New Geography

Tag: Heartland

  • Localism – What’s the Attraction?

    As I drive to work here in Wisconsin Rapids, I cross the bridge where the view of the river is stunningly peaceful, with the mystical morning mist rising off the calm water reflecting the warm early morning sunlight as it surrounds the pristine wooded islands. It takes me all of five minutes by car to make my journey to work – one of the beauties of living in a smaller community. I can get to most places in town within five minutes.

    It does not mean, however, that I lack access to the same amenities that an urban dweller has. When I’m looking for my arts and culture fix, I don’t need to go far; there is a new show opening at Alexander House, one of the local galleries which regularly features accomplished artists with local ties. The local theatre productions rival professional quality, as several of the key performers and producers are professionals, who choose to live in an area that offers a better educational experience and quality of life for their families.

    You can get the local word on “what’s happening” by heading to the local coffee shop, pub or walking to the post office and greeting other “locals,” drinking in the character of the community. In a flash, I can be at the airport, and be on my way to countries around the world. Although the airport is 45 miles away, I can actually get there in less time (under 45 minutes), than someone living in Chicago or Minneapolis can get to the airport in those cities. I might pass a total of 25 cars in my entire drive to the airport, and at the airport a long line to check in at the kiosks might be two people ahead of me. Air fare from our central Wisconsin airport, even to international locations, is usually cheaper than if I fly from any of the surrounding big metropolitan airports.

    Five years ago, I purchased my three-bedroom 1300 square foot ranch home two blocks from the seven-mile Riverwalk trails for $75,000. My neighbor, the previous mayor, mows my lawn and does odd jobs for me. I have the beauty of woods and water that is easily accessible and safe to go alone and enjoy. I am tapped into the world and information super-highway with redundant high-speed internet access. I live the good life without the long lines, high costs or hassles of the city. It also offers me an opportunity to be civically engaged and give back to the community, as well. This is why I choose to live in the heart of Wisconsin. I want “where I live” to offer exceptional quality to enhance my life, and it does here in America’s Heartland.

    The pace of our lives increased exponentially in the last half century, and continues to escalate at a rate that is staggering. During this evolution, we went through the period of being caught up in this fast pace and trying to “keep up with the Jones” and the speed of technology advancement. We were attracted to the fast lane and glitz of urban lifestyle, which symbolized chic and sophisticated. The Baby Boomers, in their career primetime, driven to succeed, gravitated to the coasts and large metropolitan areas to be where it was “happening.” As a result, housing costs in these regions skyrocketed, the highways became unbearable during commuting hours, adding hours on both ends of the already longer work day necessary to keep up with the increasing global competition and faster and faster pace. Crime rates soared. People became numbers and life was about mass production, cookie cutter franchises, big box shopping and having the most goods – a popular Calvin and Hobbes cartoon reflected this fad, “He who dies with the most toys wins!”

    Now as the Baby Boomers are entering retirement and their children are having children, we are noticing a trend that may bring new life to the Midwest and the patchwork quilt character that rural communities offer. No longer does the rat race of the urban life style hold a compelling calling. A resurgence of wanting something more real, more balanced, more representative of our agricultural roots and our rural heritage, which made the country rich in Americana, seems to be calling. The new trend that is emerging is localism – the desire to have a strong sense of place and connection to where we live, what we eat, how we participate in civic engagement.

    As Baby Boomers look to wind down, they are seeking a more relaxed atmosphere and authentic sense of place. This is also the demographic that is beginning to drive the trend towards self-employment, often using their acquired professional expertise from their high powered career investment as the product, and seizing the opportunity that technology and mobility provide to be located in a place that appeals to their quality of life factors. Their children, who are entering that phase of life, where they are having children, are seeking that housing affordability, safe neighborhoods, beautiful natural landscape and good public education system for their kids, often found in the upper Mid-west. This generation that is now beginning to make an impact in the workforce, exhibits a high level of civic responsibility in its decision making. Put that together with the Baby Boomers growing sense of awareness that our past actions of ignoring our affects on our environment must change and that starts with changing our own habits and choices in what we buy and how we live, creates relatively large movement towards “local.”

