Thanks for sharing this report. I had a front row seat for the Rural Renaissance of the ‘70s and then watched how that receded in many places. I spent the pandemic in a very rural place and watched that play out; lots of smoke and very little flame. I think we have to wait a few years before concluding that this time is different at a na…
Thanks for sharing this report. I had a front row seat for the Rural Renaissance of the ‘70s and then watched how that receded in many places. I spent the pandemic in a very rural place and watched that play out; lots of smoke and very little flame. I think we have to wait a few years before concluding that this time is different at a national scale. It will irrevocably change certain smaller places, though, just as the 70s did.
It seems to be sticking, at least for now. In Virginia, smaller cities, like Richmond, Charlottesville, and Blacksburg, saw an influx of new residents, and the exurban counties around those city centers saw quite a lot of growth. That growth, five years out, is not showing signs of reversing.
The New River Valley counties outside of Blacksburg, which are both beautiful and very rural, showed surprisingly strong growth.
My personal take on the pattern is that many people both want something less urban and want to still be within reasonable driving distance of amenities and small luxuries. The college towns tend to have good grocers and restaurants plus lots of cultural activities, all within easy driving distance of very pretty countryside.
I am in Bozeman at the moment, the poster child for college towns attracting growth. But even here the ‘70s growth burst almost reversed in the 80’s. Remote work has altered the dynamic and I’d expect a place like Blacksburg to be at least stable. Which shifts the question from “rural economic development” to how to deal with the impacts of sprawl.
Honestly, when you get more developments more places in a huge country with a declining birthrate and six decades of very unbalanced growth, sprawl isn’t something I worry about much when I look at rural repopulation.
If Blacksburg’s neighboring Giles County, population about 16.8k, gets another 500 people living on little hobby farms to put its population back to where it was in 1960, I am going to say yay sprawl and root for them.
I have zero interest in trying to densify growth in the counties around Blacksburg, and a decent number of bigger farms are no longer economically viable as businesses. I don’t mind seeing them split into smaller farms, although I am not a fan of suburbs in rural counties. Small farms are fun to live on if you farm as a hobby - pretty much my ideal living situation, keeping in mind I have a professional job, remote, for the bills.
Making up for previous declines in growth is not a sprawl problem. It’s a good thing.
Thanks for sharing this report. I had a front row seat for the Rural Renaissance of the ‘70s and then watched how that receded in many places. I spent the pandemic in a very rural place and watched that play out; lots of smoke and very little flame. I think we have to wait a few years before concluding that this time is different at a national scale. It will irrevocably change certain smaller places, though, just as the 70s did.
It seems to be sticking, at least for now. In Virginia, smaller cities, like Richmond, Charlottesville, and Blacksburg, saw an influx of new residents, and the exurban counties around those city centers saw quite a lot of growth. That growth, five years out, is not showing signs of reversing.
The New River Valley counties outside of Blacksburg, which are both beautiful and very rural, showed surprisingly strong growth.
My personal take on the pattern is that many people both want something less urban and want to still be within reasonable driving distance of amenities and small luxuries. The college towns tend to have good grocers and restaurants plus lots of cultural activities, all within easy driving distance of very pretty countryside.
I am in Bozeman at the moment, the poster child for college towns attracting growth. But even here the ‘70s growth burst almost reversed in the 80’s. Remote work has altered the dynamic and I’d expect a place like Blacksburg to be at least stable. Which shifts the question from “rural economic development” to how to deal with the impacts of sprawl.
Honestly, when you get more developments more places in a huge country with a declining birthrate and six decades of very unbalanced growth, sprawl isn’t something I worry about much when I look at rural repopulation.
If Blacksburg’s neighboring Giles County, population about 16.8k, gets another 500 people living on little hobby farms to put its population back to where it was in 1960, I am going to say yay sprawl and root for them.
I have zero interest in trying to densify growth in the counties around Blacksburg, and a decent number of bigger farms are no longer economically viable as businesses. I don’t mind seeing them split into smaller farms, although I am not a fan of suburbs in rural counties. Small farms are fun to live on if you farm as a hobby - pretty much my ideal living situation, keeping in mind I have a professional job, remote, for the bills.
Making up for previous declines in growth is not a sprawl problem. It’s a good thing.