Carlisle, PA

On our way up route 81 last Friday there was an accident outside Carlisle, PA. Google Maps was telling us the delay was mushrooming fast, 19 minutes, 21, 29. We kinda needed gas, and we kinda needed to pee, so I prevailed against Natalie's better judgment (she was behind the wheel) and we got off in Carlisle. Off the highway, of course, there was gridlock too. So we got a good look at this small town of about 19,000. Unlike some of the other towns we've looked at in recent weeks, its population has held steady over recent decades, most likely because it has a couple of anchor institutions (Dickinson College as well as the US Army War College and the Carlisle Barracks) which stabilize it.

But their faculty and staff are probably split between downtown Carlisle and outlying suburbs/subdivisions. The downtown area itself was a mix of hardscrabble and boutique situated in beautiful but capital-intensive rowhouses from the 19th and early 20th centuries, like what we've seen in so many of these smaller cities in Pennsylvania as we've toured colleges this year (Easton, Lancaster, Lewisburg). Each of them is a gem in the rough with great stuff going on but just not quite enough of it to gain critical mass. Each of them suffers from being in an area at best just slightly outside a major metro area which could send out a creative class to gussy it up Richard Florida style.

What each of them needs is sustained, vigorous, and wise boosterism on the part of municipal and business leadership. They need generations of smart and indefatigable salespeople who know how to partner with economic development teams to find a niche and attract employers, to coordinate with school and community college systems to produce pipelines of the right skill sets... frankly even saying it is exhausting and reminds me that I really don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. This shit is hard. I can see the path, or rather a path, but also the manifold obstacles that will fling themselves in the path of anyone who tries. But lord knows they should try and I root for each and every one of these small towns and cities.

Maybe COVID and remote working will help.