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Posts Tagged ‘coolest small towns’
Creative Class: Rural Massachusetts style
July 30th, 2010
The Boston Globe reports that the arts have saved the rural town of Pittsfield in western Massachusetts. After losing a GM plant, the community of 45,000 residents invested in attracting the Barrington Stage Company and building a strong arts community as a central part of its economic development strategy.
As the Boston Globe article states:
“Once-vacant buildings in downtown Pittsfield are filling with galleries, theaters, residences, and restaurants. North Street, the city’s long-depressed main drag, now hosts regular street festivals, open houses, and art shows that draw thousands of residents and visitors. People are starting to believe that Pittsfield is an attraction, rather than a moribund pit stop on the way from Tanglewood to Mass MoCA.” (source: “The Art of Saving a City,“ David Filopov, Boston Globe, July 24, 2010.)
Sounds like the creative class theories of Richard Florida have worked in this rural community.
Not everyone is buying this talk
Some community leaders, however, oppose the strategy and don’t think it’s been successful. Dan Bianchi who recently lost a close election to become the community’s next mayor is quoted in the article saying:
“It’s great that we attract the arts and support it,” he said. “But you can’t point to one significant business that relocated as a result of arts.”
Business relocation. If that’s the only measurement for the strategy, this strategy is bound to be viewed as a failure. After all, the major emphasis of the strategy is attracting people who will create their own business ventures.
I like what Pittsfield has done. It sounds like it makes a lot of sense for the community. But I’m not sure it plays out the same in small, rural communities in the Midwest. After all, a town of 40,000 in Massachusetts is very different from the small towns that make up Midwestern landscape.
It has to be authentic
Here I turn to advice offered by Dr. David Ivan of Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute, and a presentation he made at the 2009 Small Town & Rural Development Conference titled “Can Small Towns be Cool?” While lifting up cultural and artistic sectors as a part of economic development strategies, Dr. Ivan acknowledged that successful cultural efforts “are genuine, often organically-driven by creative individuals within the community.”
Dr. Ivan goes on in the presentation to highlight how efforts to build the arts must be “authentic” in order for them to be successful.
“Authentic” is very popular word in the marketing community today. It suggests you can’t try to promote yourself as something you are not.
Answering “what’s authentic?” is not easy. But I think it’s something communities should be thinking about if they chose to consider the development of the arts as a part of their economic development strategy.
Photo Credit: bvcphoto – Flickr, Sculture, Pittsfield, MA
Note: Thanks to the Daily Yonder for bringing the Pittsfield story to my attention.
Tags: coolest small towns, creative economy, Massachusettes, people attraction strategy, Pittsfield MA
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (1)
Can South Dakota’s small towns be cool?
January 29th, 2010
I’ve commented previously about efforts by travel magazines to identify “cool small towns” (read here and here). Although these lists provide some perspective for rural community development enthusiasts, I’m a bit skeptical of them largely because they are written from a “tourist’s point of view.” In other words, they’re about what urban dwellers believe is cool, and I’m not sure that always translates to what’s important to the 
future of rural communities. But a new list caught my eye yesterday because it identifies small towns that “are cool” based on how well they are transitioning into the 21st century economy. Now that’s a list worth looking at.
Actually, the list is just new to me. Dr. David Ivan at Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute has been researching the subject for the last 4-5 years. With Richard Florida’s “Creative Class theory” as the backdrop, Dr. Ivan centered his research around the question, “Can small towns be cool?” Through his research, he has identified both themes of success (i.e. – best practices) and success stories (i.e. – what small towns are doing good things). Rural community development enthusiasts will find value in both.
Through review of Dr. Ivan’s presentation at the 2009 Small Town & Rural Development Conference, I was able to identify the following 10 themes being employed by successful small towns.
- Strong engagement between citizens, community organizations, and government (note: he identified third places as a key factor in building civic engagement, slide 10);
- Local entrepreneurial investment in community;
- Community fosters an environment that support entrepreneurship;
- Regional view of the economy;
- Willingness to adapt for new opportunities;
- Actively pursues cultural economic development opportunities;
- Cultural efforts are not overly contrived;
- Cultural efforts reach out to community youth;
- Deliberate effort to engage youth;
- Conviction that in the long run you have to do it yourself.
What a great list! Readers at ReImagine Rural will recognize many of the themes as regular topics of discussion. One theme I was surprised to see not addressed was school involvement. Granted youth are prominently featured, but most rural communities operate under the principle that the school is the heart of the community. It causes me to wonder how we can have a successful community without school engagement.
Where’s South Dakota in all this?
