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Top 5 Rural and small town trends 2022

By Becky McCray

Who knows what trends will affect small and rural communities in 2022 and beyond? Not many trends pieces cover rural places. These trends are specifically about rural and small towns. I’ve been following rural trends and writing about them since 2009. My trends reports have been commissioned or quoted by Main Street America, Emergent Research, the […]

January 3, 2022 Filed Under: community, economic development, entrepreneurship, POV, rural, trends Tagged With: Becky McCray, Climate, community development, future, nature, neighboring, news, remote work, rural, rural migration, rural sourcing, rural trends, small towns, trends, zoom towns

Sometimes, YOU just need to make your town a good place to live!

By Paula Jensen

Paula Jensen

Guest post by Paula Jensen I watched Jon Stewart’s Political Comedy ‘Irresistible’. The story is set in small-town Wisconsin. The community has recently suffered a devastating loss of their main employer. In response, a failed political consultant from Washington, D.C. lands himself a gig helping a local veteran run for Mayor against the long-time incumbent. […]

August 24, 2020 Filed Under: community, mistakes, POV, rural Tagged With: guest post, negativity, Paula Jensen, stereotypes

Economic self defense for small towns 

By Becky McCray

Carlos Moreno presents a slide saying, "They will never fix it. There is no they."

Editorial by Becky McCray Not everyone who says they’ll help your town is telling you the truth.  If you want a resilient small town economy and prosperity for the people in your town, I have some self-defense ideas for you.  Focus more on your own people, less on attraction.  Stop paying people to bring business […]

June 7, 2020 Filed Under: Best of, economic development, entrepreneurship, mistakes, POV, rural, survivors Tagged With: attraction strategy, community development, diversity, economic development, editorial, local investing, locavesting, opinion, point of view, prosperity, remote work, rural sourcing, zoom towns

Are all small towns dying? Can you save a small town?

By Paula Jensen

  There have been too many years of disinterest and disinvestment in rural America and at times I grow weary of defending the value of the rural place I call home to a national audience. I have read multiple articles about the rural underclass and the poverty that plagues our landscape from Bloomberg Business, NY […]

March 23, 2019 Filed Under: community, economic development, POV, rural, survivors, trends Tagged With: #Iamrural, Ben Winchester, guest post, Nebraska, Neligh, Paul Krugman, Paula Jensen, Ray Kurzweil, rural communities

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