One hears that CNN Money has a story that lists Whitewater as one of their youngest towns in America. See, 25 youngest small towns in America.
Whitewater comes in at number eight on the list (a typo lists us as six), with a population of 14,470 and a median age of 22.0 years.
A sharp reader brought the story to my attention, and perceptively observed that the list describes (almost inevitably) small college towns, as those are the places likely to have a low median age. Our average age, needless to say, is not twenty-two. The median, too, is likely to be different for one-quarter of the year than for the other three seasons when campus is in full session.
Yet, it’s true that we have many young people in town. Young, middle-aged, elderly: it’s no single demographic.
I’d not urge government, by the way, to favor one kind of resident over another: I’d encourage as little planning as possible, and would invite anyone of any age who wishes to live here to do so.
There’s something odd, however, about contending that we’re youthful while simultaneously regulating and restricting the very impulses the story finds so advantageous. Whitewater has not resolved her town-gown conflicts, and I’d guess that the authors of the story have not the slightest feeling for those conflicts in our small town or others on their list.
It’s fine to want the headline; it’s hypocritical to tout a youthful ethos while regulating the city in ways that limit youthful creativity, or any creativity, really.
There’s nothing wrong with libraries, or retirement communities, but there’s something risible in promoting a headline about youthfulness while simultaneously shushing everyone as though all the town where a quiet zone. One feels this through restrictions on conduct, or through a tax burden that inhibits valuable private conduct in favor of hollow public schemes and selfish cronyism.
A truly vibrant community – one that is youthful regardless of the median age – lives out that ethos beyond headlines, beyond self-promotion, and beyond mere appearances.
This town is no fading scrapbook, no mere headline, no set of photos accompanying a feel-good list. If anything, the statistics that truly matter show how much work is to be done.
I want, and in any event believe, in a future that assures a vibrant, New Whitewater.
CNN Money’s story doesn’t make us such.
We’ll have to do that – and will do that – on our own.