On mending the rural-urban rift, from Minnesota

Starting about two weeks ago, MinnPost, a non-profit news website in Minnesota, published a series of essays/op-eds on the rural-urban divide.  I was author of the first one here, titled, "With plenty of urban folks bashing rural folks and vice versa, what’s the goal?"

The second essay was "How to Shift the Rural-Urban Discussion toward an Appreciation for Interdependence."  Ellen Wolter, an Extension educator with the University of Minnesota Extension, wrote it.  Like my piece, Wolter was heavy on the interdependence theme: 

As someone who grew up in rural areas, lived in urban communities for 20 years, and recently moved back to Greater Minnesota, I see firsthand the similarities of — and interdependence between — rural and urban. Focusing on ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ as separate and divided entities, however, limits our ability to create solutions that move us forward.

Rural and urban communities depend on each other to grow their economies, establish commerce, exchange information, goods, materials, and services, to educate our students and build a thriving workforce, and to provide recreation and culture.

The third essay was "Urban-rural misunderstandings in Minnesota abound, but we're all neighbors," by Julie Tesch. Here's an excerpt: 

Yes, there are differences between rural and urban populations. But rural is not the opposite of urban.

In fact, both places have more in common than most people realize. The differences come in the details. As the CEO of the Center for Rural Policy & Development, my job is to help show that policies made for the Twin Cities suburb of Robbinsdale might not work in western Minnesota’s Redwood Falls and vice versa, and that’s because they’re different. Different demographics, population density, incomes, tax base, industries, the list goes on.

* * *

There is an urban-rural misunderstanding. Rural residents can’t possibly know how policies will truly affect residents in Minneapolis when they have never lived there, just like Minneapolis residents can’t understand how policy will affect the people in my town of 200.

What Tesch is talking about there sounds like rural proofing, which I've written about in the past.

Meanwhile, the talk I gave as part of the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Oct. 25, can be viewed here.  It will be broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio in early December.  

I was especially grateful for this endorsement (after the fact) of my talk by Anthony Pipa of the Brookings Institute: