RURAL AMERICA IS THE NEW INNER CITY

[elleng]

A Wall Street Journal analysis shows that since the 1990s, sparsely populated counties have replaced large cities as America’s most troubled areas by key measures of socioeconomic well-being—a decline that’s accelerating.

'At the corner where East North Street meets North Cherry Street in the small Ohio town of Kenton, the Immaculate Conception Church keeps a handwritten record of major ceremonies. Over the last decade, according to these sacramental registries, the church has held twice as many funerals as baptisms.

In tiny communities like Kenton, an unprecedented shift is under way. Federal and other data show that in 2013, in the majority of sparsely populated U.S. counties, more people died than were born—the first time that’s happened since the dawn of universal birth registration in the 1930s.

For more than a century, rural towns sustained themselves, and often thrived, through a mix of agriculture and light manufacturing. Until recently, programs funded by counties and townships, combined with the charitable efforts of churches and community groups, provided a viable social safety net in lean times.

Starting in the 1980s, the nation’s basket cases were its urban areas—where a toxic stew of crime, drugs and suburban flight conspired to make large cities the slowest-growing and most troubled places.

Today, however, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows that by many key measures of socioeconomic well-being, those charts have flipped. In terms of poverty, college attainment, teenage births, divorce, death rates from heart disease and cancer, reliance on federal disability insurance and male labor-force participation, rural counties now rank the worst among the four major U.S. population groupings (the others are big cities, suburbs and medium or small metro areas).'>>>

https://www.wsj.com/articles/rural-america-is-the-new-inner-city-1495817008

[elleng]

2. Well, congratulations to you.

[kimbutgar]

3. The snark of the day

[sandensea]

18. I saw your earlier post - and I know what you mean.

Over the years I've been fortunate (or not) to have lived in a rural area, a small town, a small city, suburbia, and L.A.

It was unfortunately very common to find rural residents convinced they live in a "slice of heaven" and suburbanites - ESPECIALLY -
believe their house keys are the keys to the Magic Kingdom, while assuming that city life is undoubtedly plagued by crime, drugs, filth, unsavory characters, and fraud of all kinds.

("no," I once told one. "You're thinking of the Trump White House."

But seriously, yes: you're right. Just as some city residents (particularly in the upper middle class) will believe that rural areas are wastelands, many rural/small town residents and suburbanites like to think all inner cities are like East Harlem, c. 1989.

Suffice it to say, such sentiments often carry quite a bit of racial animus as well.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. +1. People don't like to have their comfortable delusions shattered, esp. involving snobbery. nt

[dhol82]

4. Any chance for a cut and paste?

Access to the whole article is by subscription only.

[elleng]

5. Here's some more.

(Funny, I don't have a WSJ subscription!)

*As employers left small towns, many of the most ambitious young residents packed up and left, too. In 1980, the median age of people in small towns and big cities almost matched. Today, the median age in small towns is about 41 years—five years above the median in big cities. A third of adults in urban areas hold a college degree, almost twice the share in rural counties, census figures show.

Consolidation has shut down many rural hospitals, which have struggled from a shortage of patients with employer-sponsored insurance. At least 79 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, according to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rural residents say irregular care and long drives for treatment left them sicker, a shift made worse by high rates of rural obesity and smoking. “Once you have a cancer diagnosis…your probability of survival is much lower in rural areas,” said Gopal K. Singh, a senior federal health agency research analyst who has studied mortality differences.

The opioid epidemic—and a lack of access to treatment—have compounded the damage. In Hardin County, prosecutor Brad Bailey said drug cases, which accounted for less than 20% of his criminal cases a decade ago, have surged to 80%.

The epidemic is spawning more thefts, including a rash of snatched air-conditioners sold for scrap metal, said Dennis Musser, police chief in Kenton. Linda Martell, a 69-year-old who moved to Kenton from outside Cleveland a decade ago to be near her daughter, was surprised a chain saw and heavy tools were stolen from her garage.

When she was a young adult, she recalled, “All the problems were in the big cities.”

In November’s presidential election, rural districts voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, who pledged to revive forgotten towns by scaling back regulations, trade agreements and illegal immigration and encouraging manufacturing companies to hire more American workers. A promised $1 trillion infrastructure bill could give a boost to many rural communities.

Lawmakers from both parties concede they overlooked escalating small-town problems for years. “When you have a state like Florida, you campaign in the urban areas,” said former Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez. He recalls being surprised when he learned in the mid-2000s that rural areas, not cities, were the center of an emerging methamphetamine epidemic.

During the Bush administration, lawmakers were preoccupied with two wars, securing the homeland after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Barack Obama’s administration tried to lift rural areas by pushing expanded broadband access, but found that service providers were reluctant to enter sparsely populated towns, said former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Since the collapse of the housing market, real-estate appreciation in nonmetropolitan areas has lagged behind cities, eroding the primary source of wealth and savings for many families.

