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7 thoughts on “Small town spirit: How Indiana’s rural communities are working to reverse population losses”
There are 956 cities and towns in Indiana. 65-percent have a population of less than 1,000. I seriously doubt these towns will ever be able to attract new residents. Perhaps paying residents to move to the nearest county seat would be a better investment.
Economist Michael Hicks had a good column in the Indy Star a few months back regarding what small towns need to do to survive. Basically they need to provide what people actually want and will move for: a good school system that adequately prepares kids for college. The question for these small towns — will they pay to make sure their schools are of high quality? And will the state allow them to raise the funds to do so? https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/2024/09/03/urban-rural-divide-is-all-about-education/75013053007/
Braun is indeed targeting these communities…along with Trusk and Mumps and the crews from MAGAts and MUSKrats. They are planning to cut out these grants, especially at the federal level, and at the state level they’ll force the localities to cut property taxes, thereby stifling any chance of long-term development. 8 years of Braun, 4 years of Trusk and Mumps, and small town Indiana will just be a memory from a John Mellencamp song…
oh, and check out today’s IndyStar for more from Professor Hicks, as radical and leftist a professor as ever taught at a university or college.
I certainly hope your description of Prof. Hicks was tongue in cheek. He wrote a recent column laying out his conservative bona fides, including a long stint in the military.
But of course the MAGA crazies don’t like factual arguments that counter their Dear Leader so they try to undercut him by calling him a radical, a liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal. (Apologies to Supertramp)
Rest assured, it was tongue in cheek. I thought his articles describing his conservative bona fides were excellent. I don’t necessarily agree with him on all his points. But he does have small town development pretty much figured out.
Without good schools and good jobs, there’s little reason to choose rural Indiana over urban Indiana.