With our recent conversation about reinvesting in our communities, it is a good time to revisit a Des Moines Register article. It illustrated the changing times we are seeing in the Iowa economy. The article "How Iowa's Midsize Cities Have Been Left Behind" tell the story the changes these communities and it's citizens are seeing as a result of a changing economic climate. As with the accompanying video, it features the community of Clinton, Iowa.
It's an interesting article that draws much of its narrative from a Iowa State University Extension and Outreach report "Rural Iowa at a Glance". While the feature community of Clinton is much bigger then our Cedar County communities, we are experiencing the same pressures as the ISU report shows. It delivers a clear message that the challenge of "recruiting" external economic development into our communities is harder then it has ever been while reinforcing an economic development model of focusing on local assets and leveraging self-investment to better our communities.
