Herewith, a tale of two cities, for your perusal:

Youngstown, Ohio, was a steel-mill town of 165,000 souls. Then the mills shut down in the ’70s, and the town started shrinking, to the point where it’s now got less than half as many people. For years, they tried to regain their lost population with all sorts of schemes, the proposed blimp factory probably being the silliest.

Recently, the city’s leaders had a different idea: Why not, instead of trying to get bigger, figure out how to live sustainably with the city’s current population? Why not take out the old abandoned and wrecked properties and replace them with CSA-affiliated community gardens and playgrounds and the like? Why not take the opportunity to teach our children how to live a life at once urban and agarian? Why not back green websites? Why not, indeed?

Already, other Rust Belt cities like Flint in Michigan, Dayton in Ohio, and Wheeling in West Virginia, are studying Youngstown’s new approach, known as "Plan 2010". On their own, several East German cities with declining populations are making similar moves to embrace new smaller, greener versions of themselves.

Ah, but what about smaller cities, such as those under 10,000 population? Are they large enough to put out the resources needed for this transformation? The community of Greensburg, Kansas, suggests that the answer is a resounding "yes!"

On the night of May 4, 2007, 95% of our homes and businesses were destroyed by a massive EF5 tornado that was nearly 2 miles wide. Although this storm was devastating to our community, we are presented with an incredible opportunity to show the world our strength and to create a new future for those who will live here. We strongly believe that we will be back, better than ever, and will be a model for rural America.

"Incredible opportunity" indeed. Greensburg is well on its way to rebuilding itself as a modern green community, mixing urban amenities with a rural setting. All city-owned buildings will be built to meet LEED Platinum standards, and homeowners are being given big incentives to rebuild green — an opportunity that would not have existed, if not for the tornado.

Youngstown, Greensburg, and other like-minded communities in America and elsewhere are showing that adversity is opportunity in disguise, and that one can pivot nearly any adversity to become an opportunity.

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