Our Towns

Basics

• A book by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows
• Copyrighted 2018-2019
• Details their journey through the USA to study how troubled communities are fixing their issues
• It also discusses the inverse relationship of national and local politics; National Cooperation goes down, local Cooperation goees up

10 / 10.5 Things Needed for a Community to Thrive

1. Divisive national politics seem a distant concern

• IE Local projects are not halted by national politics

1. You can pick out the local patriots

• Obious leaders

1. “Public-private partnerships” are real

• non corrupt publi-private partnerships are commonplace

1. People know the civic story

• united message + goal is had + widely understood

1. They are near a research university
2. They have, and care about, a community college
3. They have unusual schools

• Ie ones with out of the box methods, special facilities (makerspaces), job training etc

1. They make themselves open
2. They have big plans

• Big ideas but also long term thinking, which they pointed out as being easier at a local level than the national level

1. They have craft breweries

Application to OSE

• 5-7 are similar to the OSE Club and OSE Campus Ideas

Useful Links

• Wikipedia Page on James Fallows
• An "Atlantic" article on the Signs a City Will Succeed