“We didn’t really have much of a transformation strategy for places where the world was changing,” Mr. Vilsack said.

Meanwhile, major cities once considered socioeconomic laggards have turned themselves around. In St. Louis, which has more than 30 nearby four-year schools, the percentage of residents with college degrees tripled between 1980 and 2015—creating a talent pool that has lured health care, finance and bioscience employers, officials say. Instead of people moving where the jobs are, “jobs follow people,” said Greg Laposa, a local chamber of commerce vice president.

In many cities, falling crime has attracted more middle- and upper-class families while an influx of millennials delaying marriage has helped keep divorce rates low.

Maria Nelson, a 45-year-old media company manager who came to Washington, D.C., to work after college, had always assumed she would someday move to the suburbs, where she had grown up. A generation of heavy federal spending helped make the nation’s capital one of the country’s highest-earning urban centers. Its median household income rose to $71,000 a year in 2015, a 51% increase since 1980, adjusted for inflation.

While Ms. Nelson was able to buy a brick row house in 2002, she said she worries about younger colleagues—let alone anyone moving in from a small town—who face soaring real-estate prices. “The whole area just seems to be out of range for most people now,” she said

In Kenton, Father Young said that despite their mounting troubles, he is optimistic about his parishioners. Some of them tell him they worry about what will happen when they die because they still provide for their adult children.

He likes to say there is always hope. “They can find a job,” he said. “Columbus is close enough.”

[dhol82]

8. Thanks for the paste

Interesting and sad.
There will probably be a shift back in about 50 years. Not helpful for the near future.

[elleng]

9. Maybe/Maybe not.

Depends on locales.

Immigrants Keep an Iowa Meatpacking Town Alive and Growing.

Waves of Asian, African and Latino newcomers have filled jobs at pork, egg
and turkey plants where wages have fallen and work has grown more grueling.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016186189

[dhol82]

10. Well, let's hope

Sadly, the current climate in trumpland about immigrants is pathetic.
However, immigrants have been the salvation of this country since its inception.

[BeekeeperInVermont]

13. Immigrants are only a temporary fix.

Without some reason to stay, why would immigrant children decide to remain in these places after they've grown up and perhaps gone to college? Without the possibility of jobs and other opportunities they're just as likely to pack up and leave as the children of long-time residents. Creating a viable and vibrant economy is much harder than importing people, but it's the only real way to keep these places alive.

[elleng]

14. We ALL came from immigrants,

and most of us/our parents/our grandparents stayed.

[BeekeeperInVermont]

20. Not entirely sure what you mean.

Last edited Mon May 29, 2017, 11:39 PM - Edit history (1)

Nobody suggested that immigrants or their children were leaving the country or disputes that most of us/our parents/our grandparents have chosen to stay. That's not the issue here.

The topic of discussion is why rural areas of the US are losing population to urban areas of the US.

Young people are not choosing to stay in small towns because desirable job and career opportunities aren't available. "Waves of Asian, African and Latino newcomers have filled jobs at pork, egg and turkey plants where wages have fallen and work has grown more grueling." Will the immigrants' American-born and educated children want to work these miserable jobs with crappy pay? Or will they, just like the children of long-time residents, pack up and move to greener pastures as adults?

Rural areas - and I live in one - aren't going to prosper if they can only hold onto the first generation of immigrants, but fail to offer their children and grandchildren good-paying jobs so they put down roots and stay. As I wrote before, rural places with a vibrant economy won't have a problem keeping young people regardless of whether they are the children of long-time residents or the children of immigrants.

[Mountain Mule]

21. Thanks for that and as a resident of rural America

I can't afford a subscription to WSJ (which was the only option that came up when I clicked on the link). In my personal experience that editorial in the WSJ is dead on. I live in a small rural community 400 miles across the state from Colorado's currently dynamic Front Range urban centers like Denver and Colorado Springs. While Colorado's unemployment rate statewide is less than 5%, in my rural county it's closer to 8% and the real unemployment rate is higher even than that. We have the worst educationally ranking schools in the state and we're smack dab in the middle of "Indian Country" with members of the Ute and Navajo tribes making up a significant percentage of our population. My county went 70% for Trump in the election - the one interesting exception was the voting precinct on the Ute Reservation - 100% for Hillary - imagine that! We have major problems with alcoholism and meth and oxy addictions.

The quality of healthcare here has taken a major nosedive thanks in part to the uncertainty created by the antics of the orange buffoon and the the repugs in Congress. There is NO low income mental health counseling available here anymore, but we all still have plenty of guns. Younger folks with any ambition at all leave for greener pastures and I can hardly blame them. Probably the best financially well off group is the retirement community here - a sizable number of whom made their money elsewhere before moving out here to enjoy their "golden years." We do have plenty of nice scenery, but scenery won't pay the rent, and I know any number of folks who have to work 2 or even 3 low paid jobs out here just trying to get by.

