Amenities and Community Economic Development: Strategies for Sustainability

In this paper, I examine the structural changes that have occurred in rural America over the past quarter of a century. I focus primarily on the effects of social and economic restructuring in rural areas. Economic restructuring appears to disproportionately benefit urban areas that have large concentrations of people and businesses. Although advances in communication and transportation have improved access to many rural communities, communities on the urban-rural fringe have benefited the most from these changes in recent years. The primary exceptions, however, are those localities that have experienced a substantial growth in their population due to in-migration of retirees and those regions that are dependent on recreation and tourism as a source of employment and income. These communities often adopt what has been referred to as an “amenity-led” development strategy.