Appalachian Transition Blog

Nicole Palya Wood at the Daily Yonder has the story of federal efforts to expand broadband to rural areas:

In the absence of controversy, even significant actions can slip by without much public notice.  Let me share the good news. I am pleased to report that thanks to a $300 million fund set up by the Federal Communications Commission, a lot more Americans in rural communities are a step closer to broadband service on mobile phones.

After an unusually warm winter, many farmers are seeing early harvests of many spring crops. This is good news both for the farmers and for their customers at Farmers' Markets which are beginning to open across the region. The Charleston Gazette posted a piece, "Farmers markets increasing in state," earlier this month, exploring the growth of WV's markets, which have tripled in the past 10 years to around 80. 

Ken Ward, Jr. has a terrific, thoughtful post today on his blog, Coal Tattoo. It's long, and wide-ranging, but worth the read. As we creep ever closer to November, we can expect election rhetoric around coal in Appalachia to heat up to a fever pitch. But, as Ward points out, "challenges we face as a state aren’t really discussed in a way that would help us move forward." He finishes his essay with this indictment of two of West Virginia's political leaders:

Complaints from Sen. Manchin and Gov. Tomblin about the proposals from the Obama administration to deal with coal’s worst aspects would have more credibility if, instead of ignoring these issues, instead of refusing to talk about them and hoping nobody else would, if instead they confronted climate change and mountaintop removal, and mine safety and the coming market collapse, and outlined their own plans for dealing with these challenges.

The media's obsession with polling data and soundbytes doesn't help. How can we as voters make sure our politicians, and our journalists, are talking about things that matter?

From the Daily Yonder's Tim Marema comes an in-depth report about a conversation between local leaders about Appalachian economies in a post-coal future. This conversation, whcih took place in Whitesburg, preceded "Transformational Ideas" session at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference that we wrote about last week.

Many rural areas face fundamental shifts in their economies. In Kentucky, community advocates and scholars come together to project a future less reliant on Old King Coal.

By Tim Marema

Helen Lewis has a simple idea for transforming the Central Appalachian economy.

“Promise every child a clean glass of water,” says the sociologist and founder of the field of Appalachian Studies.

It sounds easy, but Lewis quickly describes the breadth of the problem and the potential economic impact of fixing it.

“You would have to clean up coal,” she said. “You would have to stop mountaintop removal [coal mining]. A lot of money could go into an absolutely good project that would hire a lot of people – if you could get into restoring the watersheds of this whole region.

“You have to do all of that to promise a child a clean glass of water.”

Lewis’s idea was one of several brought forward during a roundtable discussion April 25 on economic transformation for east Kentucky, organized by the Center for Rural Strategies (publisher of the Daily Yonder) and the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development.

The dozen participants at the gathering in Whitesburg, Ky., represented economic development nonprofits, educational institutions, community organizers, media makers, private philanthropy, and a legal aid firm. A second day of discussions took this small group’s ideas to a regional conference, the East Kentucky Leadership Conference, in Prestonsburg, Ky., where approximately 75 other coalfields leaders discussed the proposals.

From the West Virginia Community Development Hub:

What started in 2010 as a series of town hall forums, phone interviews, and surveys getting the thoughts, ideas, and interests of over 250 non-profit leaders/volunteers in West Virginia is resulting in the creation of the West Virginia Non-Profit Association.