I became aware of this study because of Richard Longworth’s December 2009 blog post titled “Some success.” A Google search for “Can Small Towns be Cool” made me aware that I had missed an earlier post on the same subject (May 2009) from my favorite small town entrepreneurship blogger, Becky McCray. Both Longworth and McCray both identify specific towns that are on the “cool town list.” Sadly, no small towns in South Dakota made the cut. What’s up with that?
As Longworth points out, Dr. Ivan is still conducting research and is interested in hearing of other successful small towns. Hopefully, South Dakota’s towns haven’t been reviewed yet. But just in case, I’m going to suggest one.
How about Hills City?
I didn’t make the Design SD charrette in Hill City, SD last fall. But from what Lindsey tells me, they should be on the list.
Hill City terms itself “the heart of the hills” due to its location and proximity to major Black Hills attractions, including Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore. But today, the town is probably better known for its arts economy. Several years ago, a prominent artist made Hill City his home, and brought with him an idea that Hill City had the potential to develop an arts-based economy. Since that time, the town’s leadership has embraced the idea and Hill City’s Main Street has transformed itself into an upscale shopping destination for tourists and residents alike. Organizations like the Hill City Arts Council and Heart of the Hills Economic Development Corporation have joined forces to host events, encourage entrepreneurs, and build a stronger community (see their explicit goals here). Hill City is definitely one of South Dakota’s cool towns!
I’ve got a few pressing tasks yet today, but I’m definitely going to send Dr. Ivan my recommendation. And I hope you will share your recommendation as well.
Additional Resources:
- “Can Small Towns Be Cool? Study Translation Paper” by Dr. David Ivan
- Design South Dakota
Photo Credit: Cliff1066 – Flickr
Tags: coolest small towns, creative economy, Hill City SD, Michigan, small town cool
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Rural | Comments (9)
Americas Coolest Small Towns (one more time)
October 12th, 2009
Back in May, I commented on a list identifying “America’s coolest small towns.” Admittedly, I was struggling for a topic to write about that day, and the idea of “cool small towns” intrigued me. After all, most Americans still seem to consider it an oxymoron for small towns to be cool.
But apparently, there is growing interest in identifying cool small towns because several other publications, including Yahoo Travel, have created their own similar lists.
I’m still not sure how much weight rural community leaders should put into subjective lists, but I think they are worth considering for several reasons:
- First, none of the lists celebrate a town because it has a Taco Bell or a WalMart. In my mind, it adds credence to the claim by Cory Heidelberger at Madville Times, who recently admonished a small town leader for looking to corporate chains like Taco Bell’s for economic growth.
- Second, it offers a host of characteristics for rural leaders to consider as they build a vision for their communities. Granted, the characteristics used to build the lists are based largely on “urban values” as Lisa Pruitt of Legal Ruralism points out; but the characteristics are worth consideration for communities seeking to become more attractive places to live.
- And finally, the lists are significant because I think they point to a change in the way people are looking at rural communities. In the aftermath of the economic malaise that proved “big isn’t always better” (right AIG, right GM) more and more people are beginning to value “small is beautiful.” The growing popularity of Buy Local campaigns is but one element in a movement whereby more people will come to recognize the value of small towns.
Overall the lists make me feel good about the future of rural places. And it has got me thinking about what are the coolest small towns in the Upper Midwest.
“Americas Coolest Small Towns” at Yahoo Travel
“Americas Coolest Small Towns” at Budget Travel
Small Town Gems - This site rates small towns
Photo Credit: anyjazz65 – Flickr (Many individuals recommended Taos, NM, where this photo was taken, as a cool small town because of its arts community.)
Tags: coolest small towns
Posted in Community Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (7)
Top 10 “coolest” small towns
May 29th, 2009
How cool would it be for your town to be named one of the “top 10 coolest” small towns in America? That’s exactly what 10 lucky communities experienced when voters selected them for the honor at BudgetTravel.com’s online contest.
It was even “cool” enough news for The Early Show at CBS News to pick up the story:
It’s disappointing (but not unexpected) to see only one community (Grinnell, IA) in our region on the list. Of course, what’s “cool” and what’s “small” both have debatable definitions. Budget Travel used a definition of “small” as under 10,000. Wouldn’t it would be fun to see a contest for communities under 3,000?
Note: Just as interesting to me is how information like this travels. I first read about it in the Daily Yonder blog, clicked on a link taking me to a story at the Chicago Sun-Times, which in turn took me to the BudgetTravel.com site. Three sites before I got to the original, but each story was worth the read. There’s something good to be said about how information is shared in the social media world.
Related Links
“Americas Coolest Small Towns, Circa 2009″ @ CBS News
“Grinnell third in website poll of “coolest small towns” @ Radio Iowa
“Americas Coolest Towns: Budget Travel Magazine (Video) @ The Huffington Post
Tags: coolest small towns, Grinnell IA, Iowa, tourism
Posted in In the News, Rural | Comments (1)