Whether they’re suffering from farmland erosion, or from the decline of once-booming industries such as mining and manufacturing, rural cities and towns have witnessed dramatic losses in downtown investments along with young residents seeking greater opportunities and more amenities. As information- and technology-based industries become a larger part of the national economy, rural communities with limited broadband connections are struggling to keep pace.
To help rural places get up to speed, Smart Growth America, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Appalachian Regional Commission provided workshops to rural communities through the Cool & Connected program. These workshops helped the communities find new economic opportunities by providing planning guidance for sustainable downtown development and investments in broadband, or reliable, high-speed internet access.
March 20th, 2018
1:00 - 2:00 CST
COST: Free!
In this webinar, guests from Zanesville, OH and Eastport, ME will speak to their efforts to revitalize their downtowns, talk about how Cool & Connected impacted their communities, and discuss what they've been working on since.