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San Antonio symposium explores the future of small Texas towns

Expert panelists on stage at UTSA's Buena Vista Theater take questions from the audience on issues facing small Texas towns on Nov. 11, 2024
Brian Kirkpatrick
/
TPR
Expert panelists on stage at UTSA's Buena Vista Theater take questions from the audience on issues facing small Texas towns

The Texas Tribune hosted a two-day symposium at the downtown campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio to discuss the future of rural Texas. It was titled "Small Towns, Big Possibilities."

Experts at the gathering said action needs to be taken by the state legislature, small-town Texas leaders, and others to keep some communities from becoming ghost towns.

Jobs are needed in small towns to keep their local economies going and to retain their young people, especially as farming and ranching becomes more corporate.

Those young people often yearn to leave small town life behind them and move to bigger cities to earn college degrees, find better paying jobs, and to get married and raise a family, some of the panelists said at the symposium.

There's also a water crisis across Texas, including in rural areas, where drought and wildfires do nothing to inspire new residents or new businesses to move in.

Local leaders and rural revitalization experts say Texas’ smallest towns can survive — despite a shift to urban and suburban counties — but it will take investments.

But small towns can thrive with the right leaders and right investments.

Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter said the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg could be one example: "There are people that are moving and living there, not to be tourists, but to live there and live a high quality of life there."

Fredericksburg diversified its agricultural and ranching economy and has become a bed and breakfast getaway and a center for the state's wine industry.

Help for small towns to grow include government grants and philanthropy, according to experts at the symposium.

And just last year, Texas voters approved statewide investments into water development, broadband access, and energy infrastructure.

According to U.S. Census figures from 2020, more than 4.7 million Texans lived in rural areas, compared to 24.4 million in urban areas. In other words, the number of Texans living in bigger cities is nearly six times greater than the number of Texans living in small towns.

Texas has the largest rural population of any state in the nation, reported the U.S. Census.

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