The story people told about places like Forks and Port Angeles, and hundreds of rural communities like them across the country, was a story of managed decline. This week, we are visiting Port Angeles and Forks, alongside colleagues from across the country, as part of The Brookings-AEI Commission on U.S. We serve on this commission because rural communities deserve to be seen not with nostalgia for the past but with hope for the future. The Port of Port Angeles is an economic engine sitting on a deep-water harbor. The Peninsula still has a long road ahead, but stand in Port Angeles today and you’ll see something exciting: a community betting on itself.