    An article, by Marian Burros, in the New York Times, published on Aug. 6, 2008, stated,
    “One of the biggest brand names in food this summer doesn’t carry a trademark. It’s the word ‘local,’ which has entered the language as a powerful symbol of high quality and goodness.”

    So, what is the “local” appeal? It is the character and quality of life that provides a sense of place – a reminiscence feeling of authenticity and knowing the source of where things come from, who made it and how it was grown. There is a desire to make the personal connection and create an experience in the purchase of a product. That experience often equates to wanting to have that sense of place association. The sense of place character is one that has a unique quality, a distinction and flavor that brings out the emotional response which translates to being an experience of culture and belonging.

    As we have come to grips with growing fuel prices and climate change, a sense of social responsibility has grown. We see a growing social movement to also protect the character of our communities by revitalizing downtowns, curtailing big box retail development, seeking non-franchise purchasing experiences, and patronizing local specialty shops, geared toward sustaining that sense of unique character and experience that a community offers. Even in urban areas, the sense of neighborhood culture and pride is having a resurgence.

    As we experience the personal economic affects of globalization and the resulting loss of jobs due to sending our production work overseas, we have seen a rising understanding of the connection and benefit that demanding “local” provides, to our area economies, our own families, our neighbors and friends. Supporting “local” gives people the good feeling of “making a difference” and playing a responsible role in the sustainability of our communities, while also stimulating that sense of pride and authenticity. It says we have a choice in the matter, and that choice matters. “Localism” is not only good for our economy, it represents a sense of social responsibility and desire to sustain our patchwork quilt of Americana that represents our country’s heritage and character.

    Connie Loden is the Executive Director for Heart of Wisconsin Business & Economic Alliance that coordinates community economic development projects in Central Wisconsin. Connie is an internationally recognized leader in rural development, holding leadership roles with the Community Development Society and National Rural Development Partnership.

  • What a Difference 1500 Miles Makes

    After several days in New York, I encountered serious climate change — in terms of atmosphere — at a USA-Canada Summit in Grand Forks, ND. Sure people were concerned about the market meltdown, but the talk was all of new plans for expanding the economy across both sides of the border. The distressed martinis of Manhattan nights were gone in a place where drinks also came with good cheer.

    Perhaps most inspiring was an appearance by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) who spoke of the economic crisis but in terms far less hyperbolic than those used by many members of Congress and most of the media. He compared to the current crisis to a low tide that has exposed some weak points in the economy but has not fundamentally altered the underlying strength of what he called “the real economy”.

    This includes the manufacturing, farm, energy and business services firms that are flourishing across large parts of the country, particularly in the Heartland. Firms representing these industries at the conference were not whining about competition or the credit crunch, but talking about cooperation across the border and the prospect of a better future.

    How refreshing it would be if either of the two major candidates, particularly Senator Obama, the likely winner, spoke with such confidence about the intrinsic strengths of the country and this continent in general. I would not deny the real significance of the stock market crash and the real estate mess, but, as Senator Dorgan suggested, “optimism” about the future has been a primary driver of American progress since the founding.

    Let’s hope Senator Obama, or Senator McCain, lose some of their negative rhetoric when they take office. It may be good politics now to be a nay-sayer, but as President, these fellows will need to comprehend the country’s fundamental strengths and how to utilize them to make a strong recovery.

  • A Grand Alliance: Fostering a North American Central Economic Region

    Given current economic trends, the time may be ripe to consider as a concept, an economic region straddling the middle of the North American continent – a North American Central Economic Region (NACER). These cross-border economic regions spanning Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, North and South Dakota and Minnesota, already share infrastructure, production facilities and research and development capacity. A North American Central Economic Region (NACER) would build on these existing relationships, as well as historic patterns of cultural exchange, cross-border trade, and travel.

    Governments with fixed territorial boundaries do not always effectively address the need for cross-border regional economic partnerships and co-operation. Often created under radically different conditions, borders can result in transactions costs that limit interaction and opportunity.

