people, sometimes families, sometimes groups that used to be called “communes.”
The farmer’s markets are alive with their efforts. Amazing produce and meat, baked goods, coffee roasters, cheese makers, you name it. Not all will succeed, but enough will to continue the process of renewal.
But I wonder what this beautiful valley will look like in fifty years. On all the climate maps it’s listed as one of the places likely to remain comfortable. It may not be rural for much longer.
5
It is true that you can have a happy, fulfilling life in rural America . . . if you are a published writer educated at a great university.
I grew up in rural western North Carolina and I can tell you nothing about the rural South " . . .contain(s) diversity, vibrancy and cross-cultural camaraderie." What a bunch of malarkey!
21
I grew up in rural areas. If you don't want to be surrounded by evangelical hypocrites who idolize Trump, stay away.
43
@Frank Or for whom "Christian" is spelled "W.A.S.P." and not "P.A.P.I.S.T." My first job as a librarian (I'm retired now) was in a small town in Tidewater Virginia where the Blue Laws were still in effect, and Catholics were treated as though they were born with horns and a tail. For a born-and-bred easterner, raised in a large, close-knit community, it was a jolt. Have lived in the east, again, for more than 30 years now, and I love it.
5
The descriptions of rural America here don't come anywhere near the reality I see in Michigan, where I live now, and Virginia where I spend a lot of time during the year. Sorry, but rural America is in bad, bad shape and I don't see anything changing in the near or far future.
30
My wife and I live in Heber City, Utah; small but connected. We lived in Whitefish, Montana 20 years ago.
The rules haven't changed, and the places stay the same.
Bring your money with you.
2
There is a drive from Austin to Dallas that bypasses I35. It goes west, and it used to be a fun way to get away from the monotonous highway, and stop in some fun little western towns. Take the drive today and it’s just depressing. I’m not seeing any revitalization in these areas. They are vast land swaths, and depressing little towns. Not seeing your rural revitalization, just a bunch of people clinging to confederate flags, resentment and bad food.
42
@Hector same with the drive from Jackson WY to SLC. the food is the thing that stands out to me too.
2
Rural voters flock to Trump because of all the frustration, lack of opportunity and isolation they experience in their lives. They certainly don't speak like a people overwhelmed with happiness and harmony. The life expectancy of rural Americans is falling, largely due to suicide, alcoholism and drug addiction. Not indicators of a mentally healthy population.
13
Disingenuous to use a photo of Ouray CO to show a thriving small town's downtown. Ouray is in no way representative of rural America and survives 100% on tourism due to its scenic locale.
21
As a regional coordinator for Better Angels, a citizens' organization working to end polarization in the U.S., I've noticed a growing movement in rural areas to form bipartisan forums to discuss important issues without rancor. It's encouraging for me to arrive in a sparsely populated county and find people already doing this "brain gain" work.
8
I'd find these pieces (Smarsh's and this one, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/opinion/sunday/urban-rural-america.html) more compelling if they addressed small towns and rural communities like the one in which I work and live -- communities that boast some of the nation's highest crime, unemployment, and poverty rates and lowest literacy and educational attainment rates, places in which there is little to no diversity in politics, with your choice between Republican and Democratic conservatives.
9
The people I know who are leaving LA are older, higher net worth types who lean GOP. Sadly, they won’t be changing the voting distribution in Idaho or Montana. An influx of hundreds of thousands of (D) hipsters to Wyoming would be most welcome.
6
A transplant from northern New Jersey to a small Minnesota farming community, I have come to appreciate the deep attachment people have for this area, an attachment that goes back generations. I see a love of this rural way of life, and some people returning after trying their luck in cities. But growing up near NYC, I know the attachment and pride of New Yorkers and those in surrounding areas. I see people in cities and rural areas nostalgic about their roots and trying to make the best of their circumstances wherever they happen to live.
3
Yeah. The government should subsidize rural town development so that sparsely populated towns can have high-speed internet and the latest in modern health care.
Come on. The egregious farm subsidies are enough.
8
Well, perhaps not the entirety of small-town development, but universal high-speed internet and modernized healthcare would be a benefit to all, urban or rural.
7
I departed the rural Midwest for a city in a mostly rural state. I've spent a lot of time in Appalachian VA and West VA. None of those places mirror what the author describes. Most of what I see are boarded up and dying towns, though they are in beautiful areas.
I think most people are already wired for either rural or city life. Having done both, I'm definitely a city person. I could see the appeal for the lower cost of living and the scenery if you're a remote worker but that will require an investment in broadband infrastructure. There are great swaths of Appalachia where you can't even get a cell signal for miles.
What can't be fixed is having to drive long distances for anything. The only local grocery option is frequently a Dollar General. My parents are elderly and all their health care specialists are over an hour away. They may eventually have to move there if they become unable to drive.
And if you're a wide-eyed progressive leaning sort, keep in mind that you may not be accepted with open arms. More likely, you'll be expected to assimilate. The only brown people you're likely to encounter will run the one Mexican restaurant. Not all rural towns are so close-minded -- a lot of white-water river and hiking towns get their share of nature hippies -- but most at best will inch toward progress.
But living in a city that's growing too much too fast, I'd welcome a few folks staying home or moving back!
24
Smaller town, village, or rural life will grow best for everyone with policies, local, state and national, that support reliable sustainable sources of electricity, waste management, and non-car or public transport. Not to mention rural or small town public health support, serious regulation for clean air, water, and soil, and sustainable agriculture, and health insurance not related to employers. We have a ways to go in the US. We need to think of public goods - and VOTE.
Cities can be wonderful, but the megalopolises are too much for a lot of us. Let’s hope the author is right and it’s more than just trickle down...
2
A major factor limiting the move back to rural America is the lack of high speed internet access! Yes city dwellers, even 25 miles from Charlottesville, VA, most homes cannot subscribe to wired internet! Only unreliable satellite service is available. Kids can't do homework from home, and must stay late at school to do research. Many residents would love work remotely and avoid driving 60-80 miles per day to get to their jobs. Years ago FDR brought electricity to the rural south through the TVA and other authorities. Federal help is needed again! The promise of 5G is still a dream.
774
@Donna Gray
We don't have cell phone service at our home and our internet service is terrible. I can download a book at McDonalds in town in 3 minutes and it takes 3 hours at home. I don't think it's holding up back, but it is inconvenient.
28
@Sharon- Cell phone coverage is also irregular here and its' a 20 minute trip to wifi at McDonalds! Verizon suggests we buy a booster so they don't have to build more towers! Do 5G in rural areas first!
51
@Donna Gray I sympathize with the broad band issue. If we had a Republican government that REALLY cared about rural areas they would work with Dems to recreate a broadband version the REA (Rural Electification Authority) which Roosevelt used to bring electricty to rural areas with government seed money. Quickly after the jumpstart provied by government (largely guaranteed loans) the rural power authoriites figured out how to become (mostly) self supporting.
103
I wonder how many of the returnees actually work in urban areas, polluting as they commute. I wonder how many have purchased homes built on subdivided former farms because the land has become more valuable than the food that it can produce. You paint a romantic picture that I fear describes a small proportion of those moving to the country.
9
This article may hold truth, but as presented it feels like one long anecdote. There is only one piece of evidence linked to (America's top 3 cities are losing population) and even that is somewhat unconvincing, as all three metros have seen net growth since the last decennial census (city limits are arbitrary and a poor standard by which to measure city growth: Boston is around 50 square miles; Houston is 600). A follow-up article relying more on data would be an interesting read.
6
I live in a rural area and I would not move here if I had to do it all over again. Yes, the landscape is lovely. But the reality is this. There is rampant discrimination against non-whites. It is terrible. The schools are even more terrible. The local government is about as corrupt as you can imagine, all run by "locals." The water is polluted by the run-off from farming but ALL farming is protected. They can pollute my water and there is NOTHING I can do about it. The chicken farms are moving in (again nothing I can do about this but move) and this will decrease my property values so much that I will never be able to sell and just make myself whole financially. Think long and hard about moving to a rural area. I wish I knew then what I know now.
1253
@Sarah99 I totally get the sentiment, but I wonder if it is true that there is nothing that you can do. What would be awesome is if people in rural or small city areas could become actively involved in taking control of their towns democratically. If others in your town agree with you, it might be possible to effectively campaign for change.
56
@Sarah99
You moved to the wrong place, is all. Sadly. Where I live the only downside has been all the driving required: everything is far, from schools to shopping. Which means organization is necessary. There is also winter, which has its attendant problems. Rural life rocks where I live. I was called by the state health department to answer a routine questionnaire, and I started laughing when asked whether I feel safe in my home. Yeah, totally. Never lock the door of the house, always leave the keys in my car, everywhere.
People where I live are neighborly. They show up when help is needed, are accepting of difference- there isn't much racial diversity, but there are other kinds which distinguish people- and they volunteer for our effective town government. It's not perfect: after moving to paradise there is still the laundry, and all the attendant problems of family, finances, the future.
School was the hardest part of leaving the city, by far. One child chose home schooling, the other took awhile to find a good fit in a school. I'd have stayed longer in the city if I had known about this, but my kids are solid, and have the prospect of making a good life where we live.
On balance not so bad.
47
@Carrie It sounds easy but the corruption in the local government is rampant. And do you think they even understand global warming? It is scary to say the least.
120
Sarah Smarsh is spot on in detecting this trend. It's something more discernible if you have family members in their early 20s and 30s. The larger coastal cities like NYC, LA, Portland, Boston, etc. have become unaffordable. Coupled with this is that this generation understands the impact of climate change and are focused on the importance of sustainable and organic agriculture.
Here is hoping that businesses and government leadership understands this and fosters this trend. Access to high speed internet would be a crucial component and a good start.
1
Interesting, but I take exception to this claim:
"We often refer to this as “brain drain” from the hinterlands, implying that those who stay lack the merit or ability to “get out.”
