America Between Coasts: The Soul of Small Towns in a Changing Nation

For decades, ambition in America has followed a well-worn map. If you wanted to make it in tech, finance, fashion, or the movie industry, you followed the gravitational pull of the coasts. West for startups, East for suits. Everyone else, it seemed, was just passing through.

But something’s shifting. Quietly, steadily, the middle is moving. The conversation is no longer about what’s possible when ambition isn’t smothered by rent.

A new migration is underway — not driven by retirement or resignation, but by redefinition. Artists, chefs, coders, and young families are ditching the narrative that bigger is always better, and choosing towns where they can build something that lasts. Not because they couldn’t make it in New York or L.A., but because they’re no longer sure they want to.

In case you are feeling out of place, and want to explore a town with an identity beyond social media, here are four options for you to consider.

Vallejo

No one ever thinks of California and remembers Vallejo. No, Never. Except you probably have a close relative or friend there. If you create a survey to ask a hundred people where they would love to visit in California, you will probably hear L.A., San Francisco, and San Diego more than you can imagine.

Vallejo? It’s rarely on that list. But maybe it should be.

Frequent travelers will see Vallejo as somewhere between San Francisco’s polish and Napa’s prestige. But if you pause, look a little closer, and ask a few questions, Vallejo reveals some things only a few California cities can offer: space, culture, and a blueprint for rebuilding after the systems fail.

Things to do in Vallejo, CA

In 2008, Vallejo became the first California city to declare bankruptcy. Vallejo had already lost its economic engine: the closure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1996 took thousands of union jobs with it and left behind a vast stretch of waterfront infrastructure, empty buildings, and generations of uncertainty.

The housing crash of 2008 widened the city's frail cracks, and for a while, it seemed like the city might dissolve into the long list of post-industrial American places: too small to rescue.

Instead, it became something more interesting. While many mid-sized cities across the country flailed in the wake of industrial decline, Vallejo did something different: it appealed to its local and creative side

Gentrification or Reinvention?

In most cities, art is the last thing to show up - a sign that gentrification is about to sweep through. In Vallejo, art was the first line of defense.

Take The Coal Shed Art Studios on Mare Island — a collection of working artist spaces carved out of an old naval coal storage facility. Rusting beams, concrete floors, the scent of turpentine and ocean. Artists here aren’t crafting luxury.

Then there’s the Vallejo Art Walk, a grassroots monthly event that began in 2012. It started with a few people pulling folding chairs onto the sidewalk and has grown into a monthly takeover of downtown streets, featuring performance art, zines, sculpture, and street food.

It’s tempting to treat Vallejo’s rebirth as a creative economy story, but that would be a half-truth. What actually holds the city together is community organizing — the kind that doesn't make headlines.

Florence, KY

Drive down I-75 through northern Kentucky and you can’t miss the sign:
FLORENCE Y’ALL, splashed across a water tower like a meme before memes existed. Originally painted in the 1970s as a real estate gimmick, it accidentally became Florence’s identity — quirky, semi-ironic, roadside Americana. For decades, that was enough.

Florence wasn’t trying to be charming. In many ways, it’s the classic American suburb: affordable, spread out, and a little indistinct. However, it was never known as a place where people actually stop, stay, and invest... up until now.

Things to Do in Florence, KY

Florence sits just 10 miles south of Cincinnati, but it’s long lived in the shadow of the city. In recent years, the city has invested in placemaking infrastructure — walkable downtown pockets, small-scale parks, open-air markets — anything that breaks up the big-box monotony.

You're seeing more adaptive reuse: old car dealerships turned into co-working spaces, distribution centers carving out room for microbreweries and distilleries (this is Kentucky, after all), and strip malls that now host yoga studios next to tobacco shops. It’s weird, but it works.

The local government has leaned into supporting small businesses, particularly in food and craft beverage, as a way to reinvest in local identity.

Bourbon Meets Backyard Barbecue

Florence is in bourbon country — but without the tourist polish of Bardstown or Lexington. Here, whiskey doesn’t come with a velvet rope and $50 tasting flight. It comes in a Styrofoam cup behind a gas station on Friday night.

Still, there’s a rising wave of micro-distilleries and local taprooms that are starting to attract not just travelers, but hometown pride. Think: backyard distillers going legit, using heritage grains and family recipes. Craft doesn’t mean pretentious here. It means homegrown.

Pair that with the food scene — barbecue trailers in church parking lots, Appalachian food trucks doing cornbread tacos, Vietnamese pho spots next to soul food buffets — and you start to get a sense that Florence isn’t trying to chase a culinary trend. It’s feeding its people with flavor that fits.

Ellicott City, Maryland

Ellicott City has a Main-Street charm you can’t fake — that old-school, brick-and-stone. Nestled in a narrow valley along the Patapsco River, it’s the kind of place that looks like a movie set. Colonial storefronts. Winding hills. Antique shops and coffeehouses with hand-painted signs.

But behind that picturesque face is a brutal truth: Ellicott City has been nearly destroyed. Twice. And it’s still here.

Things To Do in Ellicott City, Maryland

When the Floods Came — And Came Again

On July 30, 2016, a flash flood turned Main Street into a torrent. In under two hours, nearly six inches of rain fell — cars were tossed like toys, buildings gutted, lives lost. The town was devastated, but rallied to rebuild.

Then, less than two years later, it happened again.

On May 27, 2018, another "thousand-year" storm hit. Water surged through the same streets. Businesses that had just reopened were swept away once more. Residents who stayed through the first rebuild faced a devastating question: How many times can a community come back before it breaks?

But Ellicott City didn’t break.

