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<\/a>\r\nThis week, the U.S. Census Bureau issued 2012 population estimates\r\nshowing that, for the first time ever, the rural population of\r\nAmerica has suffered a measureable drop.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\n“First time ever”?\r\nI guess Galloway has never heard of\r\n\r\nThe Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture<\/a>\r\nby Wendell Berry, 1996.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
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<\/a>\r\nUrbanization is\r\n\r\na worldwide phenomenon<\/a> that has been going on for many decades.\r\nThe U.S.\r\n\r\nisn’t urbanizing as fast as some countries<\/a> because at 80%+ it’s already\r\namong the most urbanized.\r\nGeorgia has rapidly urbanized from the start;\r\nthere has never been a reverse of that trend, as these figures\r\n\r\nfor every decade from 1790 to 2010 from the U.S. Census Bureau show<\/a>:\r\n
\r\n0.0% \t3.2% \t2.1% \t2.2% \t2.7% \t3.6% \t4.3% \t7.1% \t8.4% \t9.4% \t14.0% \t15.6% \t20.6% \t25.1% \t30.8% \t34.4% \t45.3% \t55.3% \t60.3% \t62.4% \t68.8% \t71.6% \t75.1%\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\nGeorgia is now the most urbanized state in the South except for Virginia.\r\n\r\nSo what’s he talking about?\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThat might surprise you. For decades, farm country has bled young\r\npeople in search of jobs. But since the 1960s, the nation’s\r\nagricultural regions — including many areas of Georgia —\r\nhave been able to offset their population losses and pad their tax\r\nrolls with urban and suburban retirees in search of a little peace\r\nand quiet.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
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<\/a>\r\nIn central south Georgia, Lowndes, Coffee, and Tift Counties\r\nare projected to increase in population for some time,\r\nwhile Lanier \r\ngrew faster than any of those between 2000 and 2010<\/a>\r\n(maybe because of bright flight).\r\nFor Lowndes and Tift, I-75 has a lot to do with it,\r\nand we all know Moody AFB has a lot to do with Lowndes,\r\nplus VSU, Wiregrass Tech, SGMC, etc.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nMany of us Baby Boomers can no longer afford the sound of crickets.\r\nCandidates for retirement are staying put in urban areas near jobs\r\nand other crucial amenities, census numbers indicate.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nOverall, from 2010 to 2012, Georgia’s population crept up 2.3\r\npercent to 9.9 million, the bureau reports. But along the state’s\r\nsouthern border, 11 of 19 counties lost population in that brief\r\ntime span — continuing a long-term decline.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
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<\/a>\r\nWhich is why Lowndes County and Valdosta are the biggest population\r\ncenter for 100 miles around: most of the other counties are losing\r\npopulation.\r\nBut that doesn’t mean we’re becoming more rural.\r\nQuite the opposite.\r\n\r\nValdosta’s population has increased<\/a> slightly faster\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nMore surprising is that, of the 18 counties that line Georgia’s\r\nroof, eight have fewer people than they did in 2010. State officials\r\nhave long pitched north Georgia as the nation’s next new retirement\r\nhaven, especially for those who find Florida too hot, flat and\r\n— during hurricane season — windy.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nAnd here in Lowndes County we get half-backs, as in retirees\r\nfrom Florida fleeing hurricanes who don’t want to go where it’s cold.\r\nBut that won’t be enough.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nOld people, with their pension checks, investment funds and lack of\r\nchildren in need of costly educations, are considered the\r\nlow-hanging fruit of economic development. A few years back, Gov.\r\nSonny Perdue, to encourage Georgia’s development into a retirement\r\ncommunity, wanted to exempt everyone over 65 from the state income\r\ntax.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nHe came close. Retirees in Georgia can exempt $65,000 in annual\r\nincome, or $130,000 per couple. But the census figures tell us that\r\nthis strategy isn’t nearly enough to keep rural Georgia afloat….\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n“Rural areas aren’t necessarily cheaper than urban ones,\r\nbecause there’s no competition,” said Doug Bachtel, the\r\nlongtime University of Georgia demographer. “If you want to\r\nbuy some expensive groceries, you go to a rural grocery store. You\r\ncan buy groceries cheaper in Buckhead than you can in Tifton.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nMaybe it’s time to focus more on attracting younger people.\r\nOr maybe retaining the younger people we’ve got, so they don’t\r\nhave to go to Atlanta to find a job when they graduate from high school\r\nor college.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nHere’s a point that could address both retirees and younger folk:\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nBut the biggest unwelcome mat for retirees eyeing empty farmland may\r\nbe the lack of a nearby hospital or doctor.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
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<\/a>\r\nLove that big city bias!\r\n“Empty farmland”.\r\nOf course, that’s how most of our local leaders think of it, too:\r\nfarmland is just something to be paved over for a parking lot.\r\nBut as Galloway pointed out, life can actually be cheaper in Atlanta\r\nthan in south Georgia, so maybe it’s time to stop trying to turn\r\nsouth Georgia into paved-over Atlanta.\r\nPeople who want to live in Atlanta will live in Atlanta.\r\nLet’s do something for the people who want to live in south Georgia.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
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<\/a>\r\nIn southwest Georgia, two hospitals suspended operations this\r\nspring.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nThose were\r\n\r\nCalhoun Memorial Hospital in Arlington and Stewart-Webster Hospital in Richland<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\n“You’ve got areas of Georgia where you can’t create or sustain\r\na health care market. That’s fatal to anything resembling an\r\neconomic development effort,” said Charles Hayslett. He’s\r\nheading up a project funded by Health Care Georgia Foundation to\r\nmake the case for rebuilding the state’s decaying health care\r\nnetwork.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nWe have South Georgia Medical Center with its\r\n\r\nbond-funded expansion<\/a>.\r\nIt could use\r\n\r\nfast affordable Internet access<\/a>\r\nfor telemedicine, including remote doctor consulting,\r\nmedical images, sensors, etc.\r\nWe have plenty of sunshine\r\n\r\nfor distributed rooftop solar power<\/a>\r\nthat can bring jobs and reduced power bills to rural south Georgia.\r\nAnd we have\r\nagriculture which is still a mainstay of our economy<\/a>.\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\nWhat if we\r\n\r\ngot into the lead on local and sustainable agriculture<\/a>?\r\n<\/p>\r\n