Hope in America: Yes, hope is still alive and well in this nation

So many Americans seemed pessimistic about the nation this election season Paste BN decided to spend the summer seeking out places where people have hope ‒ at least in their addresses.

There are 19 towns in America named Hope, ranging from Hope, Maine on the eastern seaboard to Hope, Alaska, where the sun barely sets in the summertime. To narrow our search, we stuck to places just called "Hope," not "New Hope," "Port Hope," "Hopeville" or even "Esperanza," though America has those, too.

Most of the Hopes are tiny, barely breaking a few thousand residents, if that, and they're typically far from big cities. They're not as racially or ethnically diverse as the country as a whole, and some are largely retirement communities, nearly emptied of their young people.

Few are in swing states, so they're unlikely to make a key difference in this fall’s presidential race, but they all reflect the major issues facing the country right now: economic challenges, demographic shifts, environmental changes, and how to hold on to what was good about the past while facing the future.  

We look at what it means to have hope in this election cycle and this country.