    The concept of cross-border regions in North America is not new. Joel Garreau’s Nine Nations of North America describes cross-border regions that share similar economic, social and cultural characteristics. Other concepts for cross-border economic regions include Cascadia on the west coast and Atlantica on the east coast. Atlantica is more formally known as the Atlantic International Northeast Economic Region (AINER) and is currently the focus of advocacy and research on the part of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies based in Halifax and the Eastern Maine Advocacy Corporation. The AINER concept comprises the Canadian Atlantic provinces as well as Maine, Vermont and the northern part of New York State bordering Lake Ontario.

    Cascadia has been nurtured by a government funded cross-border advocacy group initiative known as the Pacific Northwest Economic Region or PNWER. PNWER defines a region of the Pacific Northwest that includes British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington with a total population of about 20 million people. The PNWER provides a forum to address important cross-border issues in trade, transportation, the environment and energy. The 18th annual summit of the PNWER was held in Vancouver in July 2008 and discussions focused on marketing the Pacific Northwest in advance of the Vancouver Olympics, trade and travel across the Canada-U.S. border.

    In a similar manner, a North American Central Economic Region (NACER) could span Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, North and South Dakota and Minnesota. This region stands at the cross-roads of the North American continent and essentially comprises the north-central portion of Garreau’s “Breadbasket Nation.” As a region, NACER covers 1.8 million square kilometers with a population of nearly 8 million people and a GDP (US$) of about 370 billion dollars. This economic region contains agricultural production activities, food processing, forestry, petroleum, coal, mineral and hydroelectric resources as well as substantial manufacturing and service capacity.

    The recent rise in commodity, food and energy prices has demonstrated the increasing strategic importance of the NACER zone in the long run. As well, the major centers of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Winnipeg are already locations for numerous corporate head offices, health, educational, research and government services. In addition, NACER contains vital road, rail and airport hubs that would be complemented by three ocean-going ports – Churchill, Duluth and Thunder Bay as well as the Mississippi route down to the Gulf of Mexico.

    The similarities and geographic proximity of the provincial and state economies of this region create a conjunction of common interests and possibilities for economic growth. For example, Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario have abundant hydroelectric resources and would benefit from increased exports to meet growing American power needs. Given current trends in energy prices, NACER has the potential to be a 21st century energy export giant rooted in agricultural and forest bio-fuels and hydro-electricity. In particular, the potential of Northwestern Ontario as a forest bio-refining energy center and hydro-electric producer would be enhanced by sharing of expertise with Manitoba and Minnesota.

    Another specific example of economic interests coinciding can be seen in the conjunction between the aerospace program at the University of North Dakota and Winnipeg’s aerospace manufacturing sectors. As well, Manitoba and Minnesota both provide large adjacent markets for goods and services for firms in North and South Dakota.

    As a further example of common economic interests, Minnesota has robust growth and a tight labor market and some of its firms could benefit from setting up operations in nearby Northwestern Ontario which suffer a surplus of highly skilled surplus labor and capacity due to the forest sector downturn. Moreover, recent economic development initiatives announced for northeastern Minnesota could also provide opportunities for Northwestern Ontario firms. As well, improvements to the highway, road and border-crossing network in the NACER region could also generate benefits for increased regional partnerships.

    This economic region requires a sense of common vision in order to grow and prosper during the 21st century. Leaders in this region need to facilitate cross-border commerce and activity in the areas of cross-border employment and business opportunities, better relationships between producers and suppliers, improving cross-border transportation infrastructure, cross-border environmental and nature conservation, and tourism promotion. At the very least, a regular regional forum between Chambers of Commerce and political leaders to examine common economic problems and solutions would be a worthwhile endeavor.

    Institutionalizing a regular set of meetings as has been done in the Pacific Northwest would be a good start. Furthermore, developing a regional vision and set of common statistics that could be used to lobby both federal governments could also help, particularly when border issues threaten the role of the border as a zone of interaction.

