Main Streets

The GOP cause-de-jour to restore Main Streets, American manufacturing, and that sort of nostalgia is often ridiculed as a dwelling-on-the-past, quixotic, fantasy-land type set of goals. However, one spillover element that would likely be enhanced should this ever come to (even some semblance of) fruition is the reestablishment of social connection activity. As readers of Bowling Alone will recall, these days we have far fewer of these types of activities. Social clubs, service clubs, volunteerism, etc - are all seeing rapid declines in the last few decades. Additionally, and not coincidentally, we see social isolation on the rise. For all of tech’s advances, one achilles heel is the ability to remain isolated but still communicate. It’s just not the same. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you have the research-backed super-strong link between social connections/relationships and overall happiness. While dreamy and aspirational, and perhaps completely non-doable, there are indeed some very worthy tangential, positive impacts of trying to “restore” small towns and Main Streets.