The enormous but often overlooked impact of energy resource development on small Western United States communities can be illustrated by the experiences of the traditional coal mining town of Hanna, Wyoming. Coal development doubled the population between 1970 and 1972, and required the addition of a sewer system and a police force, plus the…

The rural population turnaround, rapid and largely unanticipated, has created a gap between the changed social and economic conditions in rural America and public policies and programs, which were formulated in response to 30 years of rural population decline. For several reasons, public policy has not yet responded to the population turnaround…

This publication presents the proceedings of a conference that brought together local leaders who are working for change in distressed communities in 16 cities. An overview discusses the background for the conference and describes common themes that emerged during its proceedings. The next section contains the keynote address, "Race, Class, and…

Large-scale energy or resource development projects in rural areas cause environmental, social, and economic changes in the community. The negative aspects of these impacts can be mitigated and the positive aspects enhanced, through the use of effective impact management strategies by local and state governments (together and separately), the…

The main purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which community consensus existed regarding a variety of major changes in Pittsburgh and the extent to which widely differing perspectives of community leaders might contribute to conflict, or at least significant difficulties, on these issues. A pragmatic secondary objective was to…