Becky’s email newsletter

Empty buildings are a big topic in small towns. Several of you have brought up this subject lately, especially after we talked about the Tour of Empty Buildings.  Chris Miller, of Adrian, Michigan, told me a group of 22 local investors had pooled resources and bought a downtown building.  Deborah Hicks Midanek, of Grenada, Mississippi,…

I just saw a great article on “Cut and Paste Towns” by Andrew Price. It’s got me thinking.  “I call it a Copy-and-Paste town because it consists of nothing more than retailers that have ‘copied and pasted’ their standard template into the town simply to milk profit out of the town, often by using minimum…

My friend Deb Brown is the new director of the Webster City, Iowa, Chamber of Commerce. It’s her first job as chamber director in her long career of wide experiences, so she doesn’t look at chamber things the way most people do. Deb looked at the empty store fronts downtown and other available buildings around…

This week, I wanted to share the idea of “Investment Ready Places.” That is a new description of small towns and mid sized cities, from the team at Street Sense. “Mid-tier towns and cities are our most dynamic urban settlements and have the largest untapped potential for fostering economic growth. They vary in size from…

I’m spending some time unplugged, but I scheduled this email to keep up our shared Positive View of Rural.  This week, I wanted to share this idea from Tony Guidroz, Director of Economic Development from San Saba, Texas, (population 2,600). Tony came up with the idea for a Blue Collar Career Fair in 2012, and…

This downtown art project comes from my neighbors in Waynoka, Oklahoma, population 927. Far from a dressy, stodgy downtown, they have a casual attitude. It’s a working class town with history as a railroad community. Last year, the downtown utility poles were in bad need of a new coat of paint. You know, that boring…

Katie McCaskey has lived a rural pattern that you’ll recognize. She grew up in a small town, left for education and opportunity, moved back to a different small town later, and started a business.  She’s come to see small towns as a center of opportunity, as a place where entrepreneurs can step up and make…

Last week, both my friend Rob and I took time out from all that demands our attention to spend time at conferences that energize us. We both work from our homes in small towns, so we both value that in-person time to focus and think. Even though we were at very different events, we got…

Last week, I mentioned Placemaking briefly. Let’s talk about it a bit more. Placemaking is all about the planning, design and management of the public spaces and assets in your town. When done right, placemaking involves asking the people who actually live and work there, who use the public spaces, what they need, and then…

Do you know what the most commonly asked question is at any of my talks? It’s always about dealing with the negative people, the people who say you can’t, the roadblocks. Jack Schultz calls them the CAVE people: the Citizens Against Virtually Everything.  I find that encouraging and discouraging all in one. It’s encouraging because…

I bring up tourism and economic development together for good reason. Tourism is a terrific strategy for small towns to stay alive, but people who are working on tourism in small towns tend to get looked down on by the traditional economic developers.  “Tourism doesn’t count as economic development. We go after traded businesses,” the…

I got a call from a freelance reporter today. She was assigned to write a positive story about the future of rural. Someone told her she should call me, so she did. It was hard, but I want you to know I showed some restraint, so I only kept her on the line for 30…