Small towns with a Heart

Spurning sprawl, more towns upbeat on downtown

Sat. August 16 – 2008
Chris O’Malley – comalley@ibj.com IBJ staff

From Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, the small town evolved into the likes of Avon, Ind. The tree-shaded bungalow on Oak Street within walking distance of the town center became the vinyl-clad, single-family home planted in a former cornfield with a contrived name ending in “creek” or “woods” or “farms.” Residents have to jump in the car if they want to buy a cup of coffee or to patronize the predictable chain restaurants and big-box retailers. The Best Buy on Avon’s main drag, Rockville Road, might as well be the Best Buy on Center Road in Avon, Ohio.

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Blog: Students Apply Media Ethics to Andy Griffith Episode

On Tuesday, I got to watch Andy Griffith episode with two classes of journalism and English students at Aurora High School in Aurora, Mo. To be more specific, it was episode #61, “Andy on Trial,” which aired in April 1962.We discussed the journalism Code of Ethics put together by the Society of Professional Journalists. Then we watched the video and applied the Code of Ethics to what happened in the story. It is a topic that struck a cord of interest with the students.

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