Maybe that's how you felt, but as an urban dweller I always thought :brain drain" referred to the loss of talent that was leaving, not a prerogative to the talent that remained.
4
I live in a county with only one traffic light. I will admit that there are some residents here with less than progressive awareness but because we are in a tourist/vacation mecca these attitudes are fading. The attraction of the natural beauty brings many well educated people to retire in the vicinity. We live 30 miles from a small city with every possible convenience (save for an Indian restaurant) including a commercial airport.
I have lived in cities, small towns and rural areas and the one major factor in favor of living in rural areas is the reduction of daily stress. We lack the constant traffic, noise and tension. Our views are of hills, forests, lakes and rivers, not buildings and busy streets. I would not trade these natural wonders for the finest urban penthouse. Humanity has not evolved to exist in loud, crowded conditions. Many of the world's social and environmental problems are due to people living massed together in cities.
2
If you want to make a living and don't intend to use your mind or grow as an intellect and a person, you will have a tough time anywhere on the planet. And an even tougher time in the future. The only reason rural areas don't favor modern jobs is the lack of like minded individuals in close physical proximity.
7
If people in rural communities are so happy with their lives, why did they vote for Trump, who embodies, basically, unhappiness with life? Also, opioid addiction, hate group membership, mediocre schools and medical support systems. Sorry, I'm just not buying it.
107
It's bad enough that Trump is gutting environmental protections to the delight of the fossil fuel and timber industries, and indulging his gutless sons' love of murdering wild animals by shredding animal protection statutes to the delight of the gun, ranching, and hunting lobbies. The last thing our suffering wilderness lands and wildlife need is a surge of romanticizing urbanites into less-settled areas, with all the attendant damage that would entail.
This rather simplistic paean to rural living couldn't be less timely.
11
To bolster her case the author states:
"One college senior founded a direct-to-consumer beef company in Otoe County, Neb., and sold $52,000 worth of meat in the past nine months."
That is average sales of a bit under $6,000 per month. Even if the seller marks up the meat 100%, which is highly unlikely, that would leave a gross profit of $3,000 per month, not counting taxes, health insurance and operating costs of the company, thus netting the seller well under $3,000 per month.
While the cost of living in rural areas is indeed generally lower than in big or medium-sized cities, I don't think making $2-3,000 per month is enough for an individual to survive in on rural areas unless one is living at home with one's farmer parents, has roommates, or has a second income from a spouse.
Painting a rosy picture of rural life may get lots of clicks, but this article would have much more meat on its bones if it looked closely at the true costs of living and potential income that young people--and others--might expect from rural living.
14
Why would you lump Seattle as ‘back home’.
It’s a super hotbed of tech and absurd cost of housing
4
I'd like to point out that $52,000 for nine months of farming is not a living wage after expenses have been paid.
20
Welcome to my world.
After 31 years in Dallas, TX (raising three kids) my wife and I returned to the family ranch in Pecos County, TX.
Two things I noticed immediately:
1) Rural America desperately needs broadband Internet to participate in the global economy. (We have to use a radio signal ISP, which is both slow, and semi-reliable.
2) You quickly learn you cannot just be around "people like me." If you invite only your college-educated, white, progressive friends to your party, there will be four of you.
In short, you are forced to be with people you wouldn't have hung out with in the urban jungle, which makes you see people for who they really are, not what your stereotypical judgment puts them into.
I have found that aspect of rural living refreshing.
394
@WesTex Just remember that stereotypical judgement is a two-way street. As someone who grew up on the prairies and has lived all over, I know all too well that small towns are frequently hostile to and dismissive of 'college-educated, progressive, city' folk. If you want to live amongst rural folk you have to engage with them at their level or you'll be dismissed as snoot or an eccentric loner.
235
@WesTex Frankly, being in an urban area forces you to be at least in visual proximity of others who differ, sometimes drastically, from you. It's a different and more wide-ranging kind of contrast from rural areas.
117
@WesTex
I have friendships with people I normally wouldn't hang out with at work, at the gym, and at my local bar. I don't need to move to a rural community to do so.
129
I grew up in a very small, rural town near the Catskills in Upstate NY (Woodstock country) and couldn't wait to get out. After decades in the traffic choked megalopolis of Southern California, I'd chop off a finger to get back in!
105
@J. K.Collins
Be free little bird. I left SoCal for the Midwest. I don't miss it one bit. I like seasons. I like the people and I like the fact that traffic is a tractor and some trailers filled with potatoes or cabbage or tomatoes.
I've lived here 10 years and every other day I learn something new and interesting about my neighbors. Just the other day a shop keeper was telling me how she grew up in Casablanca. Now she is a pastors wife with 4 grown boys.
33
@J. K.Collins
Don't blame you for wanting to leave California (especially the southern part) but be cautious about moving to upstate NY. See my comment just above.
7
I just spent 4 days in Green Bay and Sheboygan, WI and I agree small towns are growing and vibrant with craftspeople, chefs, brewers and new businesses. These small communities seem more welcoming and friendly than big cities where I live. If government wants to support affordable housing it should encourage and help people and businesses relocate to affordable rural communities instead of pouring more tax dollars into crowded and unaffordable urban cities.
152
Except businesses aren’t there. What is government supposed to do about jobs? Counties adjacent to big cities, where people can commute to jobs, aren’t really rural, they are suburban. It true that people whose work is internet based can work from anywhere, but our economy is now mostly a service economy. You have to be in person to perform a service job. And who wants to live where there are no hospitals, doctors or women’s healthcare services. These rural communities are not welcoming to vast swaths of people, who could perhaps fuel the artistic rebirth of these communities.
531
@DWC, it helps (a lot) to look like everyone else there.
82
@DWC Both Green Bay and Sheboygan are beautiful Wisconsin cities. Not towns. Green Bay has a population of over 100,000. Hardly rural.
Really SF peoples, you need to get out more.
118
Ok, nice sales pitch, but reality doesn't match up with this utopian narrative. The two rural communities I have family ties with are dead, dying or comatose. In Western Kansas the Ogallala Aquifer is being drained and will leave these guys returning to dust. My family plot in Southeaster Oklahoma is being bypassed by the Indian gaming boom. I would buy an argument for smaller cities outside of large metro areas. But true rural America no way. It takes more than 10 churches in a town of 2000 to make a great place to live.
1105
@Paul
It's interesting to me how any article listing advantages of living in non-urban areas always elicits such strong reactions from Metro dwellers. Having lived 30 years in urban areas including SF and Boston, and almost 20 years in a rural setting, I can confidently say that there are good and bad areas in both types of settings, and I personally prefer living in New Hampshire to Boston or the Bay Area.
57
@Paul
You’ve obviously never been to some of the smaller towns western Montana.
Ten churches? Try craft breweries, wine bars, local theatres and yoga studios.
58
@nh
I definitely agree with you about the “good and bad areas in both types of settings”.
In the late ‘80s through early ‘90s I lived initially in Boston and then moved to rural Western Massachusetts, just a few miles from both the Vermont and New Hampshire borders (“Tri-state” area). I again lived in Boston/Cambridge in ‘99-‘00 with visits to friends and places I loved in the surrounding rural regions. I return annually to work on staff at a women’s herbal conference in rural central New Hampshire. I still would choose living in Boston over both rural areas (love the vital multicultural energy of larger cities) but if I had to choose, it’d be Western Mass anytime. New Hampshire is a bit too conservative politically for me compared to Massachusetts. But New Hampshire is a liberal utopia compared to Missouri where I later lived for seven years!
49
I'm from as rural an area as you can get. I hate the term 'maters" for tomatoes. It smacks of an affectation. And we don't have a rifle problem. We all have them.
4
I grew up in small rural towns and mid-sized cities and have made nostalgic trips back to them when business took me close to them. I have seen little evidence of revitalization. To the contrary, many of their cores are mostly abandoned eyesores, sending a strong message of "abandon hope all yee who enter here."
Rather, I've long been a part of the Elton John camp:
"Get back Honky Cat,
You better get back in the woods,
Well I quit those days and my redneck ways,
Change is going to do me good. "
346
@tencato...You do know that Elton doesn't do lyrics, don't you. Kudos to Bernie. Also, EJ lives out in the stix with the rest of the hix. Behind his wall, of course.
6
You didn’t mention what is probably the biggest elephant in the room: conservative religion. That is a major reason so many flee and so many can’t return.
209
@Mike Wow. That’s painting a whole lot of people with one big brush. My hope would be that where ever Americans live they approach each other with an open mind and perhaps learn that at heart we are all human beings with the same basic struggles. Fear of “otherness” is a prejudice which ‘sophisticated’ city dwellers often cannot see in themselves. I have never been religious and was Chicago born and raised. I now am at peace living by a mountain river, clean air and amongst a population that worship in a way I don’t understand & don’t need to in order to share in our common humanity.
@Mike
Amen.
It infects big, booming Sun Belt cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Phoenix and Raleigh, too.
12
No, no, a thousand times no, at least for this ex-farm boy from rural Minnesota. Sure, the real estate is cheaper and you can now order anything you want online. On the rare occasion when I go back to my hometown to see my parents (in their 90's), all I see is lack: lack of decent grocery stores, lack of job opportunities, lack of awareness of the world, lack of forward or critical thinking, lack of inclusiveness and lack of tolerance. I'll stick with the city, thank you.
240
I've lived and worked in both---rural and urban, and to my everlasting regret, chose rural. Small towns are great only if governance is good.
12
"...heroes of the American odyssey — seeing value where others see lack."
And for evidence one need only read the responses to this encouraging article. To those who got stared at at a gas station or toss around epithets like 'close-minded' and 'anti-science' I'd encourage you to do more than just gas up next time. Stop. Talk to a real person before you project your fears onto them. You might be surprised to discover that there are plenty of decent, intelligent folks in small, remote, or rural settlements. The labeling is ugly, lacking in grace, and likely cheats you of the opportunity to connect with a person or persons with whom you otherwise have nothing in common.
