From Retention to Renewal: How BRE and Entrepreneurship Power Real Economic Development cover image

From Retention to Renewal: How BRE and Entrepreneurship Power Real Economic Development

Real economic development in small towns isn’t chasing the next big deal—it’s helping existing businesses grow and new local owners take root.
jcshepard.com/2026/03/from...
#smalltowns #rural #econdev

Understanding your Rural Economy cover image

Understanding Your Rural Economy—Jobs & Income & Why Headlines Never Tell the Whole Story
Before you share that “Rural America is dying” headline, pull up the data on your own county and see what’s really happening with jobs, income, and people on the ground.

jcshepard.com/2026/03/unde...
#econdev

What is Economic Development in Modern America? A Field Guide for Small Towns and Rural Places
#EconDev in 2026 looks a lot less like chasing smokestacks & a lot more like neighbors, small businesses, & local leaders quietly building places people actually want to live.
jcshepard.com/2026/03/what...

Know Thyself and Your Community

We need to better understand how our communities and the people who live there work.

medium.com/small-towns-...
#planning #data #communityengagement #econdev

© Vincent Nossek, Jared Greathouse, Pierre Mandon

📊 New study by J. Greathouse, V. Nossek & P. Mandon.

Satellite nighttime lights help measure the economic impact of conflict in #Cameroon ’s Northwest & Southwest regions, where #data are scarce.

Read the paper online: t.ly/_AMXA ✨

#EconDev #Conflict #Innovation

Understanding Your Rural Economy—Jobs and Income and Why Headlines Never Tell the Whole Story - For rural analysis, QCEW’s county-level industry detail (by NAICS), coupled with average weekly wage measures, allows researchers and planners to track the

Rural headlines say “dying” and “disappearing,” but the map is more interesting than that.
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New: a field guide walk through jobs & income data in one #rural county—layer by layer—so you can read your own hometown’s economic map, not just the headline. #EconDev
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🔗 jcshepard.com/2026/03/unde...

“The Pennsylvania Wilds has a lot of small communities in its big woods. About 500,000 people total are scattered across an area the size of Massachusetts...."
— Tataboline Enos, in Proudly Made (Catamount Press, 2025)
Full quote:
medium.com/@jcshepard.a...
#OutdoorEconomy #Rural #Econdev

Manufacturing remains critical to Kent economy While Delaware’s economy has seen ebbs and flows based on trends, manufacturing has remained a steady force to the First State’s identity – especially in Kent County.

"Freight rail is emerging as a strategic advantage [for Kent County, Delaware] with some industrial sites coming online soon along the railway"
delawarebusinesstimes.com/insider-only... #netde #econdev

What is Economic Development in Modern America? A Field Guide for Small Towns and Rural Places - When I say “economic development”, what comes to mind? Is it big industrial plants and multi-million dollar tax incentives? I wouldn’t be surprised.

What is Economic Development in Modern America? A Field Guide for Small Towns and Rural Places

These days #econdev looks less like marketing, more like community outreach, grants, housing, infrastructure, business support, & a lot of herding cats toward shared goals.

jcshepard.com/2026/03/what...

Rural Strong — Season 1 Episode 36 Podcast Episode · RuralStrong · February 23 · 34m

STaR's Vice-Chair for Communications @jcshepard.com is a guest this week on Joe Barker’s Rural Strong podcast.

Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4pdX...
Or YouTube: youtu.be/uau5zV0xJYo?...

#smalltownrural #smalltowns #rural #planning #econdev
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Turning the data center boom into long-term, local prosperity | Brookings Local leaders are questioning the credibility of Big Tech’s promises of spillover effects that will produce high-quality economic development beyond near-term construction.

#RealEstate #EconDev

RuralStrong Episode 36

Thanks to Joe Barker for inviting me to have a conversation on planning & rural development n the RuralStrong podcast.
#SmallTown #Rural #planning #econdev
open.spotify.com/episode/4pdX...

Small Towns, Big Impact: How Rural Communities Are Designing Their Own Futures
#Smalltowns don’t have to wait their turn for “real” change—they’re already designing their own futures, one block, one grant, one paint day at a time.

jcshepard.com/2025/11/smal...
#Rural #econdev #planning

Between Editions: Who Pays for the AI Boom A free feature of The Rising Tide. No subscription needed to read.

