Small towns are rightly known for their kindness, but they also have a real susceptibility to cliquishness, to wariness of outsiders, and that’s something that has to be overcome if they are to attract new people to live there.

In a presentation to the Grand Island Rotary Club on Tuesday, John Jordison of the rural-focused group Nebraska Renaissance outlined a strategy to boost Nebraska’s population to 2 million by 2020. (It’s at about 1.78 million right now.) The strategy, from a study (PDF) commissioned by the group last month, is remarkably thorough, with 47 [...]