Moving back to Virginia was a way to connect with my extended family and my heritage. What I’ve discovered—and what other urban escapees returning to Appalachia may, as well—is that nothing present or past is as simplistic as we are lead to believe or as crass as it is stereotypically presented. There are many nuanced threads of history, culture, race, religion and economics that touch lives in Appalachia and other micropolitans across the country.
Many urbanists and their sustainability-focused cohorts and peers focus on our largest cities to the exclusion of rural urbanism. They’re missing out!
Check out Appalachia’s advantages if entrepreneurs chose to rebuild the micropolitans:
A history of self-reliance and independence; two traits shared by entrepreneurs;
A culture that values handmade and artisan; also one that remembers “old time” skills valuable to those interested in sustainable living;
Comparatively inexpensive land and existing businesses for sale;
In the deepest hollows an awakening that there needs to be “Plan B” after coal; resulting in growing incentives for independent, local business investment (check out these state-specific business funding resources);
Close proximity to nature, which is great for “city” escape…
For these reasons, I believe
Appalachia is a great place to begin a micropolitan reinvention and revitalization!
The story gives a glimpse into the reality of building an independent business, and some of the particular challenges we faced getting started. Many of these business building challenges (financing, partnerships, addressing market needs, etc.) are universal despite location.
My focus at this site is on building businesses in small cities, and in particular, Main Street/downtown. While our experience was leaving the “big city”, I am very pro-city…specifically, the dense, walkable infrastructure so common before the car.
It’s my belief that if you consider yourself part of the “99%”, you need to put our money where your mouth is—and the most powerful way to do that is to support local businesses. Strengthening our local economies does more than strengthen our independence from faceless corporate titans; it helps to determine individual and community destinies. Independent businesses also play a tremendous role in community culture, too.
Rural America is exceptionally well-suited for the pioneering effort necessary to rebuild our economy and our cities into more sustainable and just places (even, and especially, the small cities).
This week we give thanks that our micro-grocery/cafe, George Bowers Grocery, celebrates its third year in business!
We were happy to be featured on the website IndependentWeStand.org, a site dedicated to “the importance and benefits of buying local” …just in time for Black Friday! The post is titled, “I Need That Record!”.
Meanwhile, the book about building our business in a small town is coming along smoothly… fingers crossed and it will be delivered to the publisher on time this winter.
Can you imagine the positive impact that would be possible if more human-scale, walkable small towns were revitalized? They are the original “smart development” and could have tremendous impact if it reduced overall car use compared to suburban living.
"Preparing to leave, then, is a daunting and lonely task." - Downing
Everyone can tell you how to move to New York, how to dress, where to shop, where to get a cocktail. But almost no one will tell you how to leave.
So begins an excellent essay titled “Notes on Leaving the City” by Casey Downing. He references Joan Didion in her 1967 essay Goodbye to All That, which begins: “It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends.”
He later writes,
This [feeling] seems to be a permanent fixture of New York. That it is a mirage more than a life, at least for those of us who have come from somewhere else.
And finally,
And yet I could not help but think about something John had said to me several months ago, when he had just gotten engaged. While we nursed our bourbons, he warned me about believing the fairy tale of New York, as he had done for so many years. There is the pressure to succeed, to have the right job and the right clothes, to have the right person on your arm, he said. And as much as I want those things, there is a difference between the demands of this city, and my actual life. And getting my life in order has made me see that those demands are kind of silly by comparison.
I love this. I wish I’d written it! Thank you, Casey Downing.
Patrick Goodman, a waiter and artist, is moving to Iowa after about 30 years as a New Yorker. “I feel like the middle class is kind of being squeezed out,” he said, “and I think I’m part of that.” [...] The reasons he came to New York were simple — the energy, the art. The reasons he left were more complicated. He didn’t want to grow old here. He wanted to spend more time with his family, following the death of his youngest brother two years ago. Ultimately, money was the driving force — money and gentrification.
Note two things:
1 – Yes, the middle class is being squeezed, but, that’s just as much a national issue as an urban issue.
2 – Why is the assumption “poor guy, he has to leave”?
Economic pressure severely limits options for a creative person. That’s why I see human-scale small towns — specifically small town downtowns — as offering the walkability advantage of a place like New York—and the wide open canvas for expression.
Dare I mention cost-of-living is a lot cheaper, and you can read The New York Times online anywhere on the globe.
This site is dedicated to ambitious people who choose to leave a major city in search of a life.
It’s also a site about the box you put yourself into, and how to climb out.
It’s not a site about one lifestyle trumping another. It’s a site about finding yourself, and finding meaning along the journey.
It’s not a site about escaping your problems. It’s a site about escaping the mindset that created your problems and starting anew. If that includes some fresh air, or a bad-ass and radical reinvention: so be it.
The uncharted country awaits—particularly in your sense of self and what is possible.
I was honored that the Micropolitan Manifesto and our business George Bowers Grocery were featured this week at theHillville.com a new, thoughtful publication about urban Appalachian identity.
