Small Town Rejuvenation

For John, BLUF:  Our small towns and cities are going to have to find their own salvations within themselves, helped, of course, by a growing economy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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It will take hometown heroes to fix broken towns

From The Washington Examiner, by Reporter Salena Zito, 6 September 2019.

Here is the lede plus five:

Greg Bricker is tired of his community looking through the rearview mirror to an idyllic past, rather than looking forward and trying to plot a better course.

He feels this rearview mindset dominates his town, especially the local government.

So after missing the statewide deadline for getting on the Nov. 5 ballot, Bricker went down to the Columbiana County Board of Elections to register as a write-in candidate for mayor of East Liverpool.

He didn’t even tell his family, outside of his wife Katie.  The rest of his family “found out when they read in the local paper,” Greg smiles.

Street after street in the neat grid of East Liverpool is filled with stunning turn-of-the-century buildings that are all boarded up.

East Liverpool was once the pottery capital of the world. More than 300 pottery companies competed here to win business all around the country.  But since the 1960s, East Liverpool has been plagued with massive population loss and a fentanyl crisis that made national headlines.  This is the town where, in 2016, a grandmother and her companion were found overdosing in their car, while the four-year-old grandson looked on helplessly from a carseat.

There are no magic solutions to bringing back, economically, small towns and cities in the US.  However, Local residents, working together, can make a difference.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff