The economy and demography of the world at large, and the world at home, have a habit of changing faster than the prevalent ideas and institutions that are our tools for swimming in these new waters. That's painfully true at the nationwide level when we watch the national news these days. It's just as true at the level of the cities and small towns.

For small towns, that means not only getting people to buy into new strategies, but also getting enough citizens to spend a major share of their free time moving new strategies into action — at low pay or no pay.

A delightful instance of small town community spirit and action is graphically displayed in the photo accompanying this text. The subjects are a human chain, 200 strong, in the Town of Gardiner's central hamlet. The time is October 18, 2008. The occasion and the task is moving the town's library collection from a cramped and rickety old building to a spanking new library/community center a few blocks away. This model small town library would have never seen the day without extensive networking and individual financial contributions, plus volunteer work by citizens with the financial know-how to get a mortgage that the community could afford.

This human chain was not necessary in any logistical sense. It would have been easy enough to pack up the books that passed from hand to hand that fine October day. But, as we human beings have been rightly inclined to do all over the planet, it was a fine occasion to celebrate and reinforce the community spirit that made this project possible. And it was also an occasion for businesses along the hamlet's reviving main street to hand out food and drink to the volunteers — a nice gesture that was also a well-deserved advertisement to frequent the shops along Route 44/55.

Among the towns that line both sides of the ridge in Ulster, Orange, and Sullivan Counties, Gardiner stands out as a mover and shaker in dealing with its dramatically changed demography. The library is but one instance of a string of accomplishments that have been achieved during the last five years. What is important here, and in the rest of the string, is that a community was able to re-examine its dramatically changed demography, plus the fiscal challenges imposed by New York State's policy of off-loading so many responsibilities to municipal property taxes; then come up with plans to deal with things; and then put the tools in place to move plans into action.

"Cultural capital," as it's known in the local development trade, is the foundation of dynamic towns like Gardiner. That term refers to the community equivalent of what business analysts term "organizational culture," the ways that people in companies are socialized to view their sector, the best ways to treat customers, how to identify new opportunities and move away from current products that are not likely to have much of a future, how to act cooperatively and across departmental lines, and the like.

Companies, like people, develop a collective personality and ways of doing things. Two companies in the same sector can start out with pretty much the same money and expertise, but end up in very different places because one has an organizational culture better suited to a rapidly changing world than the other.

A parallel statement can be made for the cultural capital of two small towns in the same region. I'm not talking theory here, but on-the-ground experience while working in the Great Plains during the 1970s boom in grain prices, which rose at the same rate as oil prices. I'm remembering two towns, side-by-side, each with the same fine soils and big farms. One was a place that was busily cooperating in building a better town. The other was an utter basket case. The difference has nothing to do with money or expertise. It had to do with the ability to see clearly, or not; to act cooperatively, or not.

Cultural capital counts heavily, perhaps more than any other kind.

Gardiner's demography is more typical of Orange County than Ulster: it doubled in size between 1950 and 1970, doubled again between 1970 and 2000 to 5,238 persons, and continues to grow at a rapid clip. The proportion of newcomers to long-time residents is rising sharply: just short of one-quarter of the population moved from another county into Gardiner between 1995 and 2000.

In the face of this rapid change, Gardiner had to make some tough and highly debated decisions — like whether to support or oppose the development of a gated housing estate and golf course for the rich and famous, an estate that would be placed on one of the town's, and the country's, most important scenic resources.

This intense debate has created a more intense involvement in town affairs on the part of people on both sides of the issues. And that is likely a good thing in terms of building precious cultural capital in Gardiner, as we shall see next time. We'll also question whether New York State's quite extreme version of home puts good cultural capital at risk when local governments inevitably change hands.

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