{"id":75313,"date":"2017-10-16T17:42:30","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T23:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rural-struggles-sparsely-populated-counties-are-left-in-the-dust-as-cities-and-coasts-thrive\/"},"modified":"2017-10-16T23:42:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T23:42:30","slug":"rural-struggles-sparsely-populated-counties-are-left-in-the-dust-as-cities-and-coasts-thrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rural-struggles-sparsely-populated-counties-are-left-in-the-dust-as-cities-and-coasts-thrive\/","title":{"rendered":"Rural struggles: Sparsely populated counties are left in the dust as cities and coasts thrive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"(AP
(AP Photo\/Gerry Broome)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A recent survey of bankers in a 10-state region has confirmed what rural residents already know: While the more densely populated portions of the country are seeing economic recovery, rural areas are still losing ground.<\/p>\n

Bankers in the region that includes Colorado, Wyoming and eight Midwestern states say that its Rural Mainstreet Index has fallen to 39.6 on a 100-point scale, where anything under 50 indicates a shrinking economy.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s no surprise; it\u2019s one of the forces that propelled Donald Trump into the presidency.<\/p>\n

The region is hardly monolithic. Southwest Colorado is very different from Illinois farming country, while the oil-rich portions of North Dakota don\u2019t have a lot in common with most of Missouri.<\/p>\n

Growth ripples out from urban centers, while truly rural areas are left far behind.<\/p>\n

The components of a community matter, as well. Southwest Colorado, although not particularly large in population, benefits from the diverse bases of tourism, and energy extraction, a college and a community college.<\/p>\n

Recent data from Colorado\u2019s Region 9 shows La Plata and Archuleta job numbers growing at 3 percent in 2016. San Juan County gained 7 percent, although the actual number of jobs is small and the pendulum can swing rapidly.<\/p>\n

Dolores County\u2019s percentage loss was well into double digits \u2013 again, not thousands or even hundreds of jobs, but real pain for a small community.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County increased 1 percent, and a Region 9 research consultant said Montezuma has been one of the slowest counties in the area to recover from the recession.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why: No industry in the county lends itself to big jumps in income or employment. Jobs come a few at a time, and the loss of a manufacturer like Western Excelsior, in Mancos (which isn\u2019t reflected in these statistics), is hard to recoup.<\/p>\n

And high-speed internet for all of rural Southwest Colorado remains a distant dream.<\/p>\n

The bankers also report that gains are hard won and the increments are either tiny or jarring. Prices of agricultural commodities are low (and a rise doesn\u2019t require increased staffing); energy prices have not supported large-scale exploration and development, which boosts employment.<\/p>\n

The urban-rural divide will continue to grow, and the resentments it engenders will grow as well. That\u2019s economics, not politics.<\/p>\n

Government policies do make a difference, though, and Americans who don\u2019t live in big cities or on the coasts would benefit greatly from more focused, thoughtful attention by the politicians who simply fly over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sparsely populated counties are left in the dust as cities and coasts thrive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-75313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75313"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=75313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}