Spring Has Sprung Alongside New Partnerships With Our Towns
Our Towns is proud to announce partnerships with three organizations that we greatly admire.
Our Towns is proud to announce partnerships with three organizations that we greatly admire.
First, as Jim reported on March 3rd, we are pleased to be partnering with Community Heart and Soul (or CH&S), supported by the Orton Family Foundation of Vermont. CH&S advances a citizen-led community renewal process that has been applied in more than 100 American communities. In a piece last year about Bucksport, Maine, Deb explains what the step-by-step CH&S approach meant in a small, coastal community. Through our partnership, Our Towns will be working with CH&S on a common mission to highlight and connect renewal-minded communities across the country.
We are also pleased to announce that we will be expanding and deepening our collaboration with Esri, the world’s leading maker of geographic information software (GIS), to incorporate their StoryMaps technology into our journalism in new and original ways. Also this month we have partnered with Craftsmanship Quarterly, a publication featuring innovators and artisans from across the country. Please listen to Jim and Deb’s latest podcast conversation with Craftsmanship Quarterly editor Todd Oppenheimer and read a Field Notes reflection on the impact of craft breweries and small distilleries from Our Towns’ Editorial Director, Ben Speggen.
Our latest stories on American Renewal describe a newly emerging town identity in Galesburg, Illinois and the youth-engagement initiatives in a number of towns around the country, and much more here.
And we are honored to feature on our website an essay by the well-known writer Orville Schell, a former dean of the UC Berkeley Journalism School, the head of the US-China Center at the Asia Society, and author of the remarkable novel My Old Home, which Jim Fallows praised as epic-scale and riveting. In his new piece for us, Schell describes what he learned about American resilience, functionality, and excellence from his recent experience as a patient at a major hospital.
Deb & Jim Fallows
Reports from the ground...
Fountains of Youth For Towns
The life and spirit of any town or city depends on its ability to attract and retain people. In a time when many worry about brain drain, how communities keep their young people, or bring them back, or attract newcomers illustrates a place's sense of and attention to renewal.
DEBORAH FALLOWS | CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
A New Partnership: Community Heart & Soul
Community Heart and Soul and Our Towns Civic Foundation are collaborating to bring national attention to the stories of innovation and renewal.
JAMES FALLOWS | COLLABORATIONS & PARTNERSHIPS
American Institutions That Still Work
Everyone knows about the parts of America that are so polarized and divided that they have lost touch with their basic functions. Here's a look at some of the people, institutions, and collaborative cultures that provide examples, and lessons, for the rest of us.
ORVILLE SCHELL | HEALTH
Voices from America
Galesburg Residents Revitalize Appliance City by Focusing on Quality of Life
The exodus of the economic anchor in Galesburg, Illinois in 2004 left the town in identity-crisis mode. Now Galesburg residents are redefining the heart and soul of the town — which once centered around being a manufacturing hub — by bringing their unique history and heritage to the fore.
ALLIE KUROFF | INVENTION AND RENEWAL
The Local Tavern: The Tradition Continues at Max Taps - Centennial
Entrepreneurship. Gatherings of friends and colleagues. Industry leadership. Great American traditions. These are prime ingredients of successful local community taprooms. And there's a new one in Centennial, Colorado building community.
CARL W. HUNT | BEER
Renewing the Call for a Marshall Plan for America
Seven decades ago, a plan to rebuild fragile, wounded countries swept across Western Europe. The idea should serve as a blueprint for American towns and cities and regions left behind today, argues Michael Cooper.
MICHAEL COOPER | NEW OLD IDEAS
Join Our Conversations
How do you find your community? Deb and Jim Fallows present at BYU’s 2021-22 on the Beloved Community forum series. You can watch the recorded lecture here and read local news coverage of it in the Daily Herald here, Deseret News here, and BYU's The Daily Universe here.
What do small towns have to do with the future of democracy? Jim Fallows joins George Sanchez, author of recent book Boyle Heights, for a conversation at the Ten Across and Arizona State University Summit in Los Angeles. Listen to the recorded conversation here.
How do grassroots approaches to progress compare to reactionary Washington politics? Jim Fallows discusses on the Everyday Anarchism podcast, hosted by Graham Culbertson. Listen to the episode here.
Why do politics so often work better at the local level? Jim joins the Vital Center podcast from Geoff Kabaservice at the Niskanen Center. Listen to their conversation about the view of America from “up high” and “on the ground” here.