    The time is indeed ripe for a North American Central Economic Region (NACER). This cross-border region shares common economic interests and is strategically positioned at the heart of the North American continent. Key immediate priorities for this region involve research and industrial partnerships, common tourism marketing and steps to reduce congestion and streamline flows of legitimate trade and travel. The next step is for interested parties and stakeholders to come together and establish a cross-border institutional framework to promote this alliance, identify issues, set priorities and most importantly, mobilize resources on both sides of the border.

    Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and specializes in economic history, public policy and health economics.

  • A Local Graduation: How Small Towns Can Come Back

    Pick anytown, USA. You were born there; went to school there; made your living there; had your children and grandchildren and ended your life there. Headstones, like many, tell the story of who came and who went and they helped make the town a unique place.

    And so, for a moment, I lamented at how much of that we had lost in the changes we have witnessed over the decades. Here we are in the biggest financial crisis in history, or at least since the Great Depression. What do we do?

    Towns not on interstates cannot make it we are told, towns that are not hip and exciting are dead. And so, our young people leave — with at least a casual observance that those left behind are falling to the drug culture. In a recent focus group of young males in one eastern Kentucky town one participant stated, “Sure I sell drugs — it’s easy money and I don’t have the connections to get a job even at Wal-Mart.”

    How can we recapture that faith in ourselves in American communities? We must if we are going to move forward in a global economy.

    Maybe the solution lies in focusing on ourselves. “Localism” has been linked with everything from economic development to environmentalism, but at its core and at its best, it reflects a desire to make the best with what you’ve got.

    What you need to build is an intentional city. The intentional city is the middle way — where both the need to attract creative people and the need to sustain traditional economic and social bases co-exist.

    It’s okay, after all, not to be the coolest place ever. Why? Well, because most of us aren’t all that cool. But the majority of us still need jobs, fun things to do, people we like and ways to be successful. We need what ‘bell curve’ mixed communities — with the whole spectrum of skills and talents — can give.

    Take Newton, Iowa. The closure of the Maytag plant and the loss of 1,800 jobs attracted attention from Presidential candidates. But, as is so often the case, only part of the story was told. Though the loss of Maytag was a severe setback, Newton prepared itself for a successful rebound. The town collaborated with state and other nearby cities to attract several wind-turbine manufacturers. Maytag’s previous facilities already possessed the machinery needed for large-scale turbine manufacturing. The available facilities also were situated adjacent to interstate rail lines.

    This economic recovery was possible because the town’s people (many of them former Maytag employees) were interested in more than just their own jobs. They cared about Newton. These engaged citizens took a more active role in planning for their city’s future. They knew change had to come from the grassroots and move up from there.

    I believe this form of American ingenuity is at work in many small towns and cities. This requires a focus not only on high-tech and “creative” jobs but maintaining more traditional types of work that is equally important to a city’s health.

    This kind of effort requires more than sounding off online. Covert citizenship – yelling across the internet — isn’t real. Sustaining communities requires involvement.

    Like the people in Newton, we need to take interest in our own community and intentionally helping it flourish with its own best assets. Just as communities in tropical climates are recovering from hurricanes so can tired and waning cities recovery from malaise and a sense of inferiority.

    We need to embrace what we’ve got and not try so hard to be something we’re not. We need to graduate to the current reality but understand also that our greatest advantage lies with what we had to start with.

    Sylvia L. Lovely is the Executive Director/CEO of the Kentucky League of Cities and president of the NewCities Institute. She currently serves as chair of the Morehead State University Board of Regents.

  • Nothing’s the Matter With Kansas

    Local and Regional banks in the Great Plains are doing just fine, thanks, according to Bill Wycoff, a bank president in southeast Kansas. Bill wrote in the WSJ Saturday that

    “Here in the heart of Kansas, the sky isn’t falling and Chicken Little isn’t running around without a head. Community banks like mine are still making loans and serving the needs of customers. … My father always told me that character repaid many more debts than collateral ever would. Community banks form long-term relationships with customers.”

    He’s had to go out of his way to combat recent media coverage and hysteria about the financial industry:

    “All of the media pressure about this terrible crisis has really worried people. We community bankers must spend time reassuring folks that everything will be fine. The best way I have found to do that is to make more loans this September than we made a year ago, offer new products, and serve a fantastic group of customers with home loans at our bank where all is well and none are facing foreclosure.”

