Essays from West of 98: A Movement Grows
Author’s note: at long last, the West of 98 podcast is live! Practically since I started writing these weekly essays, I have promoted my podcast as “forthcoming” in this space. You can now listen on demand as we venture West of 98 via audio.
This past weekend (Sunday, May 2) saw the premiere of “Home Town Takeover” on cable television channel HGTV. This is a spinoff of the popular series “Home Town,” where the married team of Erin and Ben Napier restore homes in their hometown of Laurel, Mississippi. The spinoff series achieved notoriety last year, when HGTV solicited submissions for a multi-episode renovation of multiple properties across a single town with a population below 40,000. The response was overwhelming and even briefly crashed the contest website. People.com reported that HGTV received submissions on behalf of over 2,600 towns across America! Ultimately, the winner was Wetumpka, Alabama, a community of about 8,000 residents in central Alabama.
Stamford submitted an entry and, although we were hopeful to win, we are still proud of our video submission. It has been viewed over 14,000 times and it spawned a wonderful amount of conversation about the pride that so many people hold for our community. As my wife and I watched the “Home Town Takeover” premiere, I was excited to see that was a key takeaway by Ben, Erin, and the rest of the HGTV team. They seemed awestruck by the sheer volume of submissions. They were excited and encouraged that so many people across America were not only proud of their hometowns, but passionate enough to enter this contest.
As the premiere episode rolled on, a few things crossed my mind. First, Wetumpka is a fine choice because in many ways, Wetumpka represents a lot of our towns. The people of Wetumpka spoke of a major highway being rerouted that decimated their downtown business district. They fretted over the “brain drain” of their young people to larger cities. Wetumpka had some passionate citizens who were working hard to improve their town, but a tornado in 2019 had been a setback to the community’s progress. As Ben and Erin toured Wetumpka, they observed that the downtown was a mix of both charming buildings with thriving businesses and vacant, deteriorating properties. Ben and Erin could see the struggles but also the potential of the community.
Those are familiar themes to a lot of our communities. From what I can tell, the folks at HGTV realized that and they do not see this as a show merely about one community. They see it as a show that represents something much larger happening across our country. Erin made a comment to that effect, that their series in Wetumpka was part of a growing, larger movement.
I believe she is correct and the Napiers are already a fantastic example of that movement. Their Mississippi hometown of Laurel is larger than Stamford, but it qualifies as a small town by most any contemporary metric. Laurel has struggled over the years, but through key leadership of folks like the Napiers, it is becoming a case study in small town success. People do not love Laurel because it is growing. Laurel is growing because people love it and are working to improve it.
Not every town can be featured in a series on HGTV and that is okay. Every town *can* have the same level of passion that Erin and Ben Napier have for Laurel. Every town *can* work to overcome its challenges and setbacks. The people of Laurel are doing it. The people of Wetumpka are working to do it right now. And across the nation, it seems like hundreds of other cities are working to do the same thing too.
I don’t know about y’all, but I find that to be pretty darn exciting.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to West of 98 wherever podcasts are found.