We fear what we don't understand, and all too often - big town or small town, it's no different - we don't understand what we choose not to understand.
I don't know, Ms. Smarsh, if this demographic shift will turn into a full-blown trend, but I'm grateful for your perspective, for your heart open to possibility and for this piece.
10
Rural America has become the fall back escape location for folks that just don't make it in places like New York or Los Angeles. They may feel good for a short time, discussing issues with their local neighbors like "Corn or Beans," Religious issues, or where to get cheap drugs. Then they wake up one day and realize that they have failed in life, never met their objectives, their kids not integrating with the locals. Then bitterness sets in - wasted time.
9
@rudolf
Rudolf, you hit the nail on the head so to speak. If one is moving from urban to rural to "escape" the city, they should reflect a bit more before pulling the trigger. A lot of what they really need for fulfillment doesn't exist in the sticks. Feels really good to decompress at first, but then they realize much of what they loved was only available in the city. I grew up in the sticks, no I live in SF Bay area. Yes, there are a few things I miss about the sticks, but very soon I'd be bored out of my mind.
7
@rudolf
Rudolf, you hit the nail on the head so to speak. If one is moving from urban to rural to "escape" the city, they should reflect a bit more before pulling the trigger. A lot of what they really need for fulfillment doesn't exist in the sticks. Feels really good to decompress at first, but then they realize much of what they loved was only available in the city. I grew up in the sticks, no I live in SF Bay area. Yes, there are a few things I miss about the sticks, but very soon I'd be bored out of my mind. Others have pointed out in these comments, probably the best solution is a mid-sized city with infrastructure, a university town is a good bet, at least a compromise between extremes.
3
@Rudolf
"Rural America has become the fall back escape location for folks that just don't make it in places like New York or Los Angeles . . . Then they wake up one day and realize that they have failed in life, never met their objectives . . . "
Good attitude toward your fellow Americans there, Rudolph.
After my mother died, my dad remarried & moved from a good size city in central WI to a northern, rural part because he wanted to "go back home" where he grew up.
After the initial "honeymoon" period of settling in ended, it became one nightmare after another for them, especially since his wife did not know how to drive.
The nearest grocery store, drug store, hardware store, etc. were 20 miles away. That's not a huge distance in good weather, but in winter with ice & snow or heavy rain storms in summer, it was problematic.
The turning point came when a fire broke out in their neighbor's home (who lived across the road). My 75 yr. old dad tried to run into the burning house to save the guy, but suffered chest pains.
The "fire department" consisted of a group of volunteers who had hearts of gold but it took them 40 min. to arrive. The neighbor never made it out alive and my dad was taken to the nearest hospital - 45 miles away. He had a mild heart attack (although from his perspective, it was a major heart attack).
My dad survived but was devastated by his friend's death & terrified if a fire happened in their home, they may not survive nor their home.
Soon after, my dad & his wife returned to the city where they previously lived. Medical & hospital care they took for granted became a priority as well as the free city bus service for seniors.
Doing one's homework PRIOR to relocating to a rural area should be paramount for it could save one's life, literally.
138
@Marge Keller
Indeed. We studied before we retired up a mountain road. We’re within twenty miles of a good hospital, the grocery and hardware store are three miles away. There’s also a nice small gym near the hardware store. We’re there most days. It takes a lot of body upkeep to remain fit enough to keep up our place.
8
@GiGi
Sounds like you are doing exactly the prudent things necessary to stay "on top" of things.
My husband and I believe the older we get, the closer we need to be to good, quality medical care and facilities. While I am confident by a veterinarian's ability to fix and cure animals, I would hate to find myself jammed up in a medical emergency and in need of a vet because I lived too far from a medical facility.
8
@Marge Keller
You took the words right out of my mouth. Sure, a rural area 20 or even 50 miles away from a Hospital may be fine for healthy young Adults, who are very cautious, risk adverse, and don’t DRIVE( no MVAs). For middle aged and older Adults, AND families with children, it is a disaster waiting to happen. All things being equal, the best predictor of surviving a medical crisis or severe injury is proximity to a fully functioning Hospital. I’ve already chosen my preferred location for my retirement Condo. It’s within 5 block radius in Downtown Seattle, right in the middle of Three Hospitals. We will NOT even have a Car, and will walk most everywhere, using the Light Rail when needed. That’s the life for ME, I’m tired.
22
Many small towns in the rural Midwest are dying because industry, even light industry, has moved to larger cities due to easy access to the Interstate Highway System. These small towns may be 30 or more miles from the interstate and even more from large airport hubs. Regional airports outside of major cities may help in some cases, as will internet service, but nothing has emerged to help with access to major highways.
5
It can't be an insignificant factor - to the point of not even mentioning it - that the reversal of population migration is happening at the same time as the ubiquity of digital communications, and everything that grows from it. It isn't as necessary as it used to be, that economic production is not confined to heavily populated areas. Why does the author ignore that?
10
Moving to rural America may be feasible when there's only one career to consider, but it just feels too risky for our dual-career family. One person is almost guaranteed to be taking a major career hit -- if they are able to find a professional job at all. The only time I can see this working is if one person works remotely for a company with a good track record for internal promotions. Instead, when we were priced out of the Bay Area a few years ago, we moved to a mid-sized city with several universities, hospitals, and local businesses, providing a range of good opportunities for both members of our household.
26
There is small town and there is REALLY rural. Try for college towns where there may actually be jobs, nearby metropolitan areas with airports, voters who don't want a return to 1953, and where the first question asked is not what church you go to. The nostalgia for imagined small town virtues is, like most nostalgia, mythical. There are plenty of places where there is neither provincialism nor ridiculous San Francisco-level housing prices.
72
I left rural New Mexico because the only way a woman could stay there was to marry and I didn't like any of the very limited choices. These people who are returning have money in their hands and can afford to. Agriculture simply doesn't pay enough to hold anyone except those who really love the lifestyle or are lucky enough to be born into the families that have a big enough property to make a decent (on rural standards) living.
I have long thought that with the advent of Internet and good phone connections, companies could set up virtual service centers using workers from rural areas. The pay requirements would be less than in cities, too. We do that with India, why not in rural New Mexico? It would take some organization, but there's a real opportunity there.
21
@Dana Your second paragraph proved out in the small town where I live. A dental insurance company setup a small call center. They have, however, recently downsized a bit. When I tell colleagues in Seattle about the virtually free commercial space here and the lower wage workforce, they still roll their eyes.
Why? The publicity we do get is when the FBI arrests some domestic bomber or nut case. I could mention five names that everyone would recognize that hail from within 40 miles of here. The local Republican politicians that 70% of the voters support rail against socialism and won't take advantage of the rural development grants that might provide that better Internet you mentioned. Residents not near town make do with satellite Internet. Every so often, a pickup truck flying a large confederate flag goes by... If we're gaining any brains, they need some Xanax or something.
I live here because of the natural environment, on money I brought with me and with a business whose customers are distant. The Census data show a hole in the 21-40 age range, proving that the smartest leave for opportunity. But locals are addicted to Republicans like an addict is to heroin. They can't get off, and even the nearby Canadian small towns that are thriving with "communism" don't give them pause to think. "Crooked Hillary" still is molesting their "way of life."
One has to be an introvert, to bring brains here.
18
After growing up in Los Angeles, I moved to rural Oregon in the '70's. The damage to my lungs from living in LA before smog device laws, is irreparable. Yet living in a rural Oregon setting, again there are many lung challenging factions. No one has to have a smog device on their vehicle and frequently we get behind someone visibly burning oil. The isolation in extremely rural areas can also be a huge challenge. Gardening will only allow you to leave during summer if you have automatic irrigation. We often find ourselves feeling "trapped" during high watering times. Yet the harvest is bountiful and our freezer has been filled. For me, it is mostly about air quality. Just imagine how wonderful our cities would be if we could get rid of cars and trucks burning fossil fuels!
10
While economic incentives and the idea of a closer community are certainly draws, this is only the case for straight people. I am a married lesbian and would love to leave NYC and settle down in Western Virginia or any number of other places in this country with a spectacular natural setting and a smaller community feel. However, I know very well that my sense of comfort and psychological well-being would suffer were I to do so. Perhaps I would never be physically in danger, and if I am really lucky perhaps my wife and I wouldn’t have to hear many offensive comments shouted at us as we walk hand in hand, but we would never have the sense of fitting in, of being unconditionally accepted in our (boring and traditional, but for the fact that we are two women) lives, of not being “other”. That pervasive sense of being “other” is a heavy burden for anyone to carry through life and until LGBTQ people are accepted and welcomed, and their lives viewed as unextraordinary, we will continue to cling to large, progressive cities for the bubble of acceptance and, for lack of a better word, normalcy they provide. I remain resentful that my choice of where to live is not as free as that of my straight friends.
31
@KB,
I don’t mean to dismiss your concerns, but it might surprise you to learn that the South has more people who identify as LGBTQI than any other region, and West Virginia has the most folks who identify as transgender.
We’re here, we’re queer, in the hills and hollers too.
5
@shnnn. You will pardon my incredulity when you assert such things without the slightest supporting data. Simply put, I doubt it.
2
The ideal situation is to have both, rural peace and quiet some of the time and a bustling city the rest of the time. The city concentrates cultural activities, something not possible in a rural area, but with it comes much noise and nervous bustling. Rural peace is nice (if one is not a farmer, which requires back breaking labor) but eventually too much quiet leads to boredom. Now a days few people can afford to have both, but thanks to the internet and decentralization of labor it may be possible for more and more people in the future.
