Last week the story broke that the Tristanis are leaving Hazelton.  This highlights the flip side of the concept of “Small Town North Dakota” — we romanticize the image of a one horse town, without bothering to remember the problems that come with them.

What happens when you bring new ideas to a small town in North Dakota?  At best, it seems, you run afoul of the city council.  Ask Larry Waith.  At worst, well, ask the Tristanis.  Ask Steven Jones, who was fired as chief of the Larimore police because he had the audacity to enforce the laws townies preferred to skirt rather than repeal.

The damning undercurrent of the Hazelton account, however, is the total lack of local economics in that city.  The Tristanis tried to set up a cafe and it failed, so they turned to fixing and flipping Bismarck-area houses.  Tom Weiser, who spearheaded the project to lure folks to the town, himself works at Wal-Mart.  In Bismarck.

I guess you can forget any notions you had about “close knit” being in the equation for our state’s small towns.  Or that they’re hospitable and inviting to new people and ideas.