Some counties defy description, so I looked with interest, eventually followed the link to the communities project. Aging farmland fit the ticket, dust bowl blew us away, we have more cows than people, except that we still have 300,000 two legged varmints. Evangelical sounds right, we got the god and guns part down pat. Even Democrats shoot guns here. Nope. too much sin.
"Exurb" is us even though it takes 2 and a half hours to get from our far side to the city. Twice the size of Rhode Island. I think we should be a state, or at least join us to Wyoming with whom we share a lot of border.
Thank you for this excellent information -- I really appreciate the Liberal Patriot for just this type of analysis. Will look forward to the next installment! This is extremely useful.
Love data. Will look at link when I get to laptop. It looks like rural blacks and evangicals have figured out they have been colonized. Big cities that aren't NYC, DC, or SV not so much
Additional thought after looking at link. Health care is a problem for everyone except big cities and urban burbs. Medical cartels concentrate providers there. Lots of the non-urban areas except LDS have poor lifestyle choices but even those who make better choices have poor access to providers. Specialist access, in my experience is worse than PCP access. There are no statistics for this in report. I live in Graying America but the town of 50,000 has very limited specialist access. Some circuit riders out of the big city. No ophthalmologists, one orthopedist, ED basically stabilizes and transports, etc.
This is a very interesting analysis and I look forward to reading the next installments of the series. But, I do have a question: One of the community characteristics you mention is "easy access to locations for physical activity", and you say big cities have "ample access" while Evangelical Hubs, mostly smaller towns and rural areas, have only half of residents with "easy access". I am baffled by the characterization of rural areas and having difficult access to physical activity, in these areas there are wide open spaces for walking, running, hiking, bicycling, and lots of other outdoor pursuits. Are you referring to organized gyms, with exercise machines, which are almost the only place for exercise in many city settings? I would like some clarification about this "physical activity" metric. It may be that many rural residents prefer not to engage in physical activity, but they certainly have unlimited opportunity to do so, and almost certainly can go outside in a much safer environment than in a big city. Speaking as a resident of a rural area outside a medium-sized town, and how much walking I do every day as I feed my livestock and enjoy the outdoors.
It's a fair question. The definition ACP offers for this metric is, "Percentage of population with adequate access to locations for physical activity." My guess is that means parks, gyms, trails, maybe even sidewalks, etc., though it's unclear if that is indeed the case. Of course, as you say, people in all community types can get out and exercise just by walking or riding their bike.
Thank you for the reference to the definition, though the quoted definition really doesn't clarify the meaning at all. Or, if they only consider man-made locations, they are showing a rather marked bias for cities and other urban areas over what natural locations offer. Personally, I prefer nature over urban locations for physical activity, and I know I'm not alone in that. The ACP could do better on this one.
Unless you live in Vermont, a characteristic of rural American culture is that physical activity is focused on so-called "character building" team sports (especially, boys' football) at the level of the local high school. Other sports (such as soccer, distance running, and bicycling) are subtly regarded as being for wimps at best and European style socialists at worst.
That's not just a problem for people like you and me who enjoy other types of outdoor sports (other than deer hunting), but for the young jocks who eventually learn that the "high point" in their lives was their performance on the high school (or, perhaps, college) football team.
There is a similar problem in black communities with young black males being indoctrinated by the "sports culture" (financed primarily by white fans of college and professional football and basketball) to prioritize athletics over the type of practical learning that leads the majority of people of all races to succeed in life.
Because I haven't seen these issues seriously addressed by any of the pundits concerned about "equality" and "socioeconomic advancement" leads me to suspect that they are rabid fans of college and professional sports. Having a background in both economics and personal participation in many sports, I consider that to be willful, self-serving ignorance.
Some counties defy description, so I looked with interest, eventually followed the link to the communities project. Aging farmland fit the ticket, dust bowl blew us away, we have more cows than people, except that we still have 300,000 two legged varmints. Evangelical sounds right, we got the god and guns part down pat. Even Democrats shoot guns here. Nope. too much sin.
"Exurb" is us even though it takes 2 and a half hours to get from our far side to the city. Twice the size of Rhode Island. I think we should be a state, or at least join us to Wyoming with whom we share a lot of border.
Wonderful information and analysis.
Thank you for this excellent information -- I really appreciate the Liberal Patriot for just this type of analysis. Will look forward to the next installment! This is extremely useful.
Love data. Will look at link when I get to laptop. It looks like rural blacks and evangicals have figured out they have been colonized. Big cities that aren't NYC, DC, or SV not so much
Additional thought after looking at link. Health care is a problem for everyone except big cities and urban burbs. Medical cartels concentrate providers there. Lots of the non-urban areas except LDS have poor lifestyle choices but even those who make better choices have poor access to providers. Specialist access, in my experience is worse than PCP access. There are no statistics for this in report. I live in Graying America but the town of 50,000 has very limited specialist access. Some circuit riders out of the big city. No ophthalmologists, one orthopedist, ED basically stabilizes and transports, etc.
This is a very interesting analysis and I look forward to reading the next installments of the series. But, I do have a question: One of the community characteristics you mention is "easy access to locations for physical activity", and you say big cities have "ample access" while Evangelical Hubs, mostly smaller towns and rural areas, have only half of residents with "easy access". I am baffled by the characterization of rural areas and having difficult access to physical activity, in these areas there are wide open spaces for walking, running, hiking, bicycling, and lots of other outdoor pursuits. Are you referring to organized gyms, with exercise machines, which are almost the only place for exercise in many city settings? I would like some clarification about this "physical activity" metric. It may be that many rural residents prefer not to engage in physical activity, but they certainly have unlimited opportunity to do so, and almost certainly can go outside in a much safer environment than in a big city. Speaking as a resident of a rural area outside a medium-sized town, and how much walking I do every day as I feed my livestock and enjoy the outdoors.
It's a fair question. The definition ACP offers for this metric is, "Percentage of population with adequate access to locations for physical activity." My guess is that means parks, gyms, trails, maybe even sidewalks, etc., though it's unclear if that is indeed the case. Of course, as you say, people in all community types can get out and exercise just by walking or riding their bike.
Thank you for the reference to the definition, though the quoted definition really doesn't clarify the meaning at all. Or, if they only consider man-made locations, they are showing a rather marked bias for cities and other urban areas over what natural locations offer. Personally, I prefer nature over urban locations for physical activity, and I know I'm not alone in that. The ACP could do better on this one.
Unless you live in Vermont, a characteristic of rural American culture is that physical activity is focused on so-called "character building" team sports (especially, boys' football) at the level of the local high school. Other sports (such as soccer, distance running, and bicycling) are subtly regarded as being for wimps at best and European style socialists at worst.
That's not just a problem for people like you and me who enjoy other types of outdoor sports (other than deer hunting), but for the young jocks who eventually learn that the "high point" in their lives was their performance on the high school (or, perhaps, college) football team.
There is a similar problem in black communities with young black males being indoctrinated by the "sports culture" (financed primarily by white fans of college and professional football and basketball) to prioritize athletics over the type of practical learning that leads the majority of people of all races to succeed in life.
Because I haven't seen these issues seriously addressed by any of the pundits concerned about "equality" and "socioeconomic advancement" leads me to suspect that they are rabid fans of college and professional sports. Having a background in both economics and personal participation in many sports, I consider that to be willful, self-serving ignorance.