City Makers: American Futures
The people, organizations, and ideas reshaping the country. A journey piloted by James Fallows with Deborah Fallows.
Entrepreneurs
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Thread The Company That Turns Plastic Bottles Into Fabric—and Jobs
A startup in Pittsburgh shows what a social enterprise is capable of.
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Jinx!/Flickr The Hard Road to Making Hard Liquor
A look at a nascent distillery in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley
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The Colony Meadery Making Mead in a Space-Age World
A new craft-beverage business in Allentown, Pennsylvania, benefits from its association with an incubator of high-tech businesses.
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Deborah Fallows National Problems, Local Solutions: More Reports From Ohio
America and Americans in the active, not passive, mode
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John Tierney Pennsylvania's Beer Economy
Brewers have been perfecting their recipes in this part of the country since the middle of the 19th century.
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Jessica Phelps How to Attract Artists to a Down-and-Out Neighborhood
Columbus, Ohio, has figured out how to draw creative types to an area it is hoping to revitalize.
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Photos by Deborah Fallows Theories of History: Joe Max Higgins and the Golden Triangle of Mississippi
"When Eurocopter came here, people started walking upright a little bit." Why has this part of Mississippi pulled ahead of some others?
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The Parks and Recreation Theory of America's Future
What we discuss at the national level has surprisingly little to do with startup decisions. Some provocative data about where America is growing, and why.
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Smaller-Town Startups: 'Stopping the Brain Drain' in South Carolina
'People say, this is my ticket Out.' Then, they want to stay.
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Ice Cream, Chocolate, Coffee, and Beer
Take ingredients and blend, for small-town synergy.
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Why Do Tech Companies End Up Where They Are?
"You get some clusters, and some stand-alone firms far from anyone else. But rarely anything in-between."
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Wikimedia Commons Luck? Planning? Karma? The Elements of a Small Town's High-Tech Success
A software company grows in an unlikely setting. "Why here?" we ask the founders.
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Wikimedia Commons Building a Museum: Report From Down East
A Maine couple defies the odds -- and helps to build community in the process.
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Small Town, Big Tides, Bigger Ambitions: Ocean Renewable Power in Eastport
"We like to think we are the Kitty Hawk of hydro-kinetic power."
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The Next Lesson From Holland: Why Local Money Matters
In an age of globalized companies and relentless focus on "shareholder value," a reminder of what local ownership can mean.
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Riverview Group Holland, 'Snowmelt,' 'Patient Capital,' and the Revival of Downtown
"I have the best location in all of Western Michigan!"
