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Small Towns
Sep. 10th, 2014 09:41 amIn America, we fetishize small towns. But we don't live in them, a fact that my most recent trip home to Westville made clear.
While downstate, I read the local newspapers, and saw that several high schools in Vermilion county had signed cooperative agreements so they had enough players to field a football team. When I was driving home along Illinois Route 49, during a holiday Monday with good weather, you could have shot scenes for a zombie apocalypse movie right in the middle of town. They were that empty.
Meanwhile, the nearest "big city" of Champaign, IL (with its sister city of Urbana, total population is around 120,000) was holding a bond referendum to expand their high schools, both running 150% of capacity. The trend was obvious - people were moving out of the small towns and to larger cities. (Says the guy who moved out of the small town in 1985 and hasn't moved back.)
While downstate, I read the local newspapers, and saw that several high schools in Vermilion county had signed cooperative agreements so they had enough players to field a football team. When I was driving home along Illinois Route 49, during a holiday Monday with good weather, you could have shot scenes for a zombie apocalypse movie right in the middle of town. They were that empty.
Meanwhile, the nearest "big city" of Champaign, IL (with its sister city of Urbana, total population is around 120,000) was holding a bond referendum to expand their high schools, both running 150% of capacity. The trend was obvious - people were moving out of the small towns and to larger cities. (Says the guy who moved out of the small town in 1985 and hasn't moved back.)
