Many Americans seemed pessimistic about the nation this election season, so USA TODAY decided to spend the summer looking for places where people have hope — at least at their addresses.
There are 19 towns in the United States named Hope, from Hope, Maine, on the East Coast to Hope, Alaska, where the sun barely sets in the summer. To narrow our search, we limited ourselves to places that are simply called “Hope,” not “New Hope,” “Port Hope,” “Hopeville,” or even “Hope,” although the United States has those places, too.
Most Hopes are small, with only a few thousand residents, if that, and are often far from major cities. They are not as racially or ethnically diverse as the country as a whole, and some are mostly retirement communities, almost empty of young people.
Few of them are in key states, so they are unlikely to make a key difference in this fall’s presidential race, but all reflect the major issues facing the country right now: economic challenges, demographic shifts, environmental changes and how to hold on to the good things of the past while facing the future.
We look at what it means to have hope in this election cycle and in this country.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hope is alive and kicking across America