Long commutes are good news for rural towns

The Wall Street Journal (page B5) reports today that the number of workers who have to commute 90 minutes or more each way to work has doubled since 1990. That adds up to three hours or more in the car every day. It takes a toll on job satisfaction, personal life, and family life.

Some of those commuters are looking for a place to work where commutes are not as long and not as stressful. When we lived in Craig County, I had a thirty minute "commute" back and forth to work, but the drive was so easy (no traffic) and so beautiful (down a highly rated Virginia Byway) that I looked forward to it at the end of the day as a way of unwinding on the way home.

For rural communities that have a plan, these millions of commuters are potential residents that can stop the flow of people moving away. What's in the plan?

• Transform your 1960s style Main Streets into business and entrepreneurial business districts. This means less emphasis on tourism and gift shops, and a sharp focus on creating the right infrastructure to attract businesses, including high quality rehabs of old retail spaces into downtown business incubators and office spaces, high quality coffee shops and restaurants, and the right service businesses (copy services, shipping services, business accounting and business attorneys).
• The right mix of middle class and upper middle class housing, both in town neighborhoods and residential neighborhoods a little farther out of town. This is one thing a lot of rural communities miss because economic developers don't see this as part of economic development. Business people and their families need good quality places to live, and not everyone wants to live in 100 year old "fixer upper" farmhouses.
• An economic development strategy that is making significant investments in quality of life issues. There are still too many ecnomic development plans that pay lip service to this but are not actually putting development dollars into execution. Business incubators out by the interstate or down in the woods somewhere is not what attracts businesspeople and entrepreneurs today. They want to live and work in traditional small towns, with services, restaurants, and amenities a short walk from the office, not yet another long drive from the incubator ten miles from town.
• And finally, you need affordable, modern, high capacity broadband services. DSL is fast becoming the dial up of this decade, and you need a broadband strategy that is more than, "We've got DSL on Main Street."

How about your community? Do you have an economic development plan that is carefully targeted at attracting businesspeople tired of long commutes? Are you making the right investments to get them to take a close look at your region?