You know, there is actually a market segment called “big fish, little pond”. Random aside.

I’ve moved to a medium sized city recently. Very affordable (from a regional perspective… 120k for a house in some parts of the state is expensive), that’s a nice factor. Walkable is helpful, but the deciding influence was culture. I’m looking for cool coffee shops, a museum, college, sporting events, parks. Many small towns don’t have any of those features, but the ones that do are at a decided advantage. Think about the creative class. What do they want? They are looking for entertainment and culture at the end of the day. Philly and Pittsburgh are starting to provide that (as are a number of other cities and towns in our state).

So if you want to start somewhere, get that old theater that’s been closed for 20 years, start a non-profit and start some fundraising and grant writing. B/c you have to start introducing culture somewhere.

LV

We have a start then because we do have a college, albeit a christian-oriented one, a very neat new little coffee house near the college, access to a terrific little park, Brady’s Run, that has walking paths, horse trails, bike trails, a lake, tennis courts, picnic shelters and more.

It’s nice to know we have more potential than we ordinarly think.

Thanks for the comments, LVD.

pd

I think all the Florida “creative class” stuff is fine, but jobs are always going to be the key reason people live and work where they do. And not just “today’s job,” either. With employment less certain than ever before, I would always regard a move to a new place with, “what if this doesn’t work out” in the back of my mind.

Larger towns and cities can generate cultural amenities because they have the critical mass to do so…but I doubt that will be the first thing I’d do to restore vitality to a town like BF. In fact, you have to look at every avenue and pursue them concurrently…and the commitment to re-energizing a place has to be long-term. It can’t just be a marketing slogan!

Pilt

Pilt, I agree jobs are a key reason people move from/to a place. After all, that’s how I ended up spending 3+ decades in Philly. :)

But it’s also nice to know that BF DOES have assets that a lot of small towns don’t, like a college, a wide main street, and easy access to a nice park that we could market.

I think this is vital to attracting people to reach the “critical mass” that’s needed to turn things around. I guess it’s sort of a “chicken or the egg” argument.

pd