[Vision2020] 6 myths about the future of small towns

[Debbie Gray]

>From the Heartland Institute (they have a great website, it also 
includes info about school reform, etc)
http://www.heartland.org/Index.cfm

6 MYTHS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF SMALL TOWNS


1. Towns that are "too small" have no future.					
	Mythology about small towns says that there is a certain 
population number that can support a community and no less. That 
number may be 2500 or 1000 or 500, depending on whose 
"expertise" is being quoted. 
The truth is that there is no magical number at which a town can 
survive. Heartland Center research has shown that even very tiny 
towns, with populations as small as 100 or less, manage to 
survive through thoughtful planning, entrepreneurial genius and 
hard work. No community should perceive itself as "too small" to 
survive. 
In fact, small towns can use size as a competitive advantage. As 
with a small business, the smaller community can retain certain 
flexibility. Without the disadvantages of city bureaucracy, it 
can respond faster to new trends and changing marketplace 
opportunities. Like a small business, it can seek its own unique 
niche.

2. A community's location is key to its survival.
Dependence on proximity to a major highway, a large metropolitan 
area or a significant natural resource is typical of industrial-
age thinking that believes a community's success hinges on 
location.
This type of thinking may have been more important in the past, 
when industry and agriculture employed most rural jobholders. 
Today, however, with growth in the service, information and 
government sectors, the old industrial age factors bear lesser 
importance.
Now, the key is "what community leaders do with what is 
available." This translates as attitudes and behaviors of people 
in leadership. In other words, in an Information Age, 
leadership, not location, is the most important factor in 
community survival.

 
3. Industrial recruitment is the best strategy for economic 
development.
Recruiting new industries is still the strategy of choice among 
many small towns and economic development experts, even though 
study after study suggests that industrial recruitment, alone, 
is not a realistic long-term answer.
Too often, small towns have wasted all their time, energy and 
money trying to attract new industry, only to learn that they 
should have been working harder to keep the employers they 
already have.
Small towns that throw all their eggs into the industrial 
recruitment basket are taking a big risk. They're competing for 
a few expansions or relocations against thousands of other small 
towns just like themselves nationwide. They should be working on 
a broader strategy that emphasizes growing from within, first, 
then recruiting from the outside.

4. Small towns can't compete in the global economy.

Too many people seem convinced that small towns can't compete in 
a global economy. Yet small towns throughout America are home to 
an amazing variety of highly sophisticated, entrepreneurial 
successes.
Many rural communities have small manufacturers that are 
producing high-quality products for a unique marketing niche, 
which extends beyond the local area to a regional, national or 
even international market.
With access to toll-free incoming telephone lines and over-the-
road package shippers, businesses can compete in the global 
marketplace. Because they are located in smaller and often less 
complex local business environments, they may be able to compete 
by moving quickly to take advantage of fast-moving marketplace 
opportunities.

 
5.	The "best people" leave small towns as soon as they can.
The continuing decline of population in most rural areas remains 
a problem. But this fact is often described in inaccurate and 
unproductive ways.
Too often, even rural people use the term "brain drain" as if it 
meant that anyone with brains would get out. They act as if the 
"best and brightest" should leave to seek better opportunities 
in the cities or to get a higher education, never to return.
It is true that many people find opportunities elsewhere, but 
it's also true that many capable people stay in small towns or 
return to them. As small town leaders, they make priceless 
contributions to local quality of life, giving time and 
attention to civic affairs, service clubs, school events and 
family matters.
State and local leaders should stop acting as if the "brain 
drain" means that no talent is left.

6. The rural and urban economies are not interdependent.
Another myth about rural communities says that larger 
metropolitan areas are more important than smaller communities 
in our nation's economy.
It's not really news that rural industries such as agriculture, 
mining or land management are playing a smaller role in the 
rural-urban economic mix. This doesn't mean, however, that 
cities and counties could maintain their quality of life without 
farm products, coal, oil and the natural resources available to 
the city and country person alike.
Many city residents are nostalgic or sentimental about small 
towns, but they often forget that our essential raw materials 
need dynamic rural infrastructures to get from rural to urban 
markets.

Copyright © Heartland Center for Leadership Development