Introduction

A short reflection on putting down roots

In 2013, I was finishing up my Master’s in City Planning at the Bloustein School at Rutgers University, and feeling anxious. I and dozens of my classmates - mostly young, idealistic nerds who were into craft beer and cared deeply about things like municipal budgets, bike lanes, and affordable housing subsidies - in the planning and public policy programs were graduating into a brutal job market in the public sector, thanks to austerity budgets adopted in response to the 2008 recession. The job market consisted of precious few openings in city, county, or regional governments as well as some in NGOs, and the big consulting firms, most located in New York, Washington, or other big metro areas on the coasts.

When my lease in New Jersey ended that year, I moved back home to Carbon County, Pennsylvania to figure out my next steps. I accepted a job at a community-based research think tank in Wilkes-Barre, PA and did a lot of the life-building you do in your 20s - I got engaged, then married. We cared for our aging parents and became first-time homeowners and became first-time entrepreneurs. We put down roots.

When you live in a small town in an economically distressed region, you get bombarded with messages from a young age that success means getting out. This isn’t completely unfounded - poor quality housing, a low wage economy built around the service sector, inhospitable politics, and the prospect of being bored can be real challenges. But in times that are often scary and uncertain, there’s comfort in being connected to places and communities that mean something to us. My hope is for more folks in places like mine do what they’re able to create the kinds of communities, systems, and resources that enable everyone to thrive - in the face of economic and political forces that put some places at a disadvantage.

I’ve created this outlet to share analysis and commentary that might be of interest to the folks who are aiming to do that - community organizers, activists, nonprofit leaders, public servants, academics, or anyone looking to make a positive change.

In this blog, you can expect to find some practical analysis of public policy challenges, (especially those relevant to rural Pennsylvania), spotlights on work being done by activists and community leaders, and original data dashboards, maps, and infographics that uncover hopefully valuable insights. I’ve written before about several different public policy fields, and I’ll be covering a range of topics related to housing, transportation, infrastrcture, and public health while keeping this blog focused on covering topics of regional interest with a data-driven approach informed by an intersectional view on social equity.

I’ve spent the last decade plus in community-based research, but I’m not a trained journalist. As such, this newsletter won’t include much of things like breaking news, deep investigative reporting, or coverage of day-to-day politics.

Thank you for reading this far! As so many of us struggle to understand what it means to create change in this scary and challenging political moment, I look forward to making connections with some of you in this space.

Best,

Andrew