The Rising Tide: Who Pays for the AI Boom by Dean Barber
Modern AI-era data centers resemble industrial fortresses. Some draw as much electricity as a small city, operating around the clock with limited flexibility....

open.substack.com/pub/barberd/...
#zoning #econdev #datacenters

National Main Street is on BlueSky at @mainstreetamerica.bsky.social
#econdev

Nebraska seems hostile to new business, jobs, & income in meddling in foreign affairs. #econdev

Rural Strong — Season 1 Episode 34 YouTube video by RuralStrong

Deb Brown, co-founder of SaveYour.Town and passionate champion for rural communities, is Joe Barker's guest on the Rural Strong podcast this week. Check it out on your podcast host of choice.

youtu.be/ensEu1HRHok?...
#SmallTowns #Rural #econdev

'Using more power and paying less for it': Nebraska bill seeks to regulate data centers in the state Rising electricity costs in Nebraska have some lawmakers pointing the finger at data centers, and a bill to regulate those facilities went before the Natural Resources Committee on Thursday.

"There are a lot of concerns about data centers coming into Nebraska and the amount of our natural resources that they are consuming," Sen. Ashlei Spivey said.

Spivey co-sponsored Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh's LB1111, which stems from those concerns.

www.ketv.com/article/nebr...
#econdev

🔍Zoom sur la #recherche d’I. Amedanou & K. Gomado

Comment réduire le #chômage en #Afrique ?

Cette étude (réalisée sur 18 pays) montre que les réformes économiques le peuvent, à condition de s'adapter aux réalités du pays et d'améliorer les infrastructures.

🔗 t.ly/Sqr8H

#EconDev
Photo © IRD

Who Can Afford to Live Rural? Global Pressures on Small-Town Housing Markets - The rural housing market is more of an idea than a thing. Housing supply and needs vary considerably across nations and regions, let alone around the world.

Who Can Afford to Live Rural?
Small towns and rural communities used to promise cheaper homes than big cities. Now, many of those places are caught up in the same global housing squeeze.

This week's long read on the blog:
jcshepard.com/2026/02/who-...
#smalltowns #rural #housing #econdev

With electricity bills rising, some states consider new data center laws • Stateline As Americans grow increasingly frustrated over their electricity bills, states are trying to keep the nation’s growing number of data centers from causing higher energy costs for consumers.

With electricity bills rising, some states consider new data center laws

Leaders in at least a dozen states have targeted data centers with separate, higher electric rates.

stateline.org/2026/02/05/w...
#zoning #energy #econdev

Why Small Town EDOs Are Tracking the Wrong Numbers (And What to Measure Instead) If you’re running economic development in a small town — especially as a single staff member or on a volunteer board — you’re operating…

Why Small Town EDOs Are Tracking the Wrong Numbers (And What to Measure Instead) by Katie Milton Jordan, MBA

medium.com/small-towns-...
#smalltowns #econdev #SmallTownsRealIdeas

© Vincent Nossek

📝📣 New working paper!

By V. Nossek, W. K. Bradley, F. Mortier, B. Cheville & P. Mandon.

Satellite imagery, infrastructure maps & event data help reveal living conditions and #poverty where traditional data are scarce.

🔗 t.ly/NvrG6

#EconDev #AlternativeData #CAR

Seeing a lot of pushback on renewable energy from rural residents. Nobody wants to live next door to your industrial energy facility.
#smalltown #rural #energy #econdev

Demography is Destiny… Except When It Isn’t

Kicking off Feb theme of demographics & housing. Looking at slower growth & rising diversity, immigration & aging reshaping the world, & why the rural‑urban demographic split looks so familiar.

jcshepard.com/2026/02/demo...
#population #rural #econdev

Cow cuddles and farm-churned ice cream are helping Midwest dairies thrive despite low milk prices Cow cuddling, ice cream churning and farm tours are among the tactics dairy farmers are employing to compensate for low milk prices

Cow cuddles and farm-churned ice cream are helping Midwest dairies thrive despite low milk prices

www.kcur.org/environment-...
@nebpublicmedia.bsky.social #smalltowns #rural #agritainment #valueaddedag #econdev #zoning

Nebraska unemployment claims spike to 5-year high Initial claims for the week ending Jan. 24 spiked to more than 3,000, likely due to the shutdown of the Tyson beef plant in Lexington.

Nebraska unemployment claims spike to 5-year high after closure of Tyson beef plant.

nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news...
@nebpublicmedia.bsky.social #econdev

Image illustrating small town entrepreneurship and small business.

The Rise of Rural Entrepreneurship: Building Economies from the Ground Up
In this week's entry for the Small Town, Real Ideas newsletter, I'm talking about economic development.

On Medium.com:
medium.com/small-towns-...
#econdev

Brian Kelsey highlights the latest US Census state-level population estimates release today on Civic Analytics: “The Carolinas shine again in latest release from Census”

open.substack.com/pub/civicana...
#population #econdev

"A smaller but still substantial increase in immigration helped offset natural loss, which grew from 80,000 to 540,000 people. This steep loss is part of a national trend of declining births and rising deaths that has been acute in non-metropolitan counties..."
#migration #econdev