"Rural Areas in Transition" by Norm Walzer and Chris Merrett

When you talk about the state of rural America, the story usually involves boarded-up storefronts and shrinking downtowns. Declines in jobs and population in small towns in Illinois and across America stretch back decades. But Norm Walzer and Chris Merrett have just produced “Rural Areas in Transition,” a book that sees new hope for rural America, hope spurred on by technology. The book shows that rural areas are in a major long-term transition and that local leaders who take advantage of these opportunities in their community and economic development strategies can create a very positive future for residents.“We now have opportunities for people who live in places where they’d like to live and couldn’t in the past because they had to go to work every day,” said Norm Walzer who founded the Illinois Rural Affairs Institute at Western Illinois University in 1989. “It’s debatable as to what’s going to happen in the next few years—whether companies will call people back to work in the office—but without question I think there’s going to be a segment of the population who will continue to work not in the office every day. They’re going to work from home, wherever,” Walzer said.“That opens the opportunity for them to live elsewhere,” he said. In addition, Walzer said advances in telecommunications also allow telemedicine to serve rural citizens who may not live close to a medical facility.Institute director Chris Merrett said Mattoon offers affordable, dependable broadband and also benefits from being located near an interstate highway and is a town with passenger rail service. Small towns need to examine what assets they have, he said. “Then the challenge is can you bundle them and market them to attract people?” said Merrett.“I’m optimistic that if you can convince local places to proactively think about their future, come together to think about their future, great things can happen whether it’s setting up a cooperative grocery store, increasing broadband service or filling up empty storefronts in the downtown,” he said.“We underestimate the ability of rural communities to make a positive change,” said Merrett, adding, “When a community makes a plan, it strengthens relationships within that community.”Walzer and Merrett wrote two of the book’s 13 chapters. Other contributors include some of the nation’s top rural economic development specialists.