12 The slow collapse of America’s manufacturing economy added a new layer. When industries eroded, many people left and younger generations rarely returned. Those who stayed weathered decades of decline and were, as one community leader in Beaver County described it, “told for generations that their best days are in the past.” The act of staying through downturns and crises became its own claim to belonging. Today, many small cities are experiencing another demographic shift. Since the pandemic, cities like Allentown, Hazleton, and Springfield have seen an influx of immigrants, mostly from Latin America, overlapping with domestic migration from larger cities. In Bethlehem, the city’s “quaintness” is attracting newcomers, which is “good” but “harming local housing prices and availability.” In Hudson, New York, the city was described as “segregated” between New York City transplants and longtime residents. While specific populations have changed, these underlying tensions endure. What makes this latest iteration particularly consequential is that the divide is now enforced through the built environment itself. Zoning laws restrict new construction and density, while efforts to increase supply are met with organized resistance framed as preserving “built character.” This resistance – the familiar “Not In My Backyard” refrain – is the contemporary expression of the same insider-outsider logic that has defined these places for centuries, buttressed today through zoning regulations, historic preservation protections, and unequal access to state investment. Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025
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