We Aren't A Nation Of Small Towns

New Republic: The Idea That Small Towns Represent "Real America" Is Outdated - "Real America" Is In The Sprawling "Metros"

(The New Republic)  This column was written by Jennifer Bradley and Bruce Katz.

Wasilla, Alaska, is currently the most famous small town in America, thanks to its former mayor Sarah Palin. A healthy part of her appeal is that she seems to embody small-town values, nurtured in Wasilla and America's other hamlets and burgs. As she said in her firecracker acceptance speech, small-town people live lives of "honesty, sincerity, and dignity" and "do some of the hardest work in America."

Palin was tapping into a widespread belief that small-town America represents the country at large. In April 2008, as the Democratic primary contest ground through Pennsylvania, Gerald Seib of The Wall Street Journal declared that "Rural and small-town voters are the best indicators of whether a candidate is connecting with the values of Middle America. 'They are America,' says Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster. ... 'If you can speak to [them], then you relate to the rest of America.'"

But the idea that we are a nation of small towns is fundamentally incorrect. The real America isn't found in cities or suburbs or small towns, but in the metropolitan areas or "metros" that bring all these places into economic and social union. Palin's positioning may appeal to a certain nostalgia that Americans have about small-town life, but the Manichean dichotomy of city versus small town (not to mention "urban" candidate versus "rural" one) no longer describes the radically connected and interdependent way Americans live and work.

America's small-town romance has a long, distinguished history, which perhaps explains why it has outlived its accuracy by at least 100 years. Thomas Jefferson was our nation's most influential exponent of the idea that cities are un-American. "I view the great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man," he said.

But the 1910 census was the last one in which rural Americans represented a majority of the population; these days, we've become a thoroughly metropolitan nation. Two-thirds of our population lives in the top 100 metropolitan areas, and 84 percent of Americans live in all 363 metros. Being in a metro means being tied to someplace else; the Census Bureau defines metropolitan areas as a city of 50,000 or more, plus the adjacent counties that have close social and economic ties to the urban core.

In metros, unlike mythical small towns, no place is self-contained or splendidly independent. Metros are tied together by highways and rail lines, and people cross local boundaries and state lines every day to shop, go to a doctor's office or a museum, and especially to go to work. The suburbs as a whole have more jobs than cities: Just under half of all commutes within metropolitan areas are from suburb to suburb, and only 19 percent are old- fashioned suburb-to-central-city trips. If you track commuting flows in the 14-county Chicago metropolitan region (as Brookings has done), the result looks like macaroni dumped on the map.

In fact, even the "small town" of Wasilla, Alaska is fast becoming a satellite of the state's largest city. Wasilla is nestled in the Matanuska-Susitna, or Mat-Su, borough (boroughs are Alaska's equivalent of counties), and the borough is part of the Anchorage metropolitan area. Around one-third of the workers in the borough make the 50-minute commute to Anchorage to earn their living. When she's not in Juneau during the Alaska legislative session, Sarah Palin is one of those workers.

More and more small towns like Wasilla are becoming part of the metro orbit. In fact, according to the Census Bureau, half of all "rural" residents live within the boundaries of a metropolitan area. (The classification of an area as "urban" or "rural" is based on population density, not the extent of economic ties to other places.) The census doesn't use the terms "exurb," or "suburb," so it's hard to know how best to describe low-density places within metros, beyond saying that these places are tied to the urban core, however much residents might object to the fact.