    Here in the prairie, we see many small town banks opening branches in adjacent metropolitan areas to tap some of the solid economic growth. Growth here may not be explosive, but it is built upon the productive economy and professional and business services. The Great Plains has consistently bested the national rate of job growth since 1990, and many local banks have launched advertising campaigns in the past weeks to say “everything is all right.”

  • Old Manhattan Had a Farm

    Old Manhattan had a farm
    Ee-yi ee-yi O

    As a child of the early Sixties, I fondly remember the days when colossal albeit stupid technological projects were fashionable. I remember in particular a cartoon that showed a subway running from the U.S. to China right through the center of the earth. Of course, this brings to mind Thoreau’s quip that, while the telegraph might connect Maine to Texas, would Maine and Texas have anything to say to each other? But the very point of the trans-core subway was its pointlessness. If titanic, useless engineering projects like the Hoover Dam are impressive, then how much more impressive are titanic, useless engineering projects!

    In the Seventies, thanks to environmentalism, grand engineering projects fell out of favor. E. F. Schumacher and J. R. Tolkein were the new gods. Skyscrapers and dams were passe. Utopia was a sod-roofed hobbit hole designed by Amory Lovins. But human fascination with large-scale projects could not be satisfied by designing high-tech composting bins in the backyard. So now we have the arrival of something new: It’s the gee-whiz engineering boondoggle of yesteryear resurrected with a thin veneer of greenwash turning it into… Call it a greendoggle.

    Inside a high-rise was that farm
    Ee-yi ee-yi O

    Scientific American, a once-sober magazine that seems to be going down-market along with National Geographic, has just published its own flashy Earth 3.0 issue, with stories like “MisLEEDING? When Green Architecture isn’t Green” and “China’s Eco-City.” On page 74 you will find “GROWING VERTICAL”: Cultivating crops in downtown skyscrapers might save bushels of energy and provide city dwellers with distinctively fresh food.” The hero of the article is Dickson Despommier, a microbiologist at Columbia University, who proposes growing food downtown in glass-walled buildings.

    Scientific American, of course, gushes over the idea as a way to plan “more sustainable cities,“ sustainability being the ultimate planning buzzword of the moment. A brief internet search reveals widespread discussion of vertical farming—not only Professor Despommier’s vertical farms and feedlots, but proposals for raising produce on green roofs downtown.

    At first sight, the idea seems plausible. True, vertical farming would be a non-starter if urban rents were higher than rural rents. But we all know that land is just as cheap in downtown Manhattan as it is in rural Nebraska, right? One wonders, though, why farming moved off the island a more than a century ago.

    Professor Despommier claims that food grown indoors would be pesticide-free, unlike that dirty outdoor produce. Once again, totally plausible. Big American cities are as free of rats and roaches as Ireland is of snakes. The Museum of Natural History has a glass case containing the last rat found in New York City, way back before World War I. (Just don’t look down at the tracks when you are waiting for a subway).

    But then if we admit there are millions of rats and billions of roaches, then the crops growing in vertical farms would have to be protected by enough rat and roach poison to kill Xerxes’ army. Fortunately, in rat- and roach-free urban America, that is not a consideration. And even if it were, we would not need to worry that health inspectors would be bribed to overlook the rodent droppings and roach eggs in our tenth-story grown arugula. The civil servants in New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia are known worldwide for their incorruptibility.

    With some algae here
    And some chickens there

    Still, I do worry about the urban politicians. It’s bad enough that a mayor can pressure landlords to provide a girlfriend with an apartment for a discount. What will happen when members of the City Council start twisting the arms of realtors to give them discounts on eight-storey vertical ranchettes on Central Park West? Who needs to go to the Hamptons, when you can have your own rent-control winery on the penthouse floor?

    And then there’s the matter of competition for housing downtown. For a decade, would-be homeowners in big cities have seen prices driven up by speculators, who buy condos and then keep them empty until they can flip them. Will would-be condo owners now have to compete for airy downtown lofts with Archer Daniels Midland?

