I recently discovered The Atlantic magazine online when James Fallows came to town to start his journey called American Futures, subtitled "reinvention and resilience across the nation".
In this project, James and his wife Deborah decided to look at small town America by flying his plane with his wife, and sometimes guests to different cities in 'flyover country' and determining how we work outside of the coasts.
His basic style is one he calls serial reportage which consists mainly of stream of consciousness reporting at the time and later synthesis. The reporting is frank, interesting to read with a plethora of down home quirky and fun facts about each of the places he visits.
But the main reason that I continue to follow his current reporting is that he keeps coming back to my hometown and current residence, Holland, Michigan.
Michigan has gotten a bad rap lately, not undeservedly so, but West Michigan is different from the rest of the state. I like to say that we will always survive because we have the three biggest things needed to survive: We have fresh water, we grow lots of food, and we know how to make stuff.
Fallows started his series with a basic introduction to Holland as it appears to the tourist, followed quickly by his deeper look into the manufacturing base that makes up a good portion of the economy.
Fallows has visited other interesting cities including Sioux Falls, and Rapid City, along with myriads of interesting snapshots of many cities in the United States that people live and find interesting.
Other stories intervene, including Syria, but his entire news feed continues to come back to what makes a town viable. His most recent post on Holland reinforces the idea that cities work when local businesses are the backbone of the local economy. Big business that is headquartered out of town have no vested interest in the long term viability of the schools, downtown, or reinvesting in the community. Of course the money that stays in the community can be a blessing and a curse. Just ask any Hollander about access to our local landmark, Big Red lighthouse for reaction to how local money can have negative consequences.
I encourage you to go read the entire series for interesting insight. He doesn't look done yet so there may be more posts from him or his wife yet in this series.