2
I live in one of those small towns, albeit a rather special one. I've worked hard to integrate myself into the life of my community, no small task for an outsider and an Anglo. I've learned that Rural America has tremendous potential and can, in some instances, actually lead. We've done that with Renewable Taos, an organization of retired professionals and engineers committed to transitioning to clean energy. Our progressive community-spirited electric cooperative is with our support on a path toward 100% clean energy. We expect to get to 50% locally generated solar plus storage within two years, and, if we can motivate our supplier Guzman Energy to provide wind energy we'll approach 75% clean energy in another year, probably 2023. All while lowering our cost of energy. That path is open to every utility in the U.S. It means slimmer profits for the investor owned utilities which is why we should consider making all electric utilities publicly owned as suggested by Bernie Sanders. Our utility Kit Carson Electric is making this giant step with the urging of retired technology and engineering professionals like me, but its management and Board are overwhelmingly people who were born in the Taos area and have roots going back several generations. And clean energy enjoys overwhelming support across the entire community. It shows the potential of Rural America to lead in making the progress we so desperately need.
19
@Bob - Please write articles on what you have accomplished so more people can learn of this!
2
@Bob. Impressive, but Taos is hardly the kind of bleak, unpleasant dying flatland agricultural town that the author is trying to depict as enjoying a renaissance. Interesting people want to live in beautiful, interesting places like Taos.
Those threadbare, boarded-up ghost towns, not so much.
4
We departed the NY Metro area in 1980 for rural Vermont and a house five miles out on a dirt road. Although the winter up here is a challenge for most people, the quality of our lives has been dramatically improved over anything we would have experienced had we remained. We can snowshoe or XC ski out our door; swim in gloriously clear glacial ponds; or walk for an hour - as I’m about to do - and not see a car or another person. You will see loons, ospreys, a bald eagle or two, deer, maybe a bear or moose and assorted amphibians as well as rising trout. With the foliage beginning to turn and the air becoming crisp, there’s no other place I’d rather be. It’s a far less complicated life when, rather than tuning out your surroundings, your peace of mind comes from absorbing them like a sponge. Cheers.
60
@walt amses. As if everyone could do the same...
@walt amses
I presume you don't vote Republican...?
Although I grew up in New York City and had access to an excellent education and culture events, my family comes from rural West Virginia, and when I see the close-knit ties of my extended family, it makes me understand that I missed out on some wonderful experiences of small town life.
5
People leaving NY and LA in droves? Really? Please provide some stats. Sure people do leave but they continue to arrive as well. Anecdotally the traffic here in LA is worse than ever. Having arrived in 2001 there are noticeable increases in travel times and without exaggeration, the freeways are now clogged all day. No longer is driving between 10am and 3pm advantageous. Multi-unit residential construction continues unabated.
And weren't millennials attracted to Brooklyn, Seattle and the like?
Let's get our memes straight.
23
Someday I hope to move to Maine. I tend to stick near the coast when traveling in Maine and appreciate the more diverse communities near Portland. Voters near the cities approve of Angus King and voters in the rural areas support Susan Collins. Many people see Collins as an anti-elitist conservative and think she supports the good people in the rural areas. However her voting record suggests she supports big business over the common man. The author of this piece should read "What's the matter with Kansas."
31
@Chris And the majority of NYTimes commenters should read another more recent Thomas Frank book, “Listen, Liberal” to get a handle on why the Democrats do not resonate with large swaths of rural and Rust Belt voters.
6
@Steve Bruns
I have perused this book written during the Obama presidency. The author argues that during this time there was no discernible economic improvement for the little guy. True but ignores the fact that Moscow Mitch obstructed or killed any progressive legislation.
8
@Chris. So what’s the excuse during 2009-10? Lieberman? Funny that Obama could find the time to take on Kucinich for not supporting the public option-less ACA but left those torpedoing the public option alone.
1
No mention of the opioid and meth crises -- or their causes, which surely aren't happiness and good jobs -- tearing apart rural America for the past decade or so. Or of Trumpism, for that matter, whose origins are likely the same as drug addiction.
322
The opioid crisis is not limited to rural America. There are addicts galore in every major city. For example, Philadelphia has areas that are basically open-air drug markets where the police fear to go. I'm sure it's the same in every other city in the country. To assume that opioids are only a problem in rural areas is to be ignorant of the facts.
8
@txnyriny - Glad you brought up this problem, and to those who respond with, "Well, what about urban areas?," I say, it's worse in a small town when drug dealing has taken over residential neighborhoods (the one in which you reside), and nothing and no one will stop it. In a city, someone will stop it, but in a rural area corrupted by easy money, officials can overlook the piercing warning whistles, barking dogs, loud car radios, squealing brakes, rusted out mufflers, curses and shouted threats every night, all night long. Sure, the drug dealers eventually die from overdoses or are "relocated" to another part of town when neighbors have finally had enough. But realize this: if drug dealers are tolerated in the rural areas, it's for personal reasons. Not so much in the cities.
28
@Country Girl
West Virginia is the opioid capital of the world.
8
There are pluses and minuses for both.
I lived outside a small town for over 30 years and we had a woodlot and two gardens. You must have two vehicles that are always dependable. I love gardening but there were many times I could not leave. My town was Red and I was deep Blue. Another issue was my lack of attending any faith based church when almost everyone did.
Born and raised in NYC - Sty Town. Nothing is easy in a major metro. I rarely had the time or energy to take part in the dynamic lifestyle there.
For me a mid sized city fits best in terms of money and flexibility of lifestyle.
32
Having been born and raised in Southern California, and having left because the place just became too unlivable ...
With an advanced degree in a STEM field (gained in the Bay Area, also unlivable) I finally fetched up in a town of eleven thousand people in the middle of nowhere. But this doesn't mean that I can't make a living here practicing my trade.
Due to the modern miracle of the internet (yes, there is some good in the internet) I have been telecommuting for years to my engineering firm. It is, actually, a regular 9 to 5 job, five days a week.
I realize that I was fortunate, but it is possible to both live in a rural area and to practice this kind of discipline. But you have to want it.
20
@Alternate Identity I escaped rural NM because there was no way a single woman could earn a living there. I have long thought that there is potential to set up businesses such as service centers that draw from rural communities, all working virtually via Internet. It needs someone to organize it and encourage it.
9
@Dana
If not you, who?
If not now, when?
Do it.
1
I am a native New Yorker, born in Manhattan and raised in the Jersey suburbs. I've lived and worked in Boston and Los Angeles. But, I haven't lived in or near a big city since 1983, and I love country living.
Yes, there are closed-minded people here. This is also true of many people I knew in large metro areas. There is also a large university nearby, with students and faculty from all over the world. Yes, many small towns are losing population. But what I also see are small towns here many people are returning home.
Why? The physical beauty of the southern Illinois countryside, abetted by a 250,000 acre national forest, is stunning. The communal character of the place, where where neighbors help each other in a pinch, is striking.
There is racial prejudice, and also a large and thriving Muslim community. There is ignorance. Where is there none? The schools are okay, not great, and access to good medical care is first-rate. There is compassion.
But I breathe clean air. There are no long commutes. It is quiet. It is affordable. In the words of Willie Nelson:
"Ride me back home to a much better place
Blue skies and sunshine and plenty of space
Somewhere where they would just leave you alone
Somewhere that you could call home."
27
But you’re living near a university town. That’s wildly different than most of rural America.
7
What happens when city folk decide to move to smaller towns and rural areas is that available land is snapped up by investors and developers, isolated suburban-type housing developments are installed--to be filled with doctors, lawyers, and finance professionals, traffic increases and infrastructure is stressed, and city attitudes are brought to small towns. Oh, and land and housing prices increase, so that folks raised locally can't afford to buy their own places.
In short, the emigrants spoil the very thing that they came to small towns and rural areas for.
16
@bluewhinge The irony is that many of those people were pushed out of their cities by wealthy people escaping suburban and rural areas in hopes of better job opportunities. I grew up in New York and make a very good salary here by the standards of nearly any other city in the world. Still, I'm considering moving to a smaller city or town elsewhere in the country because even with a combined family income well into six figures, my partner and I cannot afford to stay in our city due to housing costs driven up by the influx of people from other places moving into our home. Then the cycle continues as you noted. I'm not sure there's a solution, but if one exists it has to be far more global than my-home-your-home attitudes.
5
Wichita is the largest city in Kansas and hardly qualifies as rural. That's where Lear Jets come from. Boeing is a major employer there. Compared to NY, it might seem like a small town, but it has all the amenities of a mid-size city, including a major university and a first-rate minor league ballpark and a lovely river walk. Elsewhere in Kansas, the small farm towns are depopulating because of lack of medical care, schools and places to work. Rural hospitals have been closing all across America. In Texas, 23 have closed since 2010. The farm economy is disastrous, thanks to the weather and Trump. The trend is not good.
102
While not exactly rural, small cities in the midwest are attracting educated young people. Check out Carmel, Indiana, roundabout capital of the world, low real estate taxes because many businesses. Great education, quality of life - performing arts, outdoor spaces, galleries, biking, restaurants and galleries. Lots of variety in housing. The long time mayor has invested well.
1
Big city life gets so hectic. Towns and rural areas are restful. You can look at nature....Amazing.
4
Yeah, had I the money I'd return to a rural area, having been raised on a hobby ranch (one supported by outside income) in Colorado.
I would hope I'd have enough money to be insular from my neighbors.
I know the rural and small-town mind. It's small.
20
The author appears to transform her personal experience and observations into a questionable reality. While it's true that big cities may be losing inhabitants, the numbers apply to metro areas and excludes suburbs , which is often where people go. The decision to relocate tends to be strictly financial, not philosophical. I can probably write an essay with my personal observations describing the small mindedness and lack of diversity of rural america that leads young people to flock to urban centers. I can also tell stories about young people that have made a choice to be closer to nature. This doesn't make it an exodus or something special.