Rebuilding Smarter, Not Just Prettier

After the second flood, Ellicott City started rethinking what kind of town it wanted to be in the era of climate extremes.

Howard County launched a $140 million flood mitigation plan — not just to fix damage, but to reshape the town’s relationship with water. That includes:

• Tearing down vulnerable buildings to restore natural floodplains
• Installing stormwater retention systems under parking lots
• Building tunnels and channels to divert future surges
• Investing in early warning systems and community preparedness

The Emotional Infrastructure: Community Memory as Architecture

What makes Ellicott City’s story powerful isn’t just the engineering. It’s the way memory is being built into the landscape.

Some business owners came back. Some didn’t. Some properties have been converted into green space, marked by signage that tells their story.

Local artists have created murals, sculptures, and installations that memorialize the floods and honor the community’s response. This has led many to tag it trauma tourism, but it isn't.

And perhaps most importantly, Ellicott City has resisted the urge to make itself prettier than it was. The rebuilt Main Street still shows scars. You can still see water lines on some buildings. You can still talk to business owners who remember the sound of rushing water and the days without power.

Tension: How Do You Preserve a Place That Keeps Being Threatened?

Ellicott City now lives with an uneasy truth: it might flood again. Climate projections don’t lie.

So the town is caught in a balancing act — preserving history while preparing for an unstable future. Some buildings are being removed, others retrofitted. Some residents have moved on, others won’t leave.

What’s clear is that Ellicott City is no longer just a quaint town. It’s a case study in how small communities can face climate reality with honesty, creativity, and heart.

Asheville, North Carolina

Ten years ago, Asheville was the underdog. A Southern mountain town with bohemian grit, a rebellious art scene, and the kind of Appalachian soul that couldn’t be faked.

Today, Asheville is an Instagram darling for art and culture lovers. The kind of place that shows up in Condé Nast roundups and “Best Of” lists: Best Small City for Foodies. Best Craft Beer Town. Best Bachelorette Destination. Best Place to Live if You’re a Remote Worker Who Thinks Portland Is Too Obvious.

But beneath the small-batch whiskey and mountain-chic boutiques, Asheville is struggling with the weight of its own success.

Things to Do in Asheville

Asheville has always attracted outsiders — artists, spiritual seekers, musicians, retirees. As a city with more breweries per capita than just about anywhere in the U.S, Asheville's charm was born from contrast: Southern hospitality laced with progressive politics, old churches next to anarchist bookstores, bluegrass jam sessions that ran long into the night.

What made Asheville special was its weirdness — and its weirdness was protected, in part, by its affordability.

But over the last 15 years, as remote work took off and national media crowned it “the Austin of the Appalachians,” Asheville became a lifestyle destination — not just for visitors, but for newcomers with cash, credentials, and curated aesthetics.

The city now ranks among the most expensive housing markets in the Southeast relative to income. And that shift has started to hollow out the very communities that made Asheville worth noticing in the first place.

Culture As Commodity

Walk through Asheville’s River Arts District and you’ll still find galleries, studios, and working artists — but you’ll also see the polished sheen of creative gentrification. Spaces that once smelled like oil paint and rust now feel ready for Airbnb photo shoots.

Longtime artists have been priced out. Working musicians now gig in nearby towns where rent is cheaper. New development has brought money, but also homogeneity — a flattening of local flavor in favor of what’s sellable.

That doesn’t mean the creative pulse is gone — it just means it’s moved underground again. Pop-up shows, punk bands in backyard venues, poetry readings in church basements — the soul is still there. It’s just harder to find if you're only looking at the surface.

Asheville as a Cautionary Tale

Where Vallejo is a story of rebuilding from below, Asheville is a warning about building too fast without roots. About what happens when culture is packaged and sold, and a town becomes a lifestyle accessory.

But here’s the thing: Asheville still has the bones to recover.

You can still feel the fire in its underground scenes, in mutual aid kitchens, in land co-ops and community gardens, in the fight for affordable housing that’s now front and center in local politics.

Four Cities, One Question — How Do You Reinvent a Town?

City Comparison

FAQ

1. Is Vallejo better than Asheville for remote workers?

Asheville wins for lifestyle — peaceful, inspiring, and full of cafés that welcome laptops. Vallejo is better only if you need to stay connected to the Bay Area for business. It’s faster paced and less relaxed.

2. Do people actually move to Florence, KY for opportunity?

Yes, but usually for affordability and location, not lifestyle. Florence works if you need proximity to Cincinnati, steady work, and low housing costs. It’s convenient, but not the kind of place people move to for culture or scenery.

3. Is Ellicott City really as perfect as people say?

Almost. It’s clean, historic, safe, and has excellent schools. But it’s expensive and heavily suburban — beautiful to settle down, not very exciting if you’re looking for nightlife or spontaneous energy.

4. Between Vallejo and Ellicott City, which has better long-term potential?

Vallejo has room to grow — it’s one of the last semi-affordable Bay Area cities, slowly improving. Ellicott City is already stable and mature, with high property values. So Vallejo is for early investors; Ellicott City is for long-term security.

5. Which city feels more alive — Florence or Asheville

Asheville, easily. It’s buzzing with music, art, and events. Florence is quieter and family-oriented. You’ll get convenience in Florence, creativity in Asheville.

6. Is Vallejo still rough around the edges?

Yes, though not everywhere. Some neighborhoods are improving fast, while others still struggle with property crime. The upside is diversity, affordability (by Bay standards), and access to San Francisco and Napa.

7. What’s the most practical move for someone starting over?

Florence, if you want a reset with low living costs.
Asheville, if you want inspiration and creative space.
Ellicott City, if you want stability and safety.
Vallejo, if you want access to California’s economy without paying San Francisco prices.