Hub and spoke.

Audio collective.

This is Rumbel Strip and this is my friend Danny describing what it sounds like to drive through a village in Vermont.

It's almost like this weird, you know, game the kids play where like all the houses magnetically

kind of get drawn to each other and they start to cluster and they cluster sort of towards a village right? Like could hear that cargo whoosh, wish,

every time a building went by, and then been,

bup, bup.

Most people in Vermont live in the state's largest towns and cities,

but the vast majority of the state is rural, and we live in small towns

oriented toward villages.

A lot of small schools and general stores and post offices are closing in Vermont

villages for all kinds of reasons.

There aren't enough jobs out here, there isn't enough housing, there aren't enough

kids for the school, there aren't enough people to buy milk and beer and cigarettes

to keep the store open, and none of this is unique to hear small and

none of this is unique to hear small town centers are struggling all over the country.

But when these little downtown areas lose a store or a school,

everything changes. There are small interactions with people in your town that just stop happening.

Danny Sagan is an architect in Montpelier and I like to hear him talk about how buildings work on us,

how they slow us down or speed us up. A couple weeks ago I asked him if he would drive around with me and talk about

what villages are, what makes them feel like they do, and what happens

if they disappear. Here's Danny Sagan. There's a Grange. There's a general store. There's another good chance that there's a church or two.

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