Tolkkinen: Urban and rural Minnesota might feel divided, but they need each other

CLITHERALL, Minn. – A common belief about Minnesota is that rural and urban are divided.

To some extent, that’s true.

But a new University of Minnesota Extension podcast aims to illustrate the many ways our state is united, and more than that, how much rural and urban places depend on each other.

“We need each other in a lot of different ways,” said Ellen Wolter, host of the “Side by Side” podcast, which will launch Aug. 28. “There’s so many ways in which we’re interconnected and I don’t think we factor that into our discussions about rural and urban as much as we should.”

Some examples: Urban Minnesota depends on the water supply that originates in rural Minnesota, and, even though the food supply has globalized, our groceries mostly come from rural areas. In exchange, the urban economy does well enough that it is able to support rural areas in many ways.

Wolter, who grew up in a rural area and later lived in a city, said one of the things that might surprise rural Minnesotans is that living in a big city can actually start to feel like a small town over time, a topic that came up when she interviewed Minneapolis Foundation President and CEO R.T. Rybak for the Sept. 11 episode, which also features Tuleah Palmer, president and CEO of the Blandin Foundation in Grand Rapids, Minn.

“You do start to see the same people all the time at the grocery store or at your kid’s soccer game,” she said.

Something that might surprise urbanites is that there are many definitions of rural. The U.S. Census bureau defines rural as anything that’s not urban, with urban defined as an area of 50,000 or more people. Urban clusters contain 2,500 to 49,999 people. By that definition, greater Minnesota is definitely not all rural. But then someone who lives in New York City might consider Minnesota to be a rural state.

“Rural and urban really depends on your perspective,” Wolter said. “There’s actually more than 15 definitions of rural. The way that we count rural people is actually all over the place. But even how we perceive rural is very different.”

She realized during her work that some rural residents viewed their own tiny city as urban, because people from the surrounding areas came there to eat or visit the hardware store.

The podcast doesn’t focus on how Minnesota came to feel so divided, instead aiming to develop mutual understanding and the ways rural and urban are connected. It’s a way of moving past the political maps that show enormous swaths of red surrounding blue pools. This is a topic Wolter covers in an interview with “The Rural Voter” co-author Nick Jacobs in the Sept. 4 episode.

“These maps tell one story that is incomplete,” Wolter said. “It’s not as if everyone in that entire county votes red, or everybody in that entire county votes blue. And I think that’s where we get into trouble, is when we get away from that nuance.”

In the absence of nuance, harmful stereotypes spring up on both sides. Rural people might see urban spaces as crime-ridden wastelands. Urban people might think rural residents are poorly educated. Rural residents might see Minnesota’s electric vehicle mandate as being pressed on them by an urban Legislature that doesn’t understand the lack of EV infrastructure in rural places. Urban legislators might call for strict gun laws, failing to seek out the purpose of firearms in rural culture. People who hold these views are less likely to listen to each other.

In reality, each side often has good reason for holding the opinions they do.

As recently as the 1980s, then-Gov. Rudy Perpich signed a proclamation declaring Oct. 23, 1987, to be Community Improvement Appreciation Day. The proclamation said Minnesota is known nationwide for its “keen sense of community and its pride in community.” Maybe that was a bit of well-meaning hyperbole, but still, many Minnesotans can remember a time when our state felt more united than it does now.

The university will release eight episodes, beginning with former U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota, who grew up in a small town and will talk about the work of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics to connect rural and urban students.

Other podcast guests include Julie Tesch of the Center for Rural Policy and Jake Loesch of the Citizens League (Sept. 18), artist and humanitarian Rhymefest, also known as Che Smith (Sept. 25), retired rural community development leader Jane Leonard (Oct. 1), Nadine Bill, the executive director of Red Lake Nation College’s Minneapolis location (Oct. 9) and rural policy analyst Brian Dabson (Oct. 16).