Some small Great Plains towns are offering free land and other perks to anyone who will move there. Watching their populations dwindle as more and more of their residents move to urban areas, towns like Crosby, ND are using creative means (well, okay -- good old-fashioned bribery) to attract new citizens.
What I don't understand about this approach is how the newcomers are expected to support themselves. I assume that a major reason -- probably the primary reason -- why people don't stay in small, rural towns is that jobs are scarce, especially good jobs that pay a reasonable salary and hold a little bit of interest. It's all well and good to try to lure people in with free land, cheap houses, and other incentives, but unless they're independently wealthy, they will need gainful employment -- as as far as I know, opportunities for such are sorely lacking in most small towns.
Even my hometown of Rapid City, SD -- a relatively prosperous small city with a population of over 60,000 -- offers precious few employment possibilities for an educated person. Service jobs are plentiful, since Rapid City is a regional retail hub, and I hear it's an excellent place to set up a medical practice (taxes are low, low, low). But otherwise, opportunities are minimal. I personally don't wish to live in Rapid City (despite its proximity to the Black Hills and its gorgeous climate), but I know other ex-Rapid Citians who might like to return, but who simply can't find decent jobs.
If jobs are a problem in a small city that serves its entire region, what must the situation be like in a truly small town? I sympathize with the plight of these towns, but I wonder if there's a place for them in the 21st century economy. I also wonder how our culture will be poorer if they don't survive.
Posted by at March 2, 2005 11:41 PMTwo words: Sex Farm!
Posted by: Slip Whitsun at March 3, 2005 8:43 AMI'm from a small town with an aging and dwindling population, where the most educated people are teachers who commute from 30-40 miles away. The nearest service industry jobs are about 50 miles away. It's really depressing, but somehow the people who live there manage to eke out a living. Though nobody will admit to it, I strongly suspect that a large number of them are receiving government assistance. You'd think such small towns might have died during the manufacturing booms of the past 50 years or so, and that the new information economy would smile on 21st century entrepreneurs who could cut the cost of living by moving to such places (assuming broadband technology, or even dialup, is available). I've had this discussion before with people, and I strongly believe that the lack of jobs is only part of the real problem. In Crosby, ND, for example, I imagine that even if there were some decent jobs available, most well-educated folks who move there would be very lonely in short order. When I visit my hometown, the only conversations I'm likely to find center around who has the fastest ATV. And counterintuitively maybe, such areas, at least where I'm from, tend to have enormous drug abuse problems. Depressing.
A couple years ago, I went to a seminar on small town economies by MN state economist Tom Stinson. His conclusion was basically that the small town economy was declining and little could be done about it. I tend to agree.
Posted by: Jim at March 3, 2005 9:30 AM