Rain Falls on the Rich and the Poor

I don't often link to New York Times articles because they require a free subcription to read, but there are aptly juxtaposed articles in today's edition and magazine about two starkly different areas of the country trying to creatively address problems caused by their respective times of plenty and famine.

The Upstate Suburbs of New York City:
HOMES TOO RICH FOR FIREFIGHTERS WHO SAVE THEM:

For two decades, as the suburbs have become more pricey, the number of people who can afford to live in the wealthiest communities and also volunteer or hold public jobs there has dwindled. But now, in the wake of the recent real estate frenzy, more local officials are raising disturbing questions and looking for ways to address a growing problem:

Will their communities be able to field enough firefighters to save their homes from burning down, ambulance workers to get them to a hospital in time and teachers to give their children a literate start in life?

North Dakota:
NOT FAR FROM FORSAKEN:

But even as the American small town continues what often seems like an irresistible decline, some in northwest North Dakota are mounting a resistance, an organized effort to draw people — new people, young people, families — to their small towns. And a few have taken things even further by reviving, in a fashion, the very institution that generated them in the first place: homesteading.