Thinking of the United States as a nation of small towns fundamentally misunderstands our economy, which is disproportionately driven by metros. Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, one of the world's foremost gurus on economic competitiveness, has suggested that there is no such thing as the U.S. economy, but rather a network of interlinked metropolitan economies. The top 100 metropolitan areas are home to 68 percent of America's jobs and are the origin of 75 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

Metros are economic powerhouses precisely because of the way they differ from the idealized small town. Adam Smith noted in The Wealth of Nations that "the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market" and that larger markets (like those currently found in metros) enable workers to specialize and work more efficiently. The easy flow of ideas that drives economic growth also tends to happen in metros. The largest metropolitan areas house 76 percent of "knowledge economy" jobs (such as software developers), 81 percent of R&D employment, and 67 percent of major U.S. research universities. Just six metros accounted for 64 percent of the nation's venture capital funding. It turns out that the genuine interaction of people in the same physical space is not replaceable by the Internet, telecommuting, or video conferencing.

A politician who ignores this economic and demographic reality risks making serious policy mistakes, such as misdirecting the public investments that we need to survive in an era of intense global competition. For example, self-sufficient small towns don't need mass transit and high-speed rail networks, but interconnected metros do. Germany and France have already constructed fast rail connections between their major metropolitan areas, radically altering the movement of people and the facilitation of business. China is building the most sophisticated network of ports and freight hubs in the world. A nation of small towns doesn't recognize the need for these kinds of investments.

People's longing for small towns is an understandable fantasy. Small towns seem like slower, saner havens in an overly connected, frenetic world, places where a blackberry is an ingredient in jam. But metros, not small towns, are where our economy is, where our population is, and where our country's future is.

They may even be where our values are. Early twentieth-century sociologists wrote essay upon essay warning against the anomie and isolation of urban life when our metropolitan areas were new, loud, dirty, and frightening. But a few decades later, Jane Jacobs and Herbert Gans described the interdependence and solidarity of people in Greenwich Village and Levittown. Metros have increasingly come to symbolize connectedness--and connectedness, also expressed as a sense of community, is a powerful American value. The real lesson of metro culture is that values (like people) can't be constricted by municipal borders or labels on a map. Americans take our values with us, in high-rises, duplexes, McMansions, trailer parks, and tract home developments across the country. America is much bigger than its small towns.

[caldwellptr]

An American, a citzen of the United States, is either born in the United States or is Naturalized.

No other definition fits every citzen - red or blue, urban or rural, kind or crazy -

Now go back to fighting amongst yourself.

[cwbyht]

I see thorough this effort to discredit anyone, who still belives in God and country, telling us we''re out of touch, with America. Big city libs trying to redesign society. Theres still more of us country folks out here, and were not going to stand for it. Got that?

[markangeloo]

The song was written by Bruce Hornsby, with lyrics added by Henley, and both perform the song live

[singlasalil8]

Check out dailysource.org/palin for the largest page on the Internet related to Sarah Palin.
It has in-depth research, audio clips, videos, excerpts and links to hundreds of articles, including many from papers and TV stations in Alaska. It has rare footage, including her telling the 2008 convention of the Alaska Independence Party, whose goal is to give Alaska a vote on seceding from the U.S. to %u201Ckeep up the good work.%u201D

[ubrew12]

Who knows how long this will last
Now weve come so far, so fast
But, somewhere back there in the dust
That SAME SMALL TOWN in each of us.

I need to remember this
So baby give me just one kiss
And let me take a long last look
Before we say good bye.

Just lay your head back on the ground
And let your hair fall all around me
Offer up your best defense
But this is the end, this is the end of the innocence.

Don Henley

[dixxson-2009]

Interesting observation that in the article
in the Boston Globe, Sarah Palin look a
likes, all of the women were rather attractive Looking,except for Palin and the comediennes emulating her.
Palin and the comediennes Emulating Palin looks like "Ding Bats" Space Cadets"!

[kcschaller]

Well, you hit the nail on the head, there. You are absolutly correct. loved the article.

[ubrew12]

California, 0.79
Connecticut, 0.66
New Jersey, 0.55
New York, 0.79
Rhode Island, 1.02
Massachusetts, 0.77

That''s how much each of these blue states gets in Federal Spending per tax dollar sent to the Feds.
from: http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/sh
ow/266.html

People in New Jersey are taxed two dollars for every dollar in Federal spending they get back.