Rural America is in bad shape and I don't see things getting better anytime soon. We lack the numbers and the votes to have the rest of the nation take our plight seriously. Rural America is most definitely developing an "us vs them" mentality to the detriment of all parties concerned. I can't even begin to tell you how often I feel like a lone voice out in the wilderness myself.

[Blanks]

28. Good post...

And suicide by substance abuse among 50-60 year old white people is an epidemic in rural America.

It was the Reagan administration that decimated small town America by not having a program in place to refinance small business debt at a lower interest rate.

The fed under Volcker raised interest rates to bring inflation under control, but small town small businesses had been encouraged to borrow and then the interest rate was as high as 18%. If Reagan had implemented a program similar to Obama's home refinance program, but for small businesses, a lot of these small town economies might still be healthy.

Trump will deal a death blow to those still hanging on by catering to the wealthy.

I grew up in Idaho and lived in Kansas for quite a while, and communities that embrace tourism stand a better chance of survival, but tourism jobs don't provide the kind of dignity that owning a small family farm, small logging business or farm implement sales and service business, or grocery store, small cafe etc.

So many of these kinds of businesses closed up shop during the Reagan administration while he blew smoke up the asses if rural white folk. I left my small town and never looked back and most of my friends that stayed are Trump supporters.

[murielm99]

6. I live in one of those rural areas.

The small towns are dying. Some of the medium size towns are doing all right. There is employment.

But we are seeing more crime and drug use.

I don't feel sorry for my neighbors who voted for trump. We Democrats out here try to change a few minds at a time. We keep the lights on and keep working at it.

[elleng]

7. Thanks so much for this, murielm99.

Please spread your kind and hopeful words, they are what we all need.

[rpannier]

11. It's difficult to change a mindset

The republikkans have controlled both houses of congress for most of the last 20 years, have controlled everything for 10+ years in many of those states and yet they still blame Democrats, liberals, Socialism, environmental regs and, in some cases, gay marriage for their woes

[Igel]

23. The problem isn't a political mindset among politicians.

It's a lack of employers in small towns.

Some is simple economics: Transportation of supplies and product. Still, many towns are on major transportation arteries and no harder to ship to and from than major cities.

Some is political economics: A lot of cities "encourage" employers to move by means of tax breaks and other incentives.

Some is international economics: A lot of the small employers lack economy of scale or find production abroad to be cheaper and the work-force to be larger, more flexible, and sometimes more easily trained.

Some is victim-side cultural: The rural dweller tends to be lower educated and their cultural values often demotivate kids from becoming better trained and educated--the values and motivation were suited to conditions 50+ years ago, but no longer; this is a situation not unique to rural communities of course. At the same time, a lot of more educated rural-dwellers are economic migrants, convinced that $20/hr in a place where you need to make $20/hr for bare subsistence is better than $10/hr in a place where you need $8/hr for bare subsistence. Or they want to move to cities because pop culture says that city culture is superior in a multicultural/equality sort of way (of course, pop culture is produced by urban dwellers, so this makes sense).

Some is "victimizer-side" cultural: To get good college-trained managers and supervisors, you need to move where they want to live. So you wind up in or near cities. Of course, the downside to this is that suddenly there's a huge influx of highly paid managerial types managing a bunch of businesses, all of whom want to live in the city. The lower-paid workers suddenly find that they're priced out of the market.

Some of these are (D) initiatives; some are (R); most are neither, and are corporate-entertainment and consumer-culture more than anything, something both (D) and (R) should have a problem with. This isn't a US problem; the same is true in France, in Czechia, in Russia,

[cojoel]

12. Here is an unrestricted link

http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/05/26/rural-america-is-new-inner-city-2.html

[iamateacher]

15. Thank you for posting!

Great article

[OldRedneck]

16. This is what it's like in a small rural county

I live in XXXXXX County, VA -- bordered on the North by the Potomac River, the East by the Chesapeake Bay. We have a lot of waterfront property.

Back in the late 1980's, Congress and the states in the Bay watershed passed the Chesapeake Bay Protection Acts. One provision of the Acts banned industrial and agricultural activity at the water's edge. This meant that farmers in our county can no longer farm right up to the shoreline, they must back off at least 1/4 mile.

The result was an explosion in residential, waterfront property. Local and imported developers platted former farmland into inexpensive waterfront lots, resulting in a huge land rush by "come-here's" who built retirement and second homes. Between 1990 and 2000, the county population increased by 16 percent. Anyone who could swing a hammer had a job. An average of 130 building permits were issued per year.

