While some towns struggle to attract new industry and keep a town square alive, others try to slam the brakes on growth, as roads, sewers and schools strain under the load of new homes and families.
"Pastures get paved. A ranch becomes someone's back yard. Sewer lines go in. Somewhere along the way comes a strip mall, a fast-food joint, maybe a lawyer's office. From the Rockies to suburban Atlanta, urban refugees are filling in the empty places, turning quaint villages into icons of sprawl and sleepy close-knit places into boomtowns. At the same time, in vast stretches of middle America, many small towns are watching young families and jobs drift away. Driven by stagnant wages and a dull farm economy, lured by opportunity and easy access to doctors and malls, millions of people fled rural communities in the past decade." The result: the disappearance of the classic American small town.
Thanks to Christian Peralta
FULL STORY: Small-town blues: Suburbs, brain drain take toll on slice of Americana
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Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research