THE RURBAN FRINGE

Reasons to Engage Your Community

Build Connections – Strengthen, deepen and expand relationships and better connect people and resources.
Advance Mission – Serve your organization’s core reason for being.
Build Relevance – As you interact with others, their interests and aspirations, you become an increasing part of their lives and matter more to them.
Increase Value – The greater your impact on others [...]

Highways and Byways

Within our region, there are a few communities experiencing the impacts of highway bypass development.
Yet in many urban fringe and rurban areas, highway construction activities are important to communities both because of the investment they represent and the changes they trigger.  And while such activities often relieve traffic congestion, shorten travel times, and provide new [...]

Urbia vs. Suburbia

As the lines are increasingly blurred between cities and suburbs, this recent article in Newsweek makes a case for increased regionalism and encourages governments to become involved in redefining and revitalizing these places.
” … the suburbs as we think of them are vanishing.
They no longer represent a retreat from the tumult of American life, but [...]

Arts and Culture Matter

There is a rising tide that recognizes the power and contribution of artistic and cultural expression in rural and rurban communities.  Such activities encourage reflection, stimulate creative thinking, sustain livelihoods and may offer alternative options to encourage social change.
But a vibrant artistic and cultural sector depends on strong leadership that recognizes the value of such [...]

The Chicken or the Egg?

Think fast … which comes first, infrastructure or economy?
Both, actually.  Economic development strategies must walk hand in hand with infrastructure development to be successful.
One may argue that it’s wrong to develop economic approaches while neglecting basic infrastructure requirements.  Or one may argue that by focusing on infrastructure development, businesses that drive local economies will be all [...]