Rural students learn how to code by participating in a supercomputing challenge.
State of Change
In small towns in New Mexico and the West, life is changing quickly. More young people are moving away from rural places than into them. Some New Mexico communities are trying to escape generations-long boom-and-bust cycles, while others struggle to retain their identity in an economy flooded with tourists and newcomers. Internet connections that could power remote businesses in rural places lag behind urban centers.
New Mexico, along with the rest of the rural West, is in a state of change. Over the past year, a group of New Mexico news organizations investigated the challenges to building resilient rural communities, and found a lack of high speed internet holds communities back. Now, they bring you stories about the complex barriers to launching internet connections in most rural areas, and show you the tribes, towns and schools who are doing it better. This project is supported by High Country News and the Solutions Journalism Network, and is funded by the LOR Foundation.
Communities are embracing faster internet but rejecting better cellphone reception.
Across sovereign governments, a group of Southwest tribes prepares to launch their own network.
By expanding into broadband, Kit Carson Co-op provides high-speed internet to thousands.
A group of New Mexico newsrooms examines the future of broadband access in rural communities.
A ‘micro’ economic development program bolsters a community of telecommuters.
A former coal mining town takes measured approach to economic recovery.
The criollo cow can thrive in hot, dry conditions that are difficult for other breeds.
Local businesses keep jobs and money circulating within their communities.
To build a sustained community, the Navajo Nation experiments with entrepreneurs.
Booms and busts withered Farmington, New Mexico, but new initiatives could revitalize it.
A growing number of tribes manage their own clinics and behavioral programs.
An influx of immigrants is preventing economic stagnation in the Borderlands.
Rural towns explore ways to diversify their economies, from tourism to hospitality.
Truth or Consequences looks for ways to attract a new generation of entrepreneurs.
Some counties in the region buck the aging trend.
Cities may seem inevitable, but rural communities are finding ways to hang on.
A project looks at how communities are faring in rural New Mexico.
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