April 15, 2018
As I travel across the continent I have come to wonder about the fate of many of the small towns I have passed through. It has brought to mind my own home town of Eganville, Ontario and many others like it in both Canada and the USA. Are these towns locked into some sort of death spiral fated to become the ghost towns of tomorrow? There are similar signs pointing to this process; closed and deteriorating store fronts, frequent “for sale” signs and a lack of people on the sidewalks. Some seem nearly dead already with a lone gas station as the only business apparently still operating.
There is a beauty and intimacy that will disappear from the landscape once they are gone. Something that does not and can not exist in the suburban bedroom communities that seem to spread like ivy runners from major population centres. Gone will be the corner store where the owner or a member of the owner’s family provided personal service, knew your name and likely knew what you want before you asked. Even where the town still appear somewhat more prosperous these locally owned and operated business have been replace by chains such as Dollar General and Family dollar stores that appear exactly the same in California and they do in Mississippi. Gone will be the ability to buy the essentials for day to day life without having to drive 50 miles and stand in line to make you purchase from an employee who likely works for minimum wage and who care little to not at all if you continue to shop there.
Some blame Walmart and its big box cousins for this decline but that can not be the entire or even the primary reason. It is true that Walmart and others did operate on a business model that targeted such communities and may still do so. It is also true that these major retailing chains now have their own dedicated chains of supply and distribution that have squeezed out the wholesalers who sold to small individual merchants. Those independent convenience stores that do continue to exist usually have to source their merchandise from Costco or from the big chain stores that they must compete against.
However, if you look a bit deeper you can see other, more serious causes for the downward spiral. Industries that have not shifted manufacturing off shore now are more mechanized in order to stay competitive in a global marketplace and this means fewer local jobs. Agriculture and logging now use machines to do the jobs that formerly employed hundreds of workers. Computer take orders online and fill them with little human involvement other than the driver of the truck who makes the deliveries. I could continue to give examples but if you think about it, you or a family member have already had first hand experiences with this process.
It is depressing when someone like a local priest who I met on my journey was so down on his town’s chances that he did not have a single positive thing to say about the community he ministered to. To him it was already dead and awaiting the funeral. Crime and drugs were how he described the local economy.
Morganza, a railroad strip type town, seemed quite depressed with the Spillway Cafe the only bright sign of activity. New Roads, a larger town just down the road on a cut off bend of the Mississippi, seemed to be doing better. Even here there are signs of the chronic wasting malaise. Riding in on Business Route 1 you pass the expected Walmart, Sonic and auto parts stores spread out along the wide commercial highway leading into town. There is a charming waterfront on the False River and what appears to be a nice waterfront restaurant or two but the signs of decay are still abundant in abandoned gas stations and a downtown main street that no longer seems to be main.
Luckily, not everybody or every town is ready to declare defeat. Some like my home town of Eganville are trying to fight the good fight by being creative and by looking for boutique ideas to attract new businesses. Some try farmer’s markets or specially themed events to help create a positive atmosphere of pleasant living and prosperity. These have varying chances of succeeding and may even succeed in postponing or eliminating the day of reckoning. Rather or not they can do so will depend upon luck in the form of a major employer remaining or choosing to locate nearby or innovation in the form of the community reinventing itself in a way that is attractive and economical for people to want to live there. Some may need a combination of both but one thing is certain, just giving up will be a self fulfilling prophecy. Even the successful ones will likely have a different look than before and different ways of doing business. It is my hope that they will find a way to retain the charm and intimacy that make them special place to those who remember what they once were.