Hollow

Showing the "other" side of Youngstown, Ohio

I commend this photographer in their effort to show the “other” side of Youngstown. It seems they have a very similar outlook about their hometown as we do about McDowell County. 

Check out the story on RustWire

“These photographs focus on people not commonly shown in media depictions, as well as those working to contribute positively to the city, whether through community leadership, arts and culture, neighborhood development, or other such venues. Hopefully, these images leave the viewer with a sense of a Youngstown beyond the headlines of crime and economic collapse. For Youngstown is not yet a city abandoned; instead, it can be a place of both struggle and joy for those who still call it home.”

Special thanks to our Kickstarter Backers today!

Real Rural

Welcome to the rest of California.

Ever since Americans have had to define what “rural” means, they have done so simply by saying what it is not. In common usage, rural is any place not populous, not developed, not easily reached by an interstate. Our national authority on demographics, the U.S. Census Bureau, classifies it merely as a remainder: “‘Rural’ encompasses all population, housing, and territory not included within an urban area.” That’s it.

And yet, anyone who has ever left the highway in the Golden State knows that rural California is a place far too diverse to lump into the category “other.” From Modoc County to Raisin City, from the Carissa Plains to the Coachella Valley, the experience is in fact one of diversity and depth. The stories here are about rural California as a world unto itself—not a list of the things it is not, but an exploration of the things that it is.

Written by Lisa Hamilton

I find this project very interesting. It includes audio excerpts, maps, photography and short written materials to share the stories of rural California.

How One Hospital Entices Doctors To Work In Rural America

'Brain Drain': Put a Stopper in Your Mouth

A few years ago, at a conference about the woes of rural America, one speaker really caught my attention with a very simple message. “Never say ‘rural brain drain,’” She told us. “Think about it.” She pointed out that to say “brain drain” in a rural community is basically telling everyone  present — the people who stayed — that they’re dumb. You’re implying they somehow missed the boat and are demonstrating low IQ just by being rural. 

In a City Fighting Blight, ‘Ghost Signs’ as Portals to a Bygone Era

A demolition reveals two well-preserved ads on the side of a building that allude to a prosperity that is incongruous in today’s Highland Park, Mich.

A Fight for Post Offices and Towns’ Souls

Gas-rich Ohio is in the running for a $2 billion chemical plant

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A giant chemical plant that processes natural gas is coming to the Midwest and Ohio leaders hope the state’s newly tapped gas deposits, coupled with growing industries that use gas products, make Ohio the favored location.

Shell Chemical is finalizing plans for a $2 billion complex that is expected to create hundreds of jobs and pull other industries and manufacturers into its orbit. Shell has said only that it plans to build in either West Virginia, Pennsylvania or Ohio, three states that overlay ancient shale beds rich in natural gas.

Major cities like Cleveland are not considered contenders but they could certainly be affected. Any location will likely be rural, but not remote.

The plant needs hundreds of acres of land, according to Dan Carlson, Shell Chemical’s general manager of new business development in the Americas. Shell would also like access to railroads, river barges, a skilled workforce and university researchers, Carlson said via email.

“What we’re looking for is cost-effectiveness and ease in moving this project forward quickly,” he added.