42
We "jumped off a cliff" 20 years ago and moved to rural Wisconsin from a Chicago suburb; it was the best decision we ever made. BUT, there are things to know before doing this. You must choose wisely. We live half way between two towns that could not be more different. One is smaller, and although it is the county seat and has a hospital, it is fairly insular, and not that welcoming beyond surface politeness. The larger town, which also has a hospital, as well as a UW campus, is much more open minded. We attend a UCC church that has a rainbow on its sign and several LGBT members.
Keep in mind that at least some of your income may need need to come from somewhere else. Unless you are a professional, wages in local industries tend to be much lower than in urban areas, and with fewer benefits. (I was a consultant with clients all over the country. Make sure you have access to good internet speed! This is a huge issue in many rural communities.)
It is helpful to be within an easy drive of a "big city". We are just over an hour from Madison, and only 20 minutes from Dubuque, IA. Dubuque has had a renaissance of its own in recent years after IBM relocated 1,500 high paying jobs to the city. I would highly recommend it to folks looking for a softer transition out of a large urban area.
Long story short - do your research. Then give it a try!
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@tallgrass - Your comment is spot-on! Do your research.
Lived where you live prior to heading to Florida to pastor a new UCC church and get out of the snow. It's an awesome place, provided you're willing to work your way around a lot of ingrained insularity.
That said, there are places to be avoided.
Don't go to a town that lacks good access to a main highway or Interstate in bad weather. Make sure - with some exceptions (like being a professional), your income is coming from somewhere else.
When you go, get invested in the town and the people, but don't try to tell them what to do. Learn from them, learn about them, lean on them. You're going to find, despite any political differences you have (and you will certainly have them), you're able to work through them, share, and enjoy the things you have in common - they care more about whether you can help swing a hammer than who you voted for.
There are good people, and a good life to be had, in small Midwest towns, but like you said, Do your research!
22
@tallgrass
You live in a town with a college campus and good internet speed which almost by definition is no longer rural no matter how small the town. Small communities that are close enough to urban centers to commute have always drawn people and they are still part of a growth trend. But this article was about the real rural areas where one cannot commute, have no internet, hospitals, or college campuses. They are not growing and they never will.
11
Until true high speed Internet is developed throughout rural America the ‘work from anywhere’ jobs won’t be there. We can’t depend on that yet.
Small towns and cities thrive only when their systems are integrated: health and human services supported by a functioning educational system,(it helps to have a college or university) healthy physical infrastructure supported by a healthy tax base,involved community and public leadership with long term vision. The last is often the hardest to accomplish.
28
What I have discovered in smaller, rural or suburban-rural areas, is that xenophobia is definitely present, always waiting to come forward from the local populace. I grew up in central Ohio, spent my adult life after college in Boston, Cambridge, Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill, Atlanta and northern Michigan. I've now returned to a west central part of Ohio that I wasn't as familiar with growing up, but completely recognize as I've described above. If a small town is within, say, 10-15 miles of a university community, that insular quality is indeed lessened. But it remains quite apparent. I guess I'm fortunate because I visually "fit-in". And so my wife and I do what we can to counter local ignorance (short of completely alienating ourselves). The deep-rooted, poorly-educated populations in these rural areas, I believe, will retain their anti-biases until they have died away.
120
Perhaps Ms Smarsh is noting something, but not recognizing the reasons. Corporations are transplanting their businesses and factories to the anti-union South and rural midwest, taking advantage of their Republican-given right to pay lousy wages and meager, if any, benefits, and ignoring worker safety.
199
The first essential for my next move will be access to health care. The next will be seeing the night sky. Most of my work depends on internet but my body and soul have other needs.
23
@Nancy Connors "Sickcare" might come to rural transplants in an indirect way. Less pollution, less stress, less dependence on a processed food chain and hopefully a more active lifestyle.
6
@John Todor, Ph.D. all good things, but not helpful if you have pre-existing conditions that are not going to go away with a change in lifestyle.
10
@John Todor, Ph.D., I would think it is important to choose the location of the rural area wisely, or you might end up in an area with more pollution and more dependence on the processed food chain.
Regarding an active lifestyle, my sense is that people in urban areas walk much more, and people in rural areas must drive everywhere. So, if you live in a rural area, you must make a plan to partake in some physical activity, or you will get none. This in turn could contribute to obesity, diabetes, and other health problems.
7
Very exciting and encouraging. I have felt the last decade that I am glad that I am old and won't be around in 20 years. I hope it gives hope to the young and middle age and younger older people and peace to the rest of us.
5
Perhaps a less predatory form of capitalism will return along with the return to rural areas. One can only hope that a change in mindset will result in resetting priorities and a better balance between work and home life. Less stress for everyone.
15
If you know anything about making a living from the land or animals, or if you've read any of the Little House books as a child, you know there is nothing less freeing than being a farmer.
As for the return to rural areas--sure, there are some places that can definitely continue to thrive and develop and move forward into the future as climate change and the tech-centered world develop. But just because some hungry pioneers settled on land a couple hundred years ago doesn't mean we should work overtime to maintain those places now. Towns and cities do not need to last forever. Historically speaking, they haven't.
18
@Claire--I live in rural Maryland, but I am not a farmer. I'm still 30-50-100 miles away for more urban areas, and big cities. It's quiet, relatively safe, and welcoming. Some people commute from here. If they don't take away our hospital, which they are trying to do, this will be the perfect place. (This is the main reason why health care should NEVER be for profit.)
11
"Green acres is the place to be
farm living is the life for me..."
Did the comedy writers of the '60s know something 50 years before everyone else?
In my last technical job, there were a number of people we never saw. They worked remotely, mostly in rural areas or small towns. If your tech support person can be in India or the Philippines, and some of your engineering team in China, your illustrator can be in Wichita.
It's always been a problem making a living in rural areas. Telecommuting is changing that.
12
I left the city for the country with my remote job in tow. I think a huge misconception about rural living is that it's the same everywhere. I'm 3+ hours from NYC so definitely far from suburban, but everything on the East Coast is closer together. The closest small city is about an hour away. Within 15-20 minutes, we have shopping and diversity and theater and hospitals and other jobs besides farming. I imagine that out West, where the distances are so much greater, rural living is a lot different, maybe closer to people's stereotypes. But I'm willing to be educated on that.
5
@Erica Re: living in the west. I live in a state with many different types of "rural" and living in one is nothing like living in one of the other ones. I laughed when I saw the picture of Ouray illustrating the article. Ouray is a former mining town near former ranching land. It's now tourist and second (or third or fourth) home land. All those western style ads for Ralph Lauren were taken on his huge play ranch just a short distance from Ouray. Compare that to the coal mining areas of Northwest Colorado or the farm and ranch lands of eastern Colorado where people live hardscrable lives and opioid addiction is a constant issue.
3
Broadband , Broadband , Broadband!!! This is the most crucial thing that would make a huge difference in the success of rural areas. If the government truly wants to make a difference in rural America, this is the way to do it. You can't telecommute if you don't have reliable broadband and that shuts off so many job opportunities. And start-up opportunities.
133
Board band AND health care/hospitals.
I will always need a doctor for a crying baby or a broken limb or to treat a cancer.
A general practitioner who can guide me in the right direction on my self care and to specialists when needed is ESSENTIAL
33
@BA Broadband, broadband, broadband. And medical care. These "dying" little towns with their $40,000 no-buyer homes would be ideal retirement communities with those two ingredients. Maybe telemedicine will help.
30
@BA
I posted in more detail to @J Clark above, but fixed wireless internet is one good method. Not as fast as cable, but =to or better than DSL, and no cable needed.
1
I live in rural Ohio. I love it! Grew up in Toledo , not a big city but a big city. I’m now a 30 minute drive away so I have the best of both worlds. At night I see stars and when I want to see stars in Toledo they are there too. I have seen the likes of Rod Stewart Bob Seger and Elton John. It is all it’s cracked up to be. One thing that has burned me for awhile now is poor internet. When I first moved it wasn’t a thing but now it seems to be everything. And it’s simply not there. So the government needs desperately to step up and fix this. The greedy cable company’s won’t due to the small number of customers. It’s time to fix this lag if they want the brain grain to keep growing.
19
@J Clark
I tend to agree, but one sad irony to note, people living in rural areas are often on the forefront of the old Reaganist "the government is the problem" mentality, yet totally forgetting that rural areas have things like electric power and phone service because the private sector totally ignored them because it isn't profitable to wire rural areas. That along with suspicious attitudes towards education in rural areas (one of the reasons young, educated people don't want to go back to rural areas is the realization that the schools there generally don't have the level of teaching that schools in suburban and more urban settings have).
But with broadband if the government pays to put up the fiber optic lines (makes zero sense to use Coax at this point), the cable companies and the like will gladly use it, but I wonder if rural folks will like the price tag. Then, too, if the government operates broadband internet for rural areas at low cost, why should someone elsewhere have to pay 60,70,100 bucks a month for a service the government operates for 20?
20
And your health care options are Toledo and Cleveland....
1
@J Clark
Where I live currently there has been a company (since purchased by a regional cable provider) providing fixed wireless internet. They managed to provide almost complete coverage in a very rural area by broadcasting from the tallest structure in tiny (pop ~100-300) towns. At my current house 'in town' the transmitter is on top of the water tower, but at my totally rural farm house it was on top of a grain elevator.
It is faster than DSL but slower than cable - neither of which is available here.* This technology would probably not work as well in very hilly areas.
* 'Here' for me is a county with less than 2000 people where the largest town in the county has less than 500.
Just one question are the returnees turning the rural areas redder or blue?
Just asking.
9
I would guess they are turning more blue. My area, which in theory should be bright red, has many active Democrats and local Democratic organizations. With each election, Democrats are picking up more votes and I expect to see that trend continue.