West Virginia, 1.83
Mississippi, 1.77
Oklahoma, 1.48
Montana, 1.58
Tennessee, 1.30
Kansas, 1.12

Translation: Red staters have found a way get blue-staters to pay them for living. Strange place for conservatives to be!

BTW, Palin''s Alaska gets more in Federal Spending (per tax dollar sent back) than any other state in the nation. Her state gets FIVE TIMES as much as New Jersey.

Welfare State Alaska!!! Palin is definitely a good conservative: get the next generation to pay her debts and the blue staters to pay for her roads and bridges. Republican hypocracy is in full throttle up there...

[tbuckl]

I want to vote to the person who will follow this GREAT American idea and concept and return my America to me and my fellow citizens forthwith..."We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles & organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness." Thomas Jefferson

[wogerwabbit]

this is a joke right?

Posted by paris1969 at 06:50 PM : Sep 26, 2008

Quite possibly, but you''re pretty sad, nonetheless. I grew up in the ultimate ''burbs on Long Island in the 50''s and even that doesn''t exist anymore today. Life is much more dynamic... things like the internet and stuff, you do get it, heh? Someone sitting in Nowheresville reading this blog is a hundred times more informed than his isolated ancestors. Knowledge is power, and that''s the one thing the Reugs don''t get... and fear most.

[mikelpond]

hey notblue,
what is it about this that is "false elitist lib thinking"? Your comment is incoherent. The writer is talking about numbers. Appearantly those numbers are quite threatening to your world vision. But you don''t challenge the numbers, you simply rant.
Did you actually read the article?

[paris1969]

"The real America isn''t found in cities or suburbs or small towns, but in the metropolitan areas or "metros" that bring all these places into economic and social union."
.......... this is a joke right?

[element51]

Having lived in a metro area, Los Angeles, and a small town in the midwest it has been my experience that, although small towns are nice, they are not what the country is all about. There are good things to be said about both but the engine that drives everything are the metro areas. The nostalgic memories of small town America are nice in the movies but the reality is that in order to survive it is necessary to be connected to a metro area. The town I live is has a population of 163 thousand and the surrounding area towns are essentially bedroom communities. Without a metro area the small towns would dry up and blow away. Being able to go out and shoot your daily moose might be fun to some but most people would rather go to their local Wal Mart to buy their moose already dressed and ready to cook.

[joker1944-2009]

''Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we''re talking about today. And that''s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.''

~ Sarah Palin

Well said, moron.

[jefflz-2009]

Can anyone honestly stand up and say that Palin is ready to be Vice President? She has made a complete fool of herself in her conversation with Couric. Her responses were garbled, at times incoherent talking points that she had tried to memorize but they were often not even relevant to the question. Palin supporters: If you are not a trained public speaker and have a poor education does that mean Palin is ready for national office because she is like you? Don''t we need the best qualified people to run our country, not our next door neighbors? McCain is making a mockery of this election. His "debate is off/now its on" stunt and his choice of Palin are proof positive of McCain''s shoot-from-the-hip lack of judgment. We must reject the McCain/Palin ticket as a matter of nation security if nothing else.

[notblue]

typical, false elitist lib thinking! That''s why this country is divided. Amercia IS and ALWAYS will be small town! Geesh!

[eric-914]

If I didn''t need money, I''d be moving to a small town in a heartbeat.

[lindaalabama]

MPO''s are only as good as the sum of their parts. Hometowns, communities, small towns. People still identify with their neighborhoods, subdivisions, schools, sports teams, churchs and even their local shopping sites. To say people think of themselves as MPO Metropolitans is only for the group of people that want to ''identify'' themselves with something bigger than they will ever be. To escape the ''small'' town or neighborhood they came from.

[trillion1]

Just the title of this article is amazingly stupid.

[oldone60]

Spoken like someone who has never even looked out the window at "flyover country".