Quick fixes or political slogans will not renew America. It will be renewed by a long-term commitment to building places where people can live well, raise families, start businesses, and rediscover the values that once held this country together. It will be rebuilt when our citizens regain the courage to strike out on their own, build lives outside major cities, and rekindle a desire to become self-reliant and self-sufficient.
What Does Not Work
When our family had opportunities to pursue jobs in major cities, we took them. But we also placed a high value on raising our children outside a metropolitan area. So, no matter the commute or train ride, our family settled in areas where life was slower and there was a sense of community. We always agreed that we would never live downtown in a major city as long as we had “Bus Fare Out of Town.” At other times, we had opportunities to live in smaller cities; smaller is better.
Our nation has spent decades trying to repair cities that no longer function at a human scale. This next step in our journey requires us to build communities that do. This work begins with design, but it succeeds only when people, companies, and institutions invest in places where life is stable, opportunity is visible, and the American spirit can grow again. Everyone has a role, from government and education to business and individual citizens.
It took 250 years for the country to transform from farms and fledgling cities into megacities, shifting from rural to urban. Rebuilding America will take time, but we can do it; we must do it. The transformation from urban back to rural areas is key. I am not advocating that we all return to the farm, only that we recognize there is a size at which life functions smoothly, and that this size is much smaller than today’s megacities. As we noted early in this series, America is not running out of land. Land and the ability to spread out are our luxury. Europe is land-bound; we are not.
Quick fixes or political slogans will not renew America. It will be renewed by a long-term commitment to building places where people can live well, raise families, start businesses, and rediscover the values that once held this country together. America needs to relearn how to focus on what works. We congregated in large cities when factories offered financial opportunities that farms did not. But today we are transitioning to a technological world where virtual companies and “factories” can exist. Face-to-face interaction has value, but living in places that are safe, affordable, and community-focused is even more valuable.
Evidence Right in Front of Us
Every time a recent college graduate complains about housing and the cost of living, they articulate the problem. Every time they say they cannot find a job, they tell us what is wrong. What they are not articulating is the loss of the American spirit, the spirit that encouraged us to move west in 1849. The same spirit that inspired people like Sam Walton to build Walmart from a parking lot in Bentonville, Arkansas. The same willingness Andrew Carnegie had to accept risk, to come to America as an uneducated immigrant, and to build U.S. Steel. The self-confidence to strike out on our own and the willingness to succeed or fail in pursuit of our dreams.
A college or high school graduate who endlessly complains on social media about a poor choice of major, student debt, or rejected resumes is revealing more about themselves than about the job market. They reveal their mindset: dependency and lack of confidence. They do not see themselves as responsible for their success or failure. They have little sense of one door opening as another closes.
The Catalysts
America is ready for renewal, but renewal does not happen by accident. It happens when citizens understand what must be rebuilt and how the rebuilding will take place. The first part of this series explained the problem. The Crossroads articles showed the consequences. This concluding section will explain the path forward. It will describe how families regain stability, how communities regain their identity, and how opportunities become visible again. It will show how design follows society and how architecture becomes the support beam for a nation rediscovering its purpose. Frank Lloyd Wright was right about his description of Broadacre City. The sense of community is important to us all.
In this series, we have discussed issues, but issues without solutions have no lasting value. We need to move from diagnosis to action. We must discuss how to build human-scale communities, restore human-scale governance, and revive human-scale opportunity. These are not abstract ideas. They are the practical steps cities, counties, companies, and citizens must take to rebuild the American spirit.
The renewal begins with three pillars, and we will examine each separately and present our vision for a rebuilt America. For America to function again, the size and scale of communities must be considered; how we govern ourselves matters; and how we create opportunities is key.
This concluding section of our discussion will take us from ideas to action. We have diagnosed the problem. We have examined the consequences of scale, the failures of megacities, and the loss of the American spirit. We have looked at how families struggle, how communities fracture, and how opportunity becomes invisible when life is consumed by the daily grind. Now we turn to rebuilding. We turn to practical steps that restore stability, identity, and hope.
In the articles that follow, we will explore how to design communities that operate at a human scale. We will examine how governance must be structured so citizens feel represented and institutions feel close. We will discuss how opportunity arises when people have the time, space, and confidence to take risks. These are the pillars of renewal. They are the foundation of a rebuilt America.
The renewal of America is not a single act. It is a sequence. It begins with understanding the scale at which life operates. It continues with building systems that match that scale. And it succeeds when citizens, companies, and institutions choose to invest in places where families can thrive, neighbors can reconnect, and the American spirit can grow again.
In the following articles, we will take each pillar in turn. We will describe how communities can be designed to support families and institutions. We will explain how governance can be rebuilt to restore trust. And we will show how opportunity becomes visible when life is manageable and human scale is restored. These are the steps that tie up the loose ends of our discussion. They are the steps that lead to renewal.
America can be rebuilt. America must be rebuilt. And now we begin to explain how.
