Just about my favorite journalist, Charles Pierce has a post up today taking a look at yet another article where a publication sends somebody from NYC out to the rural midwest to see why we voted for Trump. Now before I get into the meat of this Diary it is important to note that although I live in rural IL, about 35 miles from St. Louis I am in a pretty blue district/county. About the only one for a few states in any direction. Also very strong, pro union. I like to joke I live on an island of blue in a sea of red.
Funny thing I want to point out to my fellow liberals, we are an economic powerhouse. We power the entire economy of this part of the state south of Springfield. Maybe liberal ideas do create jobs!
My town, and there is not polling done, so this is based off me looking at election result is more Republican than most. I'd say 57% Republican and 43% Democrat. Sure we got some crazy Trump folks. I guess every town does. But for a large part the Republicans in my town are sane. Or as Charles Savage would say "they have not ate the monkey brains."
Based on what I am about to say, don't think for a second I don't realize how important this is. You know "sane" Repuiblicans.
In 2000 according to the Census 5,500 people lived in my town. By 2010 that was 8,700. I wouldn't be surprised if in 2020 we don't blow way past 10,000. This all happened because in 1999 we hired a City Manager, you know with multiple advance degrees in well planning successful cities. The Mayor and City Council give him almost complete control. I've been told by people that attended the first City Council meeting where he was introduced, he said his first item on the agenda was to get us to vote to raise our taxes.
He'd come back to the mantra he used in that first meeting to talk about how people like nice things. Nice things cost money. He needs money.
We have voted to raise our taxes, usually with close to 70% support EVERYTIME it was on the ballot.
Here are some of the things we did:
I have a new $30M high school. It is like something out of the future. My school district last year was the 19th best in the state. We graduate almost 100% of students. But since it is a rural area and not everybody is going to college we have a huge greenhouse, you know for those kids that want to take over the family business. The family farm. Heck we have an auto garage as our "shop" class where they build motorcycles.
4 computer labs that look like something out of Star Trek. 3 science labs. The school is only at 60% capacity. We built more school then we needed with an eye to the future.
My Main Street is actually vibrant.
It wasn't so much when the City Manger started. So we voted to raise our local sales tax. Put that money into buying empty/run down building and tore them down and replaced them with parks. Paid local artist, to well create art. Heck got money from the state to build a Food Bank that has won every award there is to win.
I'd call them "Green Spaces" but folks here tell me that is my "East Coast" side coming out, having lived in DC 15+ years after college before I moved back here. Heck when my friends from DC come here from time to time they are stunned you can't really walk a few blocks in any direction and not find a park with a nice bench to sit on. A baseball field. Basketball court. Some swings. Heck I have a skate park.
It is at this point I should note I have a $500,000,000 airport. For a decade or so it was a total failure. This "regional" board set to run it didn't. They could never keep a carrier for more than a few months. My City Manger got with other officals from local communities and said we need control. We should be able to offer flights that are 40, 50, 60% cheaper than Lambert in St. Louis. Parking is free and we have a rail line to it and bus service.
Yeah I can get on a bus 3 blocks from my house. Rail link 4 miles away.
Not long after the management was changed I've never driven by the place and not seen the parking lot full.
Before the City Manager we used to get our power from AMEREN Illinois. Well it would seem there are a lot of little towns in the 3-4 states around me that get their power through a co-op. We joined them. He worked with Waste Management to get a city wide contract, which also mandated recycling for everybody.
Now my bill from the city inculudes power, water, sewage, and trash collection. It will soon include Internet access, but I will come back to this.
Now those that follow me know I had a fire. House torn to the studs and rebuilt. I dipped pretty far into my savings to make it about as energy efficient as possible, but since October my bill from the city has ranged from a low of $94 to a high of $113. I have a five bedroom house!
I don't lock my front door. No crime other than pretty much kids doing stupid shit.
With our budget surplus last year, and we run a surplus of hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, we replaced all five police cars with hybrid SUVs.
In the article I linked to at the top, one person the reporter talked to in rural, southern IN said he refused to train a Muslim at his place of employement. I have a Mosque just outside of town. Built about the same time as all the shit with the 9/11 Mosque (which it wasn't of course). They bought this wonderful piece of land. A pond and creak already there in the woods. They sat it back on a little hill off the road.
Clearly anybody is welcome at the Mosque. But they also have a daycare center. Anytime I write what I am about to write I get emotional because I think it is so darn cool. There is a waiting list for their daycare. Most of them are white, non-muslims. My brother and his wife tried to get Katie in, but couldn't.
16 chruches in my small town. Heck I have a Jehovah Witness chruch in town not that far from the Catholic church :).
I could go on and on. But I will end with something that matters to me since I don't have cable TV and only use streaming services. I also build web sites for a living.
With Obama's Reinvestment Act my City Manger filled out some forms. Got $750,000 from the Feds and close to as much in matching funds from the state of Illinois. I have a fucking fiber optic backbone in my town. It forms a + thing of the two main street. Main Street and 6th street. All schools and public buildings like the Post Office, City Hall, library are direct wired with fiber. Also almost every business.
They want to wire the fiber into our homes and charge a flat rate of $20/month for Internet access. I pay now $64.95. City Manager has done the research and knows Verizon, Charter, and Frontier will sue. We are not the first town to ponder this.