The obligations of the Town Hall

Rather than shoving all our debates into a single, hellish town square, let each town have its own, and let us work to make each a place of fruitful exchange.

American communities founded on intense associational activity now have a civic participation vacuum. Associations once mobilized their constituents for specific improvements. Now only local governments -- often elected by tiny numbers of voters, or self-appointed small business groups -- serve as public custodians. While there have always been goo... See more

But these tasks of meaning making require the small town, precisely, not to change too fast. Meanwhile, we demand that such places upend their entire local economy as soon as their fragile node in the regional economy is disrupted, often by some far-off decision over which the town had no control. It’s impossible. A place will certainly be grumpy i... See more