Posted by Dave on March 29, 2010
One of the big question marks in our floundering economy right now hovers over the idea of human migration trends. Where are people moving to, and why. The key demographic in most conversations about migration trends in the U.S. seem to be young couples and singles between the ages of 25 and 40. Where are these young people moving? And maybe more importantly, what do they want?
The answer, of course, is nobody knows. But I have to write about something, so… let’s say… meaningful and fulfilling lives. But first, where are they moving? States like Texas have had a positive population gain over the last couple of years mostly due to strong energy sector jobs. But let’s face it. As an former resident of Texas, I realize not everyone wants to move to the armpit of hell, Houston.
Many are decrying the fact that young people are fleeing the country like scripted drama from prime time television. But just like prime time TV, there are pockets of CSI, er, young people still finding home in the country. Others, like a recent Wall Street Journal article, talk about the opposite trend.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on September 29, 2009
America’s farmland has long been under siege by suburban development. This is nothing new. What is new is that a cease-fire has been called in most parts of the nation. And a conversation is developing about how to move into this new window of opportunity in a manner that not only restores the balance between urban demand and farm supply, but also helps to reenergize our failing economy heavily dependent on the construction industry.
This summer, Reburbia, a suburban design competition, was held by Inhabitat and Dwell Magazine. The competition set out to gather creative and imaginative ideas on how to go about re-visioning the American suburban sprawl that will almost certainly become our suburban wasteland without intervention. Several of the ideas were great, but one in particular caught my eye. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on May 1, 2009
Again I feel like I am floating on a puffy, white blanket of blissful isolation here in Salt Lake City after reading a recent New York Times piece about shrinking Flint, Michigan.
Despite the devastation that I know this process has been and will continue to wreak on the people of Flint and other cities like it, I can’t help but to hope for the future.
Maybe these desperate times will engage us Americans with the dynamic process of creating cities that are sustainable through thin times as well as thick. I take a short look around at the carnage that was our economic system and it is evident to all the effects of planning only for success. ”My home will only continue to rise in value.” ”The markets will certainly trend ever upward.” ”Food and oil will always be cheep.” ”We must certainly continue to get stupider!” Out of all of these, only the last one has been true. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on March 31, 2009
What do you do when your house is worth less than nothing? Zoned improperly for farm stock and wild animals won’t bed there? Last week I made a review of a study done in the UK titled, “New Tricks with Old Bricks.” I mused then that the most interesting question that the study brought up was how we can make good use of empty homes. The census numbers on empty homes are a little misleading and not the most helpful for determining which ones have simply been abandoned. But, the percentage for the first quarter of 2009, 2.9%, is the highest quarterly percentage since 1956. For me that sufficiently says that there is a real problem out there with homes deemed worse than worthless by the market. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on March 21, 2009
Feeling pretty isolated from the current recession out here in Salt Lake City, I’ve decided to track some of the goings on in Detroit. I have a mild connection with the area after dating a girl during high school and college from Grosse Pointe. I will never forget my first day driving around the metro area. As a country kid from Texas I couldn’t even comprehend most of what I was seeing. I remember pulling up to a red light in my 1984 Volvo 244 DL with all the windows rolled down and my shirt off. (No air conditioning you know.) Of course I was wearing a red bandana wrapped around my head to keep my long hair out of my face while the wind whipped through my windows. This was the summer of 1993.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Dave on March 8, 2009
Recently Michael Katz was a guest on The NPR show, Morning Edition, where he discussed his controversial ideas on rural America and Broadband access. Rightly so the question of what to do with Rural America is becoming a legitimate hot button issue again.
Over twenty years ago Frank and Deborah Popper began to call for their visionary “Buffalo Commons” in which the Great Plains would be returned to the prairie of the past and in part given back to Native Americans. Their dream seems to be gaining traction during this most recent economic crisis. Some are saying that we have been fighting against the plains long enough and instead we should be working with them.
Other voices, like Karl Stauber (past president of Northwest Area Foundation) and Joel Kotkin (New America Foundation), continue to speak out for saving the Great Plains and it’s rural ghetto’s through restoring its pioneer economy and spirit. But what exactly is Rural America? And how should we go about saving or restoring the dying Great Plains region as well as other rural ghettos in states as diverse as California, New Mexico, and Montana?
I disagree with the idea of turning rural towns and villages into ghost towns. I think many of these communities have been ignored too long, and we as a country should actively seek to strengthen them. Rural America contributes a strength and work ethic to our nation that we need, not to mention products that our cities can’t do without. But, I also have a passion for justice, and the ruthless betrayal and destruction of Native cultures across this continent is something that we should also seek to repair.
Is there a way to accomplish both? Can we see a sort of “Buffalo Commons” work in conjunction with a recovering Rural
economy? The USDA’s latest farm bill includes a new Grasslands Reserve Program, which offers incentives for ranchers and farmers to protect sensitive grasslands. This could be a humble beginning, but The Land Institute is a group that is working on a much more sustainable solution toward solving, as they like to put it, the problem of agriculture. I think their Natural Systems Agriculture could be the answer we desperately need. While trying to restore the polyculture health and stability of the plains before we tilled them they also seek to produce equivalent crop yields to modern monoculture farming. This discovery could be instrumental in allowing us as a nation to move forward in both bringing justice to Natives and an abused land while also bringing dignity back to our agricultural heartland.
There is a divide occurring in America between the Urban and the Rural. Maybe it has always been there, but recent blue state and red state maps are being used to widen this divide and drive it home in the hearts and minds of Americans. It would be unfortunate if we allowed these differences and growing hostilities to lead us toward unsustainable actions against our own “country” in one extreme or the other.
One of the big question marks in our floundering economy right now hovers over the idea of human migration trends. Where are people moving to, and why. The key demographic in most conversations about migration trends in the U.S. seem to be young couples and singles between the ages of 25 and 40. Where are these young people moving? And maybe more importantly, what do they want?