On migration from urban to rural, from the coasts to the heartland

Lots of folks left city life for "country life" (by one definition or another) during the pandemic, as noted in this recent feature in the Los Angeles Times about Angelenos decamping to the high desert area around Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley in the Inland Empire.   Now comes another LA Times story about Angelenos (and folks in cities like Denver) on the move, but now the city folks are moving farther afield, to places like Nebraska and Iowa.  Don Lee reports.  Here's an excerpt about the trend, which Lee frames as a reversal of the rural brain drain:

For generations of young people reared in the nation’s heartland, it has been almost a rite of passage: Grow up in a small town, finish school, head out for the opportunities of cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. It’s been a major factor in the aging populations and declining economies of rural communities.

But the pandemic may be reversing — or at least slowing — that trend as many people reassess their priorities. Just as critically, the COVID-19 health crisis has opened up more telework opportunities, making life more feasible for those wanting to live in smaller states and towns.

Smaller cities such as Topeka, Kan., and Stillwater, Okla., are wasting no time capitalizing on new employment prospects, offering thousands of dollars in cash for new residents moving into their areas for work.

Iowa, Nebraska, West Virginia and other states have launched an assortment of grants and other inducements aimed at enticing people to work there, especially in rural communities. 

Reminds me of this piece from The Conversation last week (which I blogged about a few days ago), where the focus was on climate change, rather than the pandemic, as the migration driver.  The headline there, "How ‘managed retreat’ from climate change could revitalize rural America: Revisiting the Homestead Act," and the authors are urbanists based in Toronto and New York, Hillary A. Brown and Daniel R. Brooks.  Here's a related story from the Daily Yonder a few days ago.