A New Geography
Both city and country minds need to go outside the lines

A confluence of thought – much like that of rivers – occurs from time to time as seemingly unconnected occurrences push the mind to focus on a particular issue.

A great aunt dies in West Liberty – the last of a generation of farmers and tinkerers who settled that rural landscape. News comes from a bankers’ meeting that, for the first time, the absolute property value in one county had declined. A spate of articles about the Census report on growing and shrinking communities. An e-commerce meeting occurs in Louisville, which drew rave reviews from foreign-born entrepreneurs as a world-class city with a small-town atmosphere.

Are these events tied together in some way?

A recent announcement conveyed the bottom line that cities are decreasing in population while counties are gaining. This, we are told, is happening everywhere but most notably in our large urban areas.

Observation bears this out, to a degree. Rural property values are dropping – a development long predicted with the loss of farms prompted by the loss of tobacco and small-farming operations. Young people are leaving Kentucky’s smaller places, hoping and being encouraged to follow opportunity elsewhere.

But is there another story behind all these developments – one that provides any direction at all? This is a desperate search for those of us in the business of community restoration and revitalization. That must be particularly true for Harlan Mayor Danny Howard, the subject of several news articles about a declining population that were written as he continued his hard work to bring disparate interests together to create a common vision for his home town.

His work looks good from all accounts. But the news stories don’t fully reflect that, leading to the suspicion that the full, real story has not been told. Reporters on deadline undoubtedly do the best they can with what they have. But inaccurate impressions can be created with too little information, and those impressions can become the accepted truth with a re-telling or two.

One such story is that of the Census. It may be true, technically, that the population in cities is decreasing while that in counties is growing. But the story of urban and rural Kentucky is more complicated than that. And it is counter-productive for cities and counties to be at odds at a time when any wars we wage should be against illiteracy or other enemies that pose lasting threats.

The truth of the matter is that cities are being revitalized, thanks to the Governor’s Renaissance Kentucky initiative and a few people who understand that if the center holds, so does the community. Nevertheless, many urban communities – particularly those in population centers – are losing numbers. Similarly, rural populations are in decline. The growth is in the suburban areas around cities, and this is an important distinction to note.

What is needed is a realistic view of these trends and a clear understanding of how to capture or change them. In The New Geography, Joel Kotkin reports that the places that will do well in the coming age will pay close attention to the quality of their “place.” They will discover that their only niche is the thing that makes them unique. They will work in partnership with other interests, recognizing the world is losing its borders and that people will become more closely associated on a regional level.

We cannot afford in Kentucky to continuing casting our problems in terms of one side versus another or to describe outcomes in terms of winners and losers. We have done next to nothing in this state to cultivate an urban agenda, preferring instead to stir the debate the pits our largest city “against” the rest of the state.

It did not go unnoticed that city and county leaders were excluded from the process of deciding how the tobacco settlement funds should be allocated – further reinforcing the attitude that it is always and forever urban versus rural in this state.

Some observers believe that cities and farms, at least in some parts of our nation, can form alliances to benefit from each other’s strengths. For that to happen here, we must gain a greater understanding of the symbiotic nature of so many of our communities and recognize that what we value extends well beyond the confines of political borders and boundaries.

Sylvia L. Lovely is executive director and CEO of the Kentucky League of Cities.
editorial@lanereport.com

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