1
As hippies we were all about getting back, back to the garden. Home. Once more, after the crash into diversity, globalism, and identity politics atomized those yearnings, we are seeing their reemergence. What goes around comes around.
6
When I retired, I moved from a busy South Jersey community to a rural one in western South Dakota. I have no regrets as the cost of living is better for a retired person and the pace suits my time of life. There are many retirees moving here for more affordable lifestyles and the younger people are moving to a nearby city where there are more jobs being created. Yes, I do think this is a trend.
4
@Kris
How on earth did you settle on western SD from the east coast?
1
@Kris
If you're retired, it's nice that you enjoy your new home, but you're really not the sort of person this article is about. The author is talking about people making a living in rural areas.
1
@caljn
Beautiful black hills
As a Black man, I just can't get over the nagging terror of small town (less than 25,000 people) America. I have traveled through many of these places while on my way to larger suburbs and cities and have always felt like an outsider, as if I'd just disembarked from a spaceship with strangely colored skin and clothes. I don't know what it will take for me to not feel the real stares of these folks at gas stations and restaurants, but I'm not the pioneering type, so I'll just keep to my cities.
I'm glad that rural America is making some kind of comeback -- at least in Sarah's eyes and anecdotal research. But only when I see on more than a few blue moon occasions rural white folks vote for a non-white person consistently, will I think that is a place for me.
Good luck.
692
@newyorkerva I get your point and totally understand it. I live in a very small community, the only white man for a mile and a half in any direction. I believe that the zip code area is less than 10% white. There is great comfort among the blacks and whites who live in this community (I guess those whites not comfortable would have moved on ). Yet 10 miles east, in the county seat of about 3,000, there is constant tension and distrust between the two races. My sense is that big cities (and I lived 27 years in NYC) and truly rural areas provide more opportunities for different races to get along, and had I space I might come up with possible reasons for that. My own family includes both white people and black people, and I am pleased to say that we embrace each other as family, simply as people. (This is, I regret to say, still somewhat of a rarity in the South.)
65
@newyorkerva I completely agree that small towns are often racist and narrow-minded and that they would be welcoming to anyone they view as "different." Many white people simply don't "see" racism and so don't mind living in these spaces. You couldn't pay me to live in a small town, or "go rural." There are plenty of pockets of peace and quiet in big cities (museums, parks, etc.) and I can't imagine living anywhere that is not organically "diverse" and multicultural. The romance of small-town living is an illusion for many people. So "homecoming" applies only to certain folks, and not others. I've lived in both the immediate Bay Area (Oakland, SF) and now DC. My experiences with "small town living" have been nightmarish.
51
@newyorkerva: I'm with you. And I'm a white cis-gendered hetero male.
But you're lucky if the worst of your experiences is feeling out-of-place. A black friend in medical school told me that he and an Asian friend were run out of a small town at gunpoint, many years ago. I know the town very well--Happy Camp, in far northern California. It's a pretty town in a spectacularly beautiful river valley, with a large Karuk population and many white folks. It was not a Karuk who held the gun.
16
While romanticizing the appeal of rural life, don't forget that living in the country is far more energy-intensive than living in the city, especially if one lives in a condo or apartment in the latter. In the country one drives everywhere and homes are (often large) stand-alone buildings that leak lots of cooling in the summer and heat in the winter. In the city, there is public transport, walking, biking, etc. (which is also better for one's health), and far less cooling and heating loss from condos and apartments.
People should be allowed to live wherever they want and obviously we need people in the rural areas to do the things that can only be done in rural areas but the health of the planet is better served by living in the city. Sorry.
74
@Alex Kodat: It's also a better place to get off the grid, but that takes resources that many people don't have, and sacrifices that many people don't want to take. Transportation would still be a big hurdle too.
Maybe the future is for humans to live stacked like cordwood in huge cities, especially if there are 10 billion of us, which is what the UN population studies predict.
2
@Alex Kodat Tell that to the millions of suburbanites sitting alone in their idling, traffic-bound cars every morning and evening.
14
@Alex Kodat
I live in an energy efficient solar powered rural home. Most urban dwellings are ill suited for energy independence. I do drive several miles for all services but my trips are coordinated to minimize the carbon footprint and I never sit idling in traffic. I would guess my automobile pollution and energy consumption compares with urban dwellers wasting gas while making very slow progress and stopping for frequent traffic lights. As for the advantages of urban density, humans are not like ants, evolved to lived in close proximity with little personal space, hearing constant noise and experienced constant assaults to any semblance of tranquility.
7
From anecdotal experience, rural America still has hurdles to clear before becoming a haven for those who want to flee or avoid more urban areas; namely, bigotry and the rural broadband gap.
Rural America, in the Midwest at least, suffers from a dearth of diversity which does not support a cheery notion that the small cities and villages are becoming more welcoming. To combat this, more tailored education about race and class in our society need to find a place within our curriculum; systematic racism, bigotry, and prejudice is a fault of our history as a nation, and we have to eradicate it by teaching exactly how it is, which, from my experience, will demonstrate to students the fault in their biases and firmly held but ultimately misconstrued beliefs.
This education, and a re-invigoration of the rural economy, can also be met through broadband build outs and deployment in rural America. Rural America suffers disproportionately, to an extreme degree, from the lack of broadband connectivity. It makes e-commerce less feasible, it makes e-government, telehealth, and other emerging aspects of the "internet of things" impossible to access for rural Americans. These services, which every American should have easy access to at this point in our age of technology as RIGHT, would profoundly inspire a re-invigoration and reinvention of Rural America.
41
@Tyler: Like every other public service, it's more expensive to provide broadband in dispersed communities. Several commenters here call for improving it. I suppose we city dwellers would be expected to pay for that just as we already pay a larger share of taxes. Along with high housing costs we're also asked to subsidize people living the (supposedly) good life in rural paradise - people who often despise us.
4
@Jomo your us versus them attitude is not helping.
1
Sarah Smarsh ends this article by calling for a "big" solution to rural problems like ending the income tax entirely for young rural residents. Tax cuts reduce government revenue, making it impossible to fund the programs that really matter to the well-being of rural areas and the nations a whole: education, health clinics, infrastructure, environmental restoration. Ms. Smarsh does well at diagnosing the problem. I hope she will put more thought into solutions that don't draw on old and discredited ideas like tax cuts that are ineffective and deepen inequality. Instead we need to move toward providing everyone, urban and rural, with the benefits all citizens deserve: health care, education and a clean and sustainable environment. All that costs money that should be raised with progressive taxes.
299
@Richard Lachmann. Tax cuts to the rich deepen equality. How do tax cuts to young rural residents do that? It's a question of national priorities.
4
@lee4713 you are right that tax cuts to the young won't deepen inequality. However, in the US tax cuts for the non-rich operate as bait to win support for far larger tax cuts for the rich. So suggestions of reasonable tax cuts, like those for young workers save town passage of tax cuts for the rich. In any case, young people would benefit more from government provided services than a tax cut. We should make it possible for young people and all people to live with dignity in both rural and urban places.
30
@lee4713. Why not cutting/ending them for young urban residents too, then? Urban dwellers have higher costs of living. What argument is there for the government to support rural youth above any other youth?
24
My family has its roots in rural northeastern Minnesota. Like many of their generation my family moved to the "Cities" (Mpls-St.Paul) after WW2 to find work, but we always maintained our connection with with our extended family and the northland. Now, as a retiree with a portable income 60-odd years later, I moved back, and so did my son, who is a pilot. His partner, a professor at UMD, started a successful handcrafted organic ice cream business in Duluth. Ours is not an unusual story. There is a lot more diversity and vibrancy in rural Minnesota than is generally recognized.
9
@Steve. Rural Minnesota 60 years ago was very different. I think the trend of retirees moving "back" or "to the lake home" is quite large (note the population increases along I-94). Access to healthcare is crucial.
@Steve. Duluth is not rural.
2
Duluth is hardly rural.
2
Rural broadband connection is still missing in many places that are poised to grow. Health care is also very spotty. I hope that this will improve. I love my rural community and have no regrets about moving here, but these are glaring issues.
53
Both of my grandmothers, born in 1895 and 1905, grew up on farms - one in northwest Indiana and the other in downstate Illinois. Both married city boys from Chicago. I am so grateful.
22
I grew up near Wichita, went to college in the area and lived in a town near there for my first few years after law school at KU. I left to see more of the world. And I did. My career encompassed seven states and five metro areas between one and four million. I’m now retired and live in New England and Florida. However, I expect that within five years we will likely return to Wichita to live out our remaining years, which should be about another 15 or so.
Why move back? It’s always ultimately been “home.” I still have more friends there than in any other place, and a smattering of relatives, too. I know and love the landscape, understand the ethos, and see it as just big enough, yet very manageable.
The politics of the state have recently been too conservative for me, but the larger cities there are usually center right to center left, and the two large university towns have trended liberal for years. It’s where my roots are, where I’m generally comfortable. It’s true, though, that I would not likely move back to the small town near Wichita where I grew up, but I can visit it easily and often if I want. I don’t know if this “back to smaller places” will become much of a trend, but it has certainly appeal to me.
8
Here in Appalachia I know of two young women who have left jobs in Austin and Denver to return to this area and keep their jobs there by working online. Their employers are happy to keep their skills, and the women will fly occasionally to Austin and Denver to connect personally with their employers. One missed the mountains near her alma mater and the other was homesick for her relatives.
10
"As for cultural woes, those among them under age 50, as well as people of color, showed notably higher acknowledgment of discrimination and commitment to social progress."
Might this be because there is more discrimination and racism in these areas, hmmm?
26
I have always thought that the roots of discrimination were feed by the lack of experience growing up with the “other.”
