Small Cities Can Help to Revitalize Rural Areas

In recent decades the United States increasingly has experienced an unbalanced pattern of settlement. The nation's population has become proportionally more and more concentrated into a relatively few large metropolitan areas. Rural areas have lost population as the number of jobs in farming and other activities declined. Thus, at the same time that urban congestion has aggravated big-city problems, many rural areas are stagnating with high unemployment. This paper is concerned with the possibility of achieving a more balanced national distribution of population in the future through the revitalization of rural areas. It is suggested that: (1) rural development activities be focused on those "small cities"—places of ten thousand to fifty thousand population—that have locational and other assets on which to build, and (2) the basic unit for planning and action be multi-county "districts." Several federal agencies are now using this district approach, in cooperation with the states, after finding smaller—county—units too limited in scope. Although major rural revitalization on a national scale would require large amounts of public and private investment, it is believed that much can be accomplished, even with present funding, by closer cooperation of government agencies and by recognition of the crucial role of the small cities.