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Much of America these days exists as small pockets of like-minded people living in proximity to one another, and this goes for both urban and rural areas. This is known as The Big Sort, a phenomenon that began in the 1980s and now has become frequent behavior among families and individuals who are able to exercise choice as to where they live. Five years ago I moved from a large city to a rural community of about 18,000; our entire County is about the size of my former urban neighborhood. The rural population is spread out over nearly 1,000 square miles, while the city compresses that same number of people into 6 square miles – 160 times more dense.

I worked for the public schools in the city, and was closely involved with the arrivals, departures, pr