How to live where you want to live.

• Date: 01 November 2019
• Author: Atkins, Michael

There are many factors that contribute to sustainable communities. You need good health care, excellent education, a reasonable tax base, acceptable infrastructure (from roads to internet service), some luck, and an economic reason for being. Sometimes you can inherit that raison d'etre (say, nickel deposits, farmland or lobsters) and other times you have to manufacture it out of thin air (say, Silicon Valley or Waterford Crystal).

What makes the difference is intangible. What you must have is a "can-do" culture. Without it you are more or less doomed.

A can-do culture is infectious.

In my experience, it is very hard to build sustainable communities without a good proportion of your economy being owned locally.

Local ownership is the basis for philanthropy, problem-solving, strategic thinking, collaboration, an independent mindset and a vested interest in a community's success.

Managers are good people, but they report to someone else living somewhere else. They...