Our Towns Quotes

“The mark of a successful city is having a river walk, whether or not there is a river.”
― Deborah Fallows, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

“Inside public libraries you see the people, programs, problems, and answers that offer a genuine look into the heart and soul of a town.”
― Deborah Fallows, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

“We quickly noticed traits that we eventually learned to associate with towns on the rise. Residential buildings and new hotels. Multiple restaurants, and a brewery. Viable stores that are not part of a national chain. Corporate headquarters that have moved downtown. A nearby college student base,”
― James M. Fallows, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

“But Burlington’s big post–World War II turning point came with the arrival in the late 1950s of what eventually turned out to be one of IBM’s major semiconductor works, in the suburb of Essex Junction, just east of Burlington. At its peak, the IBM factory employed some eight thousand engineers and technical workers. Its staff fell to about three thousand (and IBM has sold the works to another company, a Silicon Valley spin-off called GlobalFoundries). But its influence on Burlington remains profound.”
― James M. Fallows, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

“The Cristo Rey Columbus High School is part of what is now a twenty-eight-school network that was founded in Chicago by Jesuit priest John P. Foley in 1995. The schools are strategically located in cities with a needy urban population, a supportive local Catholic diocese, and cooperative, deep-pocketed businesses. Columbus, as an energetic, creative, and generous city, fit the bill perfectly.”
― James M. Fallows, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

“(The next four whitest are, in order, Maine, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Iowa, a reminder that the crucial two first contests in a presidential primary are the fourth and fifth whitest states in the union.)”
― James M. Fallows, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

“Their value is in giving citizens a sense of how today’s efforts are connected to what happened yesterday and what they hope tomorrow will bring.”
― James M. Fallows, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America