Rebuilding Rural America

“How Ya Gonna Keep ’em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree?)” It’s a question people have been asking for just over a hundred years. This was a popular song after WWI and would be a common theme for many years. Many early movies had a lead character running off to the big city to find fame and fortune. By the early 1950s over 50% of the country no longer lived in rural areas, and by 2007 over half of the world had moved to suburbs and cities. The rural population of the United States has been relatively flat at about 55 million since about 1960. But even so, rural American populations have seen a slow decline since about 1990.

The Breaking Point for Rural America

Many rural American communities are dying a slow death one way or another. Most of the residents might like the town the way it is, but then they realize there’s no one under 50 at town meetings. And chances are, going upstairs to a second-floor bedroom may not be in the cards for too many more years. With 80% of all adults over 65 having two or more chronic health conditions, access to medical care is a consideration. Since 2005, roughly 200 rural hospitals have shut down across the country.

Chances are one or more former schools have shut down, and the remaining children are bussed to a regional school. This also means writing a check to another municipality for your children’s education. Since 2010, over 15,000 schools have closed in the United States. Not all were in rural communities, but those closings generally hurt more. College towns have been similarly hit with campuses closing. These can have even larger economic impacts on a community than losing their primary schools.

The list goes on. Veteran’s Day celebrations no longer have many veterans. There are probably more than a few business locations in town that are closed or boarded up. And don’t get me started on the administrative overhead of running a small town compared to a larger community — it doesn’t scale. So what’s a town to do?

Think Like a Luxury Resort

This concept generally takes a little explaining. Towns have a love-hate relationship with tourists. Vacation homes tend to drive up real estate prices, and you often end up with us vs. them mentality between the “townies” and “those other folks.” But that’s not what this is about. This is about presenting yourself as having something of value to attract new residents. The old way of economic development was about finding some big company to move to town. They in turn get a sweet tax deal and create jobs.  Now, you just need to attract the worker based on what your community has to offer.  If you have high-speed internet and good quality of life, people need to know about what you have to offer.

The luxury part of your town may be a future dream, but for many people, the prospect of clean water, fresh fruits and vegetables, local music on the town green, and more stars than you can count on any night may be priceless. You probably have some housing challenges and more than a few unique fixer-uppers. It’s just a matter of finding the people who are up for that. During Covid, places like South Florida, Portugal, and even Chaing Mai in Thailand were flooded by people moving there because they could. But as these communities were overwhelmed with newcomers, it was too much of a good thing. So later digital nomads decided to start looking for places that weren’t as well-known. Rural communities need to start marketing themselves.

Have Them Come and Build It

“Build it and they will come” only worked in the movie Field of Dreams. Sell the opportunity similar to what was presented to the early European settlers. My family came over on the Mayflower, and that was no pleasure cruise. It was the dream that brought them here, and lots of people still have that same dream.  They just need to know where the opportunities are.

Start with attracting remote workers. If you have a good digital infrastructure, you’re in good shape. If not, focus on building it. (Here’s a free workbook to get you started.) Bringing in new residents who are already employed, can help restore a tax base that supports education, healthcare, and programs to keep seniors in their homes longer.  Now what are your selling points? Is it climate, cost of living, the local zucchini festival, hiking, agricultural opportunities, or other advantages? Supporting local entrepreneurship and small businesses may be the ticket. What does your town need? An art gallery, a coffee shop, a good restaurant, a movie theatre, a doctor or dentist? Get creative and offer incentives. You may not be able to offer 1€ homes like some towns in Italy, or $10,000 to relocate like Tulsa Oklahoma. But the possibility of building a life in a congenial community may be enough for some people to come back to rural America.

You may have to sell the dream of improving healthcare, education, and essential services over time. Older adults might take a pass on some of these, but younger individuals may be ready to follow in the pioneering spirit of their ancestors. Involve people in the dream of what your community could be. You want a coherent plan that makes sense to people. And don’t oversell it.  Try for a goal of a 10% increase in both population and businesses.  This isn’t going to be easy, and it isn’t going to be something that changes in a few months. But the challenge similar to how rural America was built in the first place. If we can do it once, we can do it again.

Robert Longley is a coach, consultant, writer and avid traveler who lives in the small town of Williamsburg, Massachusetts. When he isn’t writing, painting, kayaking or renovating his kids’ houses, he primarily works with state and local government agencies and entrepreneurs. He writes about the future of work, sustainability and our personal connections. He has also written several poetry books including three for Gold Star Military Families and families of fallen police and firefighters. His poems have been featured on television shows and on various monuments on both sides of the Atlantic. He and his wife have two grown daughters, and an assortment of four legged creatures still living at home.