    Here a cell
    There a cell
    Everywhere a solar cell

    Don’t get me wrong. I’m for the industrialization of agriculture. I don’t doubt that, a century or two from now, much of the human diet will come from in vitro meat and fruit and vegetables, grown indoors in clean laboratory conditions and laced with the appropriate vitamins and amino acids. Back in the 1920s, before they led their nations, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt both predicted laboratory-grown food in their popular writings, and it’s coming. But, for the most part, the food labs of the twenty-second century like the robot factories will be located where land is cheap, in distant rural areas or in the outer exurban expanses of the metropolis.

    Oops, I forgot, acreage is cheap in downtown Manhattan. Never mind.

    Old Manhattan had a farm
    Ee-yi ee-yi O

    Professor Despommier’s skyscraper farms, and the community gardens on top of the Sears Tower, solve two worrisome non-problems which together create an urgent un-crisis. The first non-problem is the alleged lack of fresh produce in present-day supermarkets, a problem that doesn’t exist in any grocery store I’ve patronized anywhere in this country. The second non-problem is the alleged loss of wilderness to agriculture. In fact, thanks to the increasing efficiency of American agriculture, more food is grown on less land all the time. Some retired farmland goes to suburbs and exurbs, but the majority of it is being reforested. The wilderness is devouring farmland in North America, not vice versa.

    But that’s the nature of a boondoggle, and the coming thing, the greendoggle. It’s an overly-elaborate technological answer to a nonexistent problem.

    Why do such ideas get such attention in the prestige press? I think the answer lies in the psychology of America’s urban overclass. Deep down the urban trust-funders and professionals want the “urban archipelago” to secede from the rest of the United States. The sooner they become self-sufficient in terms of food, the sooner they can build walls around their post-American city-states. Then, when peak oil leads to the apocalyptic crash of automobile civilization, the urbanites can pull up the draw-bridges. From the safety of their hydroponic penthouses they can look through telescopes at the besieging mob of working-class hinterlanders with potbellies and bad hairdos. Who in that day of reckoning would not rather be downtown? After all, the hinterlanders will control only the farms, factories, mines and working population, but the urbanites will have…will have…worthless pieces of paper….

    Hmmm. Back to the drawing board.

    Old Manhattan had a farm
    Ee-yi ee-yi O
    Inside a high-rise was that farm
    Ee-yi ee-yi O
    With some algae here
    And a koi pond there
    Here a cell
    There a cell
    Everywhere a solar cell
    Old Manhattan had a farm
    Ee-yi ee-yi O

    Michael Lind is the Whitehead Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. He is the author, with Ted Halstead, of “The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics” (Doubleday, 2001). He is also the author of “Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics” (New America Books/Basic, 2003) and “What Lincoln Believed” (Doubleday, 2005). Mr. Lind has been an editor or staff writer for The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and The New Republic. From 1991 to 1994, he was executive editor of The National Interest.

  • Campaign Money and the House Bailout Vote

    The late Jesse Unruh, longtime speaker of the California Assembly, was a giant of a man, both in accomplishment and girth. But he will be forever remembered for having said that “Money is the mother’s milk of politics”.

    Never truer words were said. We got a good glimpse of that in the recent vote on the Paulson-Pelosi Wall Street bailout. A quick survey conducted by the Berkeley, California based Maplight.Org showed that members of Congress in both parties who supported the bailout received 54% more money from the financial service industry than those who voted against it.

    The differential among Democrats was even wider — those who backed the bailout received almost twice as much from Wall Street than those who opposed the measure. A regional analysis conducted by the New York Times showed another interesting pattern, with opposition to the measure strongest in the heartland states, Texas and other places where the housing bubble was less inflated.

    Clearly constituents in these areas reached some of their representatives with complaints. As for those who went the other way, well, somewhere in heaven, California’s “Big Daddy” is wearing a sly, knowing smile.