Deaf people growing up with Hearing. Runners growing up with wheelchair users. Irish Catholics passing the Polish church and not stopping to chat. People passing by any opportunity to share the wonders....
I can not remember the entire poem as my grandfather could......
“Blessing on thee little man. barefoot boy with cheek of tan with thy upturned pantaloon and thy merry whistled tune......Let the million dollared ride....Barefoot walking at his side..thou hath more than he can buy within the reach of ear and eye.... outward sunshine..inward joy..Blessing on thee barefoot boy“
3
This article is on a pulse that this definitely there, although my sense is, as most trends are, something that will not catch on for another several years until it becomes way more pronounced. That is how trends work. I say this as someone who lived in several places - including SF and Denver - right at the brink before they exploded.
I personally left NYC last year to the rural Midwest, where my husband is from. To be fair, it is an exurb with perfectly good schools and proximity to a large city. But it is slow-paced, quiet and down to earth in a way one just cannot be in the New York tri-state area, due to financial and cultural pressures. I can give my kids - space, time, creativity in a natural setting, that fits the best model of what the most progressive schools in Manhattan try to achieve, artificially and with a hefty price tag.
It is worth noting that when we left, we did so because so many of our Manhattan friends left to go back to where they were from too. And they were all liberal well-educated professionals, the types that would have probably stayed in Manhattan forever maybe 15-20 years ago.
My kid's class including several from NJ and CT. My neighbor is from Portland and I met another from Marin.
With climate change, the expenses of living on the coast, and more importantly, a collective consciousness that is getting frustrated with the political climate and needs something else - there's def a shift to just beginning.
3
I get that this is a trend, but I am pretty sure it is not a good thing.
First off, there is some suspension of reality when it comes to projecting out from this trend. What is coming down the pike? Does it look like a science fiction retro future with people wearing robes and shopping in local markets, all arts and crafts?
This trend is flirting with something dangerous: village-level self sustaining economy. See any third world country which tried that, and see what happened. I am aware this time it can be different, what with big roads, interweb, and such cool innovations that shrink distance and reduce the risk of isolation. But what we will have is pockets of highly homogeneous people who begin to think about how they are different from everyone else. And prosperity too, will be elusive. A rural model, a back to the country model, is simply not robust because no place will have either the requisite variety of skills and talents, nor the requisite variety of resources needed for growth.
Cottage industry is not the future of America, neither are arts and crafts. They are, at best, a tiny tiny segment. Capitalism requires an aggressive stance toward growth, and despite the problems it creates, produces overall wealth. Isolated people turn fearful, conservative, live off handouts from a government they hate, and financed by people (in cities) that they abhor.
Romantic notions aside, this trend is horrifying.
32
@Kalidan Thomas Jefferson believed in the small, local, self-sufficient political model, based on local and reasonably self-sufficient social and economic societies. While slavery was certainly part of what could make this work, the concept was more idealistic. It imagines people controlling their own destinies at a fundamental and sustainable level. Your ideal of aggressive capitalism and endless growth has created huge disparities in wealth, environmental destruction, deep political corruption, and endless battles, and frequent wars, over resources. There must be a middle way. One that allows for advances in medicine, community, useful technology, and other qualities of life, without the rapaciousness of huge organizations – be they business, political, military, or governmental. As the old joke goes, communism is people taking advantage of other people, and capitalism is the exact opposite.
10
@Kalidan
you make some valid points, and I have my own issues around this idea of rural areas becoming attractive again. That said, saying that capitalism produces overall wealth is problematic, especially these days, the capitalism of today is producing more and more wealth for fewer and fewer people, and it is focused on one attribute only, maximizing shareholder value..and this works against the lot of the whole.
What cottage industries are about is capitalism, but it is based, not on the fantasy of stock prices created by stock analysis and blah blah artists on CNBC and computer models, but rather producing something people want and pay for . It doesn't mean arts and crafts, cottage industry includes things like phone apps and computer software, which don't need huge facilities or capital layout to make. Likewise, it can mean food production unlike the agribusiness/driven by stock analyst frankenfoods, actually grown to be healthy. Capitalism is not all about stock prices, Capitalism is about producing a good or service people want and will pay for, pure and simply, the idea of 'maximizing shareholder value' is an artifact created by the greedy and places like Harvard Business School, not the reality necessarily.
9
@Kalidan
"But what we will have is pockets of highly homogeneous people who begin to think about how they are different from everyone else."
Stereotype much? Rural areas are generally not homogeneous. In fact when you're living within a limited population differences are easier to accept and and adapt to. I've found that living in urban areas many people are likely to socialize only with people like themselves.
One of the many great things about having the internet is that in addition to allowing many jobs to be done from home it allows businesses to start and remain in rural areas.
During my midlife stint of urban living I realized that I was watching and participating in cultural activities less than I had when exposure was done in deliberate trips from my rural home.
I do miss the food, though. But even that is steadily improving as immigrants and refugees open restaurants.
2
A lot has happened in the last 50 years, and even the last 25 years, to make life in small towns and rural areas more attractive. There is online shopping, which makes great retail available everywhere; there is the internet, entertainment on demand, and remote employment opportunities. Cities no longer have a monopoly on the infrastructure of administration. And of course the real estate prices are amazingly low.
11
Great piece and definitely relatable.
We left the Bay Area in California for Vermont and while it took some adjusting it's been a wonderful experience.
It helps that Vermont is solidly blue and very progressive. People don't realize that not every rural area is red.
87
@DR Why is the political front not a part of;
"This is the rural America I know and love — a place rife with problems, yes, but containing diversity, vibrancy and cross-cultural camaraderie"?
1
One of the biggest changes in our economy over the past decades is the shift away from manufacturing and to services. In-person service providers, especially, need to be near larger population centers because the numbers of consumers are greater. Rural populations could benefit enormously with investment in clean energy because the companies to manufacture solar panels or storage batteries or wind turbines can be located anywhere in contrast to fossil fuel extraction where the jobs are available only in specific areas, many of which like the Permian Basin that people don’t want to live in.
7
Such a future of well developed (in terms of prosperity, opportunity, and happiness) rural America would not be much sustainable unless we promote farming as a viable profession with a realistic possibility of earning a middle class income supported by proper democracy, where parental wealth and personal/family connections/networking would be defeated by candidate's ability and grit.
It all also needs affordable, universal & quality healthcare (preferably by the Govt), free higher education for anyone who want to pursue it and a decent middle class income for those who don't want to go to the colleges/Univ, and less addiction to cheap food and other consumer goods produced by autocratic and/or corrupt nations around the wold with sweatshop labor, least regard for environment & corporate governance.
21
Rural America seems to be a great place to be from but not somewhere I would want to live. I am a racial minority, LGBT and don't follow a Judeo-Christian faith. I would not survive a day in rural America. I've been to gas stations in the country while traveling and the stares that follow me and my family are uncomfortable. I can't imagine living in a rural area. I am sure the people are nice but the close-mindedness is...concerning. The 2016 election has put me and my family on edge with our guard up. Why do you think young people are leaving rural America in droves? It is not just a lack of opportunity, it's also politics. Take a look at Georgia and the "abortion belt" in the South. What woman would want to live in a place that curtails her right to choose and limit her access to reproductive/maternal healthcare?
I am an immigrant and I have lived in Ohio most of my life. I still remember being called a terrorist in grade school in the aftermath of 9/11. The attitudes here are stifling. Ohio is not as rural as other states but I am leaving as soon as possible. The holier-than-thou attitudes and close-minded rejection of facts and science in rural and even suburban areas makes me balk. Sorry, not sorry. If you want young professionals to stay, one must address the root problems.
1086
@South-Asian Americana
Yes, there is still a lot in the rural context that discourages those who have not been "born to" it to migrate. There is also a lot to love - but it's not always a two-way street.
35
@South-Asian Americana I found the key phrase in your post to be, 'the 2016 election has put me and my family on edge with our guard up.' That captured exactly how I feel when I travel through rural America.
313
@South-Asian Americana To bolster her case the author states:
"One college senior founded a direct-to-consumer beef company in Otoe County, Neb., and sold $52,000 worth of meat in the past nine months."
That is average sales of a bit under $6,000 per month. Even if the seller marks up the meat 100%, which is highly unlikely, that would leave a gross profit of $3,000 per month, not counting taxes, health insurance and operating costs of the company, thus netting the seller well under $3,000 per month.
While the cost of living in rural areas is indeed generally lower than in big or medium-sized cities, I don't think making $2-3,000 per month is enough for an individual to survive in on rural areas unless one is living at home with one's farmer parents, has roommates, or has a second income from a spouse.
Painting a rosy picture of rural life may get lots of clicks, but this article would have much more meat on its bones if it looked closely at the true costs of living and potential income that young people--and others--might expect from rural living.
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A few heart-warming anecdotes do not make a trend. Economic and educational opportunities are limited in many rural areas, as small farms have to compete with agribusiness. Remote work on computers would be a possibility, but most tech companies have (for now) chosen places where there is a deep pool of tech workers to sample from. I would love to see a reversal in the world wide trend of ever-larger cities, but it does not look like it will go that way.
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@seattle expat
One thing that would help is the Internet spread out through the country equally. If I have 4K in NY, I should have it in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. If we had commuter trains that stop once a week in some of the most rural areas, that would also help. We need more north to south routes for Amtrack. None of that will happen under the Republican-controlled government. It may not even happen under a Democratic government either. Keeping in touch both physically and via the internet will help the population to spread out a bit more.
22
Such a future of well developed in terms of prosperity, opportunity, and happiness would not be much sustainable unless we promote farming as a viable profession with a realistic possibility of earning a middle class income and proper democracy where personal/family connections and corporate networking is be defeated by candidate's ability and grit.
It all also need affordable, universal & quality health care (preferably by the Govt), free higher education, and less addiction to cheap food and other consumer goods produced by autocratic and/or corrupt nations around the wold with sweatshop labor, least regard for environment & corporate governance.
