Author: Becky McCray

People still ask me why small towns matter and whether rural areas have any future at all. The way I see it, we need small towns and hometowns for at least five reasons.  1) Agriculture and food production almost all happens in the rural places, and small towns are essential to the production, transportation and often the processing of our food….

How many times have you been told that your good idea was against the rules? Sometimes it really is against the rules, and sometimes people use “rules” as an excuse to say no.  Sometimes the rules make sense, but they still shouldn’t stop an otherwise good idea. So you come up with a way to…

You’re probably feeling it this time of year especially: maxed out and just plain tired. Personally and professionally. And it can be tough to admit. When I visited one small town, my host and I talked through all kinds of issues and challenges. It took awhile to get around to the really hard question.  We…

Imagine if you didn’t do a strategic plan.  Old Way: You gather groups of peoplebut it’s the same people as the last time and the time before that and you meet in a roombut your community happens outside that room in the downtown, in businesses, in homes and parks and streets and on sidewalks and the…

Remember how Colfax, Washington, shared their progress in business and in art since I visited? Well, your fellow reader Leota Childress was inspired to share progress from her town, Molalla, Oregon. The list ran to 12 items, including a new shared retail space for artists, lots of new businesses, and a cool recycled piano art project.  Now seems…

I saw it when I was reading a small-town paper’s coverage of a parade. The reporter covering the parade included the names of all the local people in the captions along with their photos.  The reporter did not include the names of any of the visiting Native Americans in captions of their photos. One caption…

“How do we make our grants program more Idea Friendly?” That was the question right after I spoke at the NADO (National Association of Development Organizations) conference. It’s a good question. Let’s talk it through.  A regional organization runs a grant program. They make grants to local groups who have come to rely on this…

Last week, Sarah McKnight gave us an update on the new businesses in Colfax, Washington, since I was there a year ago. I forgot to say their population is 2,800. (Thanks for the reminder, Ned Overton!) Now let’s talk art!   Colfax already has an active arts group. Occasionally, they will create “crack art” — cute…

Sarah McKnight just told me all about the progress they’ve made in the past year in Colfax, Washington. Lots of the ideas we talked about in August last year are now reality!  The new Colfax Mercantile Store is a shared building with room for 8 to 10 new vendors. They’re full up and have a…

This story from CityLab is really about Idea Friendly cities, even though they don’t know that. They thought it was about a city that wanted to try something new with their traffic pattern: “Instead of starting with a plan on paper, city officials just went out one week in December and stuck cones along a…

This is something I’ve been thinking through lately: how do you help other people in your town become more Idea Friendly?   You’re already open to new ideas yourself. But you still have to work with people in your town. And they’re not all as open as you are.  You’ve seen this list before, the list…

Don’t tell me that you’re planning to do a mural. Do it now. Start Taking Small Steps. Decorate with chalk. Paint on fabric. Decorate parachute cloth. Paint on paper. Paint on boards. Paint on sheets of aluminum or alumalite. Cut pieces of colorful coroplast and assemble into fun designs. Use shoe polish on glass. Paint a…