  • Boomers Go Back to College? – A Letter from Pennsylvania

    The “boomers” is a generation born between 1946 and 1964. They gave us the youth culture, hippies, Woodstock, peace movement, women’s liberation, computers, flexible work environments, consumer electronics and consumption on the grand scale to mention only a few.

    Boomers have enjoyed a wonderful economy in the main that has enabled them to build wealth and live middle class lifestyles. They stay fit. They eat healthy foods. They look young compared to people of previous generations at their age.

    But alas they are graying and have reached the point in their lives where choices need to be made about how to continue to live lives that are both enriching and fulfilling.

    There were 78 million boomers in the United States in 2005 according the census data. By 2006, 330 of them an hour were turning 60. Growing older means different choices and greater financial challenges for them. Fidelity Investments estimates that “boomers” on average have less than $40,000 in retirement savings. Few will have traditional pensions. Most of their wealth is tied up in real estate.

    Medical costs will increase by nearly 50 percent as they pass 65. The Social Security Administration estimates that there will be only 2.1 workers for retiree by 2031. This is down from 3.3 today. As a result many boomers will continue to work out of necessity while they seek a simpler and scaled down lifestyles.

    An annual survey conducted on behalf of Del Webb, a developer of retirement communities, found that 36 percent of boomers plan to move when they become “Empty Nesters” and 55 percent of boomers plan to move when they retire. One interesting finding in the study is that, “boomers are twice as likely as those currently aged 59 – 70 to prefer an active adult community that is part of a multi-generational neighborhood.”

    One key question facing empty nester and retired “boomers” may be where can they go to find a quality lifestyle, affordable living, part-time employment opportunities and multi-generational interaction? The answer may well be college towns that proliferate in places like Pennsylvania – a state with more than one hundred institutions of higher education. Many are located in beautiful towns.

    Websites like www.collegetownlife.com provide links to college towns where boomers may consider relocating. At www.bestplaces.net you can compare the demographics of where you currently live to those of a college town. I currently live in suburban Philadelphia. If I were to move to State College, Penn., home of Pennsylvania State University’s main campus, here is what I would find.

    First, I would be living in a town that is six times larger than my current community, but less than one percent the size of my current region. The median age would fall from 42 to 23 years. In my current community, nearly 40 percent of the population is 50 years or older, but in State College only about 10 percent fall into this demographic.

    A lot of things would remain the same in terms of gender and racial mix, but I would have to get use to a community in which 75 percent of the population is single with no children and the number of people who are married drops from 60 percent to 15 percent.

    In my current community the median home prices is $344,000 while in State College it is $235,000. My current cost of living index in 126 while in State it would stand at 100. Average income in my current community is $66,500 while in State College it is $22,500. My school district spends more than $9,000 per student in State College it is a little over $7,500 which reflects real estate taxes.

    State College offers robust cultural activities through Pennsylvania State University. The University has schools of music and performing and fine arts and a number of concert halls, museums, lecture halls, libraries, theatres and auditoriums with near daily attractions and activities. Also, the community is safe and offers a host of recreational activities.

    Pennsylvania State University is the largest in Pennsylvania and adds to the vibrancy of State College, but there are also more than one hundred other college towns and communities in Pennsylvania where “boomers” may find everything they are looking for and more as they transition for work to active retirement and toward their golden years.

    These towns offer everything from wooded rural locations to stylish suburban or urban neighborhoods. They represent a great alternative to those boomers who want to do far more than fade away.

    Dennis M. Powell is president and CEO of Massey Powell an issues management consulting company located in Plymouth Meeting, PA.

  • Heartland Development Bank – a New Vehicle for Growth

    America, the world’s most advanced continental nation, could be on the verge of a great resurgence, much of it based in regions largely unacknowledged by many pundits, academics and the media. What is needed now is an infrastructure strategy to make it happen.

    So say New Geography contributors Delore Zimmerman and Joel Kotkin in recently released white paper proposing a new method of infrastructure financing for the heartland of America: a Heartland Development Bank.

