Rural Communities

Paducah, Kentucky wants artists. "The difference between New York’s SOHO and here is the artists own it, and they have a piece of it. The arts always make it a cool place to be. Without the arts it’s just another suburb."

If you are interested in this trend in economic development, I recommend that you read Jack Schultz’s BoomTown USA: The 7-1/2 Keys to Big Success in Small Towns

We have three highly paid positions we’ve been trying to fill for nine months. We’re interviewing in Seattle now. We’re still going to try to bring Microsoft jobs to Idaho, but this just makes it harder.

"They know how to make stuff. They know how to hit stuff with a hammer," Janicki said. "Put those people together with a group of people that have a lot of science and math and … you can make really cool new stuff."

ChooseMilwaukee.com, a $200,000 site that’s meant to beam flashy graphics and reams of southeastern Wisconsin data to a global audience of potential investors and expansion-minded industries.

"It was all about lifestyle."

Recent estimates range from 3 million to 18 million Americans — partly because definitions range from telecommuting one day a month to three days a week.

The state of South Dakota — closed to the public since 1931 — will be reopened to help the United States cope with its steadily rising population.

The pilot program will provide up to 85 percent of the costs related to developing broadband networks for telehealth and telemedicine programs.

In contrast to the picture of
emptying towns and embattled farmers so often conveyed in the media, we see the Heartland as a
potential hotbed of capitalist creation and innovation. It is a reality already taking shape in the
“technology corridors” in the Dakotas, the “hidden tech” belt of western Massachusetts, and the
revived communities along the eastern Cascades, and with the growth of ethanol and biomass facilities
across the country.

America’s economy may well be on the verge of a great resurgence largely unacknowledged by
pundits, academics, and the media. The Heartland will play a critical role in that resurgence—if
we develop the right policies.