9
Amen on many counts. When I was a teenager - gay in a small town in the 90s - I thought I wanted to live in the city. But I never really made the effort and in my twenties I would meet the man who became first my civil union partner after a trek to Vermont in 2004, and finally my husband in Virginia in 2015. We stayed and started small businesses that survived even the crash of 2008.
In all these years, we sometimes visited our city friends and came home briefly envious of the easy life they seemed to have - the food trucks right around the corner, the music venues always a walk away, the really progressive city policy to limit sprawl or make recycling that much easier. Yet our roots were here and we love the community that has grown along with us.
We also felt and still feel that if all progressive-minded people leave rural America, than we jeopardize the whole democratic experiment, at least, given our electoral college system. We need people with open hearts and open minds in rural America more than we need to stretch the circumference of the liberal bubbles that exist in Austin, Portland, or Williamsburg Brooklyn. I say this with love and respect for my urban friends and pride in the young people I am employing now who came to us from rust belt cities and metro suburbs to seek out small town life on purpose.
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@Paul Miller Thank you for sharing your experience. I have fond memories visiting my cousins in rural western Pennsylvania in the early 70’s. It angers me when people put down midwesterners and others who live in rural America. Those of us who live on the coasts are not all of America. Not even close.
5
While I applaud the shift in values away from money-grubbing that educated rural migrants embrace, this romanticized view of rural living is a bit over-sold. However, I think the converse issues regarding urban life are at least as compelling. High-density population, near-constant traffic, noise pollution, air pollution, and narrow starless skies at night are big negatives for we humans, who evolved for outdoor life up until the last few centuries. My pilgrimages to woods, ocean, farms, mountains, rivers, and lakes are barely sufficient to ameliorate the effects of all my other days in the concrete jungle.
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A large change in how to get a job that pays the bills, is the internet.
For eons you had to move to a big city to get a job that allowed you a piece of the American dream. But now anywhere with high speed can be the next big place.
Why not? Why pay NYC rents when you can get the same work done at Harpers Ferry, WVA?
It opens up a whole new world of possibilities, am glad people are taking them.
33
@AutumnLeaf It sure would be nice if every company had managers who recognized that out of sight did not mean not working. I have a job that can be done from the office, the beach or the mountains (provided there is a good signal), but my manager would NEVER go for that.
22
This article is based primarily on wishful thinking. It may well be that rural residents are happier than the city dweller, but the demographic data shows that rural areas have been experiencing long term population decline for decades. Here is an example of a recent demographic study on this topic: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190206115611.htm The study notes that the rural counties that have seen population growth are located near major metropolitan areas. Genuinely rural areas are being depopulated. That's not surprising as access to medical care, public schools, emergency services, broadband access, child care, etc, is rather limited there and getting more so. Relying on romantic notions of Americans "wishing" for rural life won't change these trends. New social and economic policies are needed to reverse the rural population decline, starting with new immigration policies.
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@Berto Collins
Note that the author did not include happiness numbers from cities and suburbs.
Gosh, I wonder why?
12
@Berto Collins As one who's gone from NYC-area to small-town, you are exactly right. This article is wishful thinking. Here's a recent article in our local paper that completely refutes the premise of this article. https://www.mtexpress.com/news/blaine_county/sved-blaine-county-economy-isn-t-working-for-many-locals/article_a69f05a6-d41c-11e9-8fba-87584c2fa7ff.html
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@Berto Collins Nostalgia sells. Look at the number of responses. Look at our last election (the 'let's get back to the good old 50's)'platform.
1
Nature abhors a vacuum, so one can expect that populations will tend to even out over time. Economics tends to help that.
But the more interesting question is the politics of the people coming to the "fly over states". I am betting they are younger than old and bluer than red...
14
We have created an economy that is deliberately blind to the importance of communities and ecosystems (and destroys them), and public policy systematically enforces that blindness - only moneymaking counts, to the detriment of us all. Regenerative Capitalism is developing a system that is fully aware of what makes for real flourishing in every place.
11
It’s good to here that a rural revival may be afoot. I too hope to someday be a member of this “ nouveau rurale” group.
Opportunities in agriculture, forestry, and renewable energy are there and will continue to grow.
4
Urban areas like Seattle, New York, Portland and San Francisco have become the living embodiment of the haves/ have nots. One one side you have those who can afford exorbitant rents and home prices, with a job that may or may not cover those costs. On the other side, you have people holding unto the fringes, commuting in, living in cramped quarters on the periphery and gingerly stepping over the growing homeless population with the knowledge that there but the grace of God goes you.
So sure, rural areas are appealing, especially those with strong economies or for people who can work from home. Everything is cyclical.
What’s universal, though, is the need for stimulation, connection and novelty in our lives. For a while, urban enclaves best addressed those needs. For this to hold, we must infuse our rural areas with cultural centers that don’t rely on malls, movies and churches. Smart town planners will need to give thought to how to reinforce spirit of community. Similarly, newly transplanted “city folk” will need to infuse their small towns with art, traditions and community for it to hold.
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@Gwe
"What’s universal, though, is the need for stimulation, connection and novelty in our lives"
As an urban dweller trying to escape to rural America, I absolutely am looking for a way to disconnect, have quiet and routine. A lot of people are not wired to thrive in the busy close quarters of dense urban areas. A lot of people just need space and the rhythm of nature.
I have arts and culture and newness all around me, and it overwhelms my brain to a point of anxiety. If I was not able to escape out to a rural area on a regular basis, I would probably need medication. I recently spend 3 weeks in a very rural state and my entire energy was different. Part of what I noted was that after a couple days of not having people all over me and in my space, I was much happier to connect with people.
Go figure, some of us need less stimulation.
I wish that urban enthusiasts would recognize that not everyone thrives in an Urban environment.
13
So stimulation is not necessarily social. I find it invigorating to be out in nature. I meant finding a spot that has something to offer. Not all our rural areas are charming. Many are downright drab. I speak from experience....monotony is real!
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@Gwe
I grew up in a drab, more rural midwestern area that didn't have a bunch of scenery. But I had horses, which while I guess that is a niche thing, it is something fast becoming unobtainable in urban areas. People can have a lot of fun out in those "drab" areas. Hunting, fishing, shooting guns, 4-wheelers. I get that it is not necessarily appealing to everyone, but when you get away from people, you get a certain fun amount of freedom.
4
This article is much too self-serving, in my opinion, to be featured in the WP. How many times does the author advertise her work? Go ahead, count.
As for the ideas behind the article, they are interesting, but fail to account for growth in empty nesters in the three big cities, young and old. That people with families may be finding that it is easier to raise children in smaller cities I cannot disagree with. But the argument about LA doesn't apply to Chicago or NY. And it fails to take into account urban citizens who stay within their urban area, but move to nearby suburbs -- a trend half a century old.
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@Babble. I agree that it read like a long cover letter or research proposal asking for $$$.
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@Babble
Yes, exactly: I really resent being fodder (to use a rural metaphor) for a sales pitch by the author of this weak piece.
1
I could not have imagined responding positively to this when I was a kid. But I have changed.
Quite a bit here resonates – not least of all the perception that only the smart managed to get out. When I had the opportunity in my 20s to move to Chicago from the farmlands of south central Pennsylvania, I did so with the knowledge that cities were where the “important people” lived, and being from York County there was serious doubt I’d be good enough. Turns out I did okay.
But in those days, I described York as a good place to be FROM, emphasis on the FROM. I could have never guessed as the decades slid by that I would grow to see rural Pennsylvania as a place of incredible, natural beauty. A place of peace, with lawns to be mowed, sure, but many’s the day I sit on the train commuting into center city and think I’d rather mow a hundred lawns than spend one more day behind that desk.
I don’t think I am unusual in my curmudgeonliness, I hope not, when I say that I’ve come to find other people so tiresome, especially in crowded quarters. It strikes me that people these days don’t know how to act. And if I could find myself a porch somewhere quiet where rude people are few and far between, I think I’d take it.
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Thank you, Neighbor. I'm a lifelong resident of Lancaster County and live in a little village along the Susquehanna River. The residents would be considered rednecks because they drive pickup trucks, go hunting and fishing, listen to country music and mostly have not graduated from college. But they have good jobs, nice houses wonderful families and a kind of intelligence that enables them to be active and informed voters. I have lived in the city and hated it, except for the fact that I could walk to Central Market. Living in this rural area (and others, including several years on a farm outside Wrightsville) has made me and my family absolutely blissful. Our lives are quiet, simple and easy. I would not live anywhere urban if you paid me.
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@ Brian - I was eager to get away from my desk, which I did several years ago as I was fortunate enough to be able to retire. And I don't miss my "commute" although it was only 20 or 30 minutes. But I wouldn't trade living in my small city, with stores, restaurants and neighbors in easy walking distance - as well as being able to hike in the nearby mountains by stepping out of my doorway and turning left instead of right. And I can be at the movies, eating out, in downtown Los Angeles, or at the beach or at the Hollywood Bowl in an hour or less, should I so choose. My experience of "rural" or quasi-rural is mostly limited to people I know in Texas - who have to drive ungodly distances to go anywhere or do anything. And whose surroundings, while "peaceful," are flat and monotonous. No thanks, I'll take the coasts - any coasts - over the interior any time.
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Amazing article and insights. I am one of the 'ruralites' who left for NYC and while I live and love Princeton, nothing compares to the open spaces in the Midwest and the shores and towns in Maine. Thank you for reminding me! Many of city folk (moi) still remember their best friends in grade school and high school.
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@Janelle, if you are in Princeton, NJ, you are hardly a "ruralite." You are dead center in the biggest megalopolis on the planet. Almost dead center between Wash DC and Boston and not to mention dead center between Philly and NYC......we are practically neighbors.
2