Bring Back the Bustle

How to Reset the Data Center NIMBY Discussion in Rural America It was so promising. Rural communities that had been dead since the early 1980s. Forgotten places. Communities that were never expected to rebound. There was suddenly someone interested in them. There was a way back; better yet, there was possibly a way forward for […]

How to Avoid Taxes on Investment Income Good day and welcome to Season 2 of Bring Back the Bustle, a podcast about investing in rural America. I’m Shavon Jones, your host.  The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story about how investors lose a third of their earnings to taxes. Not because they have to, […]

Pitfalls to Avoid When Investing in Rural America Investments in rural America are sparse. Few investors are quick to jump in. Those that do aren’t bringing services to residents. Instead, they are treating rural America like an ugly stepdaughter there to serve the rest of the family and deserving nothing for herself.  There are valid […]

Ways to Combat Rural Blight In rural America, one of the consequences of globalization is blight. Many buildings sit idle or in disrepair. There is no code enforcement to speak of. As long as the property owners pay taxes, sometimes as little as a couple hundred dollars per year, they are permitted to hold their […]

An Analysis of Rehab vs. New Build in Rural Development To rehabilitate an existing building or to build from the ground up, that is the question. It’s a dilemma that plays out with rural investments in particular because rural towns usually have many vacant lots and dilapidated buildings from which to choose. Hi, welcome to […]

How to Make Money Investing in Energy Aside from the data centers themselves, the biggest money maker in real estate today is in power plants built to serve AI data centers. Hi. Welcome to Bring Back the Bustle, a podcast about revitalizing rural America. I’m Shavon Jones, your host.  A bit of housekeeping before we […]

Get off my grid. One of the knocks against data centers is the increase in utility bills and pollution caused by data center energy consumption. The issue of who should pay utility rate increases caused by data center consumption is so clear that it wouldn’t warrant discussion—if everyday Americans weren’t being saddled with the bill. […]

Rural Development Loan Primer for Investors When people are starting a business or a construction project, one of the biggest problems they face is how hard it is to get financing. USDA Rural Development loans make it easier to get financing for projects in areas with a population of less than 50,000 people. In that […]

Why Historic Preservation Matters Historic preservation tells the story of American life through architecture. Historic preservation is so important that, as we discussed back in episode 3, the federal government provides historic tax credits (or dollar for dollar tax reductions) that effectively shift the cost of rehabbing our historic buildings from the developer to the […]

What If Data Centers Leave? Hi, welcome back to Bring Back the Bustle, the podcast about revitalizing rural America. I’m Shavon Jones, your host. The Rural Revitalization Fund is a rural opportunity zone fund that invests in rural communities where AI data centers are locating. (Our website is ruralqrof.com)  The Fund uses money from many […]