City Makers: American Futures
The people, organizations, and ideas reshaping the country. A journey piloted by James Fallows with Deborah Fallows.
Civic Life
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Deborah Fallows Returning to Ohio
How a small, Midwestern town has changed over the decades—and where it aims to go
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Deborah Fallows What It Takes to Settle Refugees
The people of Erie, Pennsylvania, have welcomed immigrants and refugees, and believe that their town is better off for having done so.
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Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers collection The Ebbs and Flows of Coastal Maine
Quoddy Village was built ahead of its time.
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Mark Fainstein Erie's Unlikely Benefactor: Its Casino
Legalized gambling is a familiar part of the modern American landscape. But an innovative scheme in a lakeside city in western Pennsylvania shows new possibilities for putting casino revenue to positive public use.
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Allison Osberg / Courtesy of Tides Institute and ... Little Town, Big Art
“The arts” might seem a frill or nicety. In Eastport, Maine, they’ve been at the center of economic and civic plans and have helped the little city “punch above its weight.”
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Courtesy of Erie County Public Library A Waterfront Library
In Erie, Pennsylvania, a public institution is building on its nautical past to open a world of opportunity for local residents.
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James Fallows The World Comes to a Tiny Town: Eastport's Lesson in Globalization
Even the most remote-seeming corners of America can find themselves in the middle of quick-moving global trends.
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Eastport Update: Electric Power From the Sea
Early in 2014, I wrote a magazine article about the 1,300 residents of Eastport, Maine, with the title “…
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Nick Warren / Erie Reader Erie and America
The challenges of Rust Belt America are real, and well-known. What’s less familiar is the response some mid-sized cities are making.
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Deborah Fallows A Carnegie Legacy in Dodge City
Synergy of arts and civic life in a Kansas town
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A Note About Trumpism, From the 'Real America'
For the past week my wife Deb and I have been in western Kansas — Dodge City mainly, also Garden…
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The Multi-Dimensional Reality of the Nation, vs. the Flattened Reality of National Politics
My wife Deb and I have started out on the road again—northern Texas recently, now western Kansas, with a diversion…
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Deborah Fallows / The Atlantic Farming in the Desert
A small town in Arizona grows a thriving food scene.
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Wichita, Salisbury, Knoxville, Seattle: Revival Updates
Here are some recent developments that are related to the “America Is Putting Itself Back Together” argument in…
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Checklists for Success, from Knoxville to Salt Lake City and Beyond
We’re back to followup on my March issue story about local-level civic coherence, even at a time of the worst…
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Shifting Back to Better News: What's Happening, Apart from the Primaries, in Ohio
A big theme of our March issue cover stories (main story here; “11 signs of success” checklist; “…
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With the PBS NewsHour, in Greenville S.C.
Last night the PBS NewsHour ran a 10-minute segment hosted by Judy Woodruff and shot in Greenville, South Carolina, where…
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Hmmm, This Sounds Like Something I Would Agree With
From Thomas Friedman in the NYT, emphasis added: … what will be required to produce resilient citizens…
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Hmmm, Where Have We Heard This Before? (Super Tuesday Edition)
Headline on an editorial-page essay in this morning’s NYT: From the essay itself: In the…
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What Presidential Campaigns Show About Civic Fiber
The end of my current story in the magazine, on “How America Is Putting Itself Back Together,” explores…