    In order to capitalize on emerging economic opportunities and to rebuild America’s productive capacity in energy, agriculture and manufacturing enterprises we propose the creation of the Heartland Development Bank. The Bank is envisioned as a $10 to $25 billion source of financing for infrastructure development projects. The Bank would serve as a lead lender on projects of economic significance in the Heartland and leverage considerable co-investment from the private and public sectors.

    Delore and Joel recently led a round table discussion on financing heartland infrastructure. The discussion is available on Youtube, or check out the case laid out in the policy paper.

  • Minnesota’s Iron Range Colleges Attracting Business

    Being a college president for thirteen years convinced me of the importance of addressing the interdependence between a campus and its town. Inspired by my third presidency, I saw the need to brand a strategy needed to revitalize community.

    We gathered 90 stakeholder partners for a full day meeting at Ironworld, a discovery center for the region to preserve its rich heritage and history. The local residents focused efforts on a place-based institution with the capacity to serve as a catalyst for pulling up the towns across Northeast Minnesota. That was in November, 2000.

    “True North,” in navigational terms, is a precise measurement used to calculate one’s direction. In this part of the world, “True North” came to symbolize a drive to unleash the potential of unique and resourceful college towns for what has been a hard-hit region. The goal was to use colleges as a catalyst to help local communities become viable places to live, learn, work and grow. Through a structured process of guided intervention, colleges and their communities learned how to change. I guess you could call it the first steps of reinventing college towns.

    We believed we had a society and lifestyle worth sustaining in the northland of America. Small to medium-sized towns represent the very foundation of society. These towns are the primary source of many aspects of our religious beliefs, traditional notions of family and property, and work ethic. These communities also afford an environment where we can enjoy the great outdoors, those things we love doing, whether it’s bicycling, hiking, skating, or just meeting with other people. These are things we believe are important to a good quality of life.

    Healthy communities require a strong economy, dependable healthcare, and basic infrastructure, including service and faith-based organizations. But demographic changes, usually driven by the economy, can overpower the healthy pillars of a community. That’s what happened on Minnesota’s Iron Range, mostly because of its reliance on a natural resource-based economy under increasing global pressure. We identified three existing industries critical to the future of the region: taconite mining and processing to make steel; timber; and tourism. In the face of challenges to these industries, people became very resilient; people were able, again and again, to respond to changes in the economy. This can also create a kind of lassitude, thinking the economy will eventually come back on its own. That’s why higher education, government, and the private sector needed to come together to guide a process for change.

    There was no better part of my job than getting our college faculty, staff, and students engaged with the town in ways that changed the traditional pattern of interaction. Each college town created a TechNorth Prep Center on its main street – for high-skill technology education and business development. We developed an ongoing alignment strategy to bring problem solvers, leaders and resource managers together in order to facilitate economic growth.

    All economies evolve and change. That’s why we didn’t sugarcoat those challenges that were frankly overwhelming, like an aging population, migration of young people and families out of the area, mines closing, and high unemployment rates. But we also knew our communities had many assets — including a strong tradition of public education .Our schools had to be more than temporary homes for students as they went off elsewhere We needed to create an environment and opportunities to keep at least some of them close to home.

    Today there are $6 billion dollars of private investments in development throughout the region. Once hard-hit communities are preparing for housing expansions, public infrastructure improvements, and increased population, including a migration of “downshifting“ Boomers. The area is building off of its unique assets, like natural beauty and quality of life, while utilizing its higher education institutions as catalysts for this change. Each college towns is reinventing itself to attract wealth to the community.

    So, if you’re still wondering why a college president is concerned with investments, economic growth, community development and jobs, it’s because of the saying, “As communities go, so go their colleges, and vice versa.” No one has or should have a greater stake in the future of their town than those of us who live in it and love it. Geography, history, economics, and politics combine to create an environment where strong community ties can help people to work together.

    The critical components of a healthy community are ultimately about the individual. Minnesota’s Iron Range is a remarkable place: stunningly beautiful and resource rich geography; diverse immigrant history; often turbulent economics; and “boot strapping iron range” politics. But now thanks to True North and the on-going process of reinventing college towns across the region we are gathering the resources to help prepare our communities for new opportunities.