Then, in the early 2000's, things slowed down. There was no population growth between 2000 and 2010 and current Census Bureau projections show population declining at about 1.5 % per year since 2010. Last year, the county issued 24 building permits, 18 of which were for mobile homes. The regional real estate multiple listing service has so much property listed for sale, it will take five years to sell it all.

In 2010, 30% of the county was above age 65. Now, it's 35% over 65. With the county population SHRINKING, and the over-65 GROWING, this means the younger population is shrinking at a much higher rate than the 1.5% shrink the Census Bureau shows.

Our local general hospital should have closed 5 years ago. Instead, a hospital conglomerate out of Richmond bought the hospital. Last week, they announced the ICU was closing; no surgeries after 3:00 PM; visiting nurse program cancelled; numerous other services reduced or cut.

Over 50% of the kids are on free or reduced lunch. The county has a summer feeding program that sends a week's supply of food home with kids.

Every measure of poverty and desperation in our county is rising. I'm an EMT with one of the county's volunteer rescue squads -- the volunteer squads are disappearing -- no volunteers; we could not assemble a crew for 15 of our 19 calls last month. The county hired eight paramedics 2 years ago. They are running a 10-year-old ambulance, putting 2,000 miles a month on it -- County can't find $250K for a new one. And don't get me started on the medical emergency calls I answer, many of which are due to people who can't afford meds or visits to the doctor -- they rely on the rescue squads and the ER.

[elmac]

17. Agree 100%

the decline is very rapid. Meth manufacturing seems to be the only thing "growing" in rural ameriKa.

[GitRDun]

19. I do a lot of driving...actually prefer it to air travel...

I live in Houston. Drive to Madison, WI, Iowa City, Chicago, and Phoenix with one central theme:

The small towns are as hollowed out as inner city slums...I've SEEN it....everywhere.

Makes it such a shame that fly over country hasn't woken up to the fact that they have the same problems where they live as they do in places like Baltimore, possibly with the exception of the police not shooting them regularly.

They should be protesting, voting for ANYONE who will take their problems seriously....not the folks who demonize!

[hatrack]

29. Same throughout the Midwest . . . .

Last edited Wed May 31, 2017, 12:46 PM - Edit history (1)

From west-central Missouri and the same is true for small and mid-sized towns throughout the region - KS, IA, NE, AR and the rest.

Case in point - Sedalia, MO - it's a county seat and a city of about 21,000 (down from about 25,000 40 years ago). Back in the day, it was thriving - two rail division points, major rail service yards, manufacturing, a fair-sized dairy/ice cream plant. It was "the big town" (other than Kansas City, of course) with lots of nice houses, bustling businesses, and of course the State Fair, which is still there.

Now, not so much. I'll head over there to bike the KATY, and it's just gotten scabby - peeling paint, crumbling houses, junked cars and lots of payday loan joints. It's just . . . crumbling.

And they're far better off than the really small rural towns: drive through places like Leeton, MO or Harrison, NE and you realize that they're about 20 years from becoming more or less ghost towns.

[47of74]

22. There are some plates to be stepped up to.

A lot of professionals feel they have little choice but to go where the jobs are - namely non rural / non small town areas. For example in recent years there's a shortage of people willing to practice law in rural areas. There are a number of counties in Midwest states where the only resident lawyers are those in the county attorney's office, and there are no lawyers in private practice. Here in Iowa, for example, IIRC there are about 2,100 lawyers in Polk County, but in some rural Iowa counties the total number of lawyers could be counted on one's hands.

Or there are people who for whatever reason - sexual orientation, race, religion, etc - aren't made to feel welcome in rural areas and smaller towns. Especially now with that orange idiot in the White House, and so many like him in Congress, Governor offices, state legislatures, and locally.

I think to solve the problems rural areas are facing we have to make it attractive for people to want to live in rural areas and small towns. First from an economic perspective where people can make it financially even if they trade living in Omaha, Chicago, the Twin Cities, and so on for places like Protovin, Walnut Grove, or Northwood. And making sure that people feel comfortable and welcome living in those small towns regardless of the color of their skin, sexual orientation, or what they chose to believe. Unfortunately I don't see rural areas willing to step up to the plate and changing what needs to be changed, and I don't see their situations improving anytime soon.

[jberryhill]

26. "aren't made to feel welcome in rural areas and smaller towns"

Yep.

[ck4829]

25. Kick

[tazkcmo]

27. Major difference: location location location

The inner city isn't in an isolated area. Surprise! When you move to a rural area there's less everything, including entertainment, opportunity and services like hospitals, mass transportation and fire departments. Rural dwellers are a victim of change just like stage coach drivers and river boat captains. Inner cities suffered due to many factors like suburban growth, poor planning, neglect and discriminatory housing practices. There's other reasons, too.