Stephen Lee Davis

Small town livability

Communications Associate and E-Advocacy Coordinator, Smart Growth America, Mar 29, 10.

Tagged with transportation, walkability, livability, rural, small towns, open space & farmland

From the President down to the Secretary of Transportation, administration officials have spent the year vocally supporting a focus on livability from the federal government — doing what’s in their power to encourage smarter, people-centric planning to create more great places to live where residents have numerous options for getting around and a high quality of life. Perhaps unsurprisingly in this polarized white-hot political era, there’s been a backlash in Congress from some rural legislators.

But isn’t livability really a quintessential small-town value? Shouldn’t these legislators be the foremost advocates for the federal government encouraging states to repair their roads and bridges before building new ones, making walking and biking safer to boost mobility in places where transit isn’t quite feasible and encouraging growth in historic small town Main Streets across America?

Bear with me for a personal story as I try to get to the bottom of that question. Part two continues today. Read part one here if you missed it.

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When gas prices shot to historic levels in the summer of 2005 and following Hurricane Katrina later that year, many residents, especially in the fast-growing new parts of Bentonville, Arkansas, were stuck with few options other than to bear the pain at the pump, stay at home, work from home, or take as few trips as possible.

But for me and my wife and many others living in the older part of the city in those weeks with astronomical gas prices, a pretty normal life was still possible, even while trying to cut back driving significantly to save money. Several weekends in a row, we parked our cars entirely, and managed to do our grocery shopping, go to church, visit friends, or listen to bluegrass in the square on a Friday night without having to get in either of our two cars. We walked 5 minutes to the grocery store. We biked to Walmart a handful of times — receiving many strange looks in the process. We went to eat at a new restaurant on the square. We went hiking on a short trail in the woods right on the edge of downtown. We went to the library.

Sounds pretty “livable,” right?

These sorts of fond memories about life in Bentonville are the ones rattling around in my brain when legislators from largely rural states question whether or not “livability” is a value that translates to our small towns, cities and rural areas.

Where are values like livability and quality of life more resonant if not in small towns like Bentonville? Other small towns and cities aren’t that different. Even in largely rural states like Wyoming or Montana, the majority of residents are still generally concentrated around urbanized areas, the old town square, or the former railroad depot in a pattern similar to Bentonville.

When Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood talks about livability as the desire people have for a range of transportation options, the freedom to own less than 2 or 3 cars, a high quality of life with ample green space, biking or walking paths, and shopping, restaurants or health care located nearby, he’s describing the very lifestyle of many residents of rural areas or small towns have, or the lifestyle many of them would like to have.