How Rural America Is Saving Itself

Rural regions dominate the American landscape, comprising 97 percent of the country’s land mass. While 20 percent of Americans live in these regions, many still doubt their importance in the 21st century. A new wave of commentary and reports have tackled a question on many urban Americans’ minds: can rural America be “saved”? One of these, a New York Times op-ed by Eduardo Porter, went as far as to say, “one thing seems clear...nobody—not experts or policymakers or people in these communities—seems to know quite how to pick rural America up.” With stagnant or declining populations in many rural counties, and “superstar cities” hogging most of the economic growth, Porter’s view would have us believe that rural life is fading away.While rural regions may not be swimming in investment capital, they are awash in local pride and tight-knit communities. The tech industry is one asset that rural communities can support at a scale that makes sense for them. Michigan’s rural communities are full of organizations doing work to support the expansion of the tech industry. The MTEC SmartZone located in Houghton, Michigan, over 200 miles away from the closest metropolitan area, runs a business accelerator that supports budding local tech entrepreneurs in building and growing their companies locally. Their accelerator program runs three cohorts a year, and collectively their programming has led to over 700 local jobs created since 2011.