Good Tuesday Morning!
I've been doing a lot of reading and research on the rural/urban divide and on how those things may be disproportionately impacting Appalachian communities.
It's easy to see around the region how rural folks may feel unheard and unseen. The cities drive policy, drive culture, and impact the priorities of the country. The US Census says that 60% of the people in the US live on 4% of the land area - in the cities.
The catch is that leaves 40% of the people, and however many may live in the cities and agree with them, that don't see the country through remotely the same lens. Health care, guns, welfare, policing, and infrastructure, just to name a few, all look very different if you live in Washington DC or Chicago versus if you live in a small town in the middle of the US.
I bring this up in conjunction with this photo from Ohiopyle as a small example, and an example that we are seeing play out in different towns around the region (such as Davis/Thomas). Ohiopyle has a permanent population of 59 people, as of the 2010 Census. I guarantee you that this number is at least 10 times multiplied on any decent weather weekend, and a great many of those visitors are coming down from urban centers, such as Pittsburgh. Who gets to make the rules? The 59, or the 500 visitors?
A little something to keep that in mind the next time someone decides to hang their entire argument on "majority rules".
See y'all on Friday.
Entrance Rapid - Pennsylvania