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Somehow, Colorado emerged as one of the finalists for a $42 billion barrel of federal pork -- the Supercollider. Our proposed site is near the remote settlement of Woodrow, out on the high plains between Brush and Last Chance.
I don't want to be among those disparaging Woodrow as the place for a research facility for high-energy particle physics. Granted, it may have been the last place in Colorado to give up hand-cranked telephones, and it has perhaps 25 people, but my great-aunt Delma lives there, and I have to face her every summer at the family picnic.
However, the federal group in charge of selecting the Supercollider site has expressed some reservations about Woodrow. Physicists and other highly educated people will want various cultural amenities. If the Supercollider site can't offer such amenities, it's going to have trouble attracting a talented staff.
Woodrow, like most of rural Colorado, is economically depressed. And in the hinterlands of the Centennial State, you won't find many cultural amenities, either. Which leads to an suggestion for the promoters of economic development -- find some ways to spread some culture around.
For instance, we all pay federal taxes that help support
National Public Radio, the source of thoughtful programs
that people in civilized regions enjoy and discuss, such as
All Things Considered
and Prairie Home
Companion.
But no matter how many federal taxes you pay, you can't get public radio in the boondocks. That makes spots that have scenic beauty and ample outdoor recreation, like the valley I live in, that much less attractive to any number of artists, sculptors, writers, computer programmers, etc. who might move here. Enterprises like that don't have smokestacks or payrolls, but they do bring in money from elsewhere and spend it here -- they're good for the local economy.
Several years ago, our county leaders were glad to spend
about $150,000 to hire an economic development
consultant and set up a promotional campaign, which had no
discernible effect. But I haven't noticed that they're in
any hurry to help out on the $8,000 that it will cost to
put in a repeater station for public radio that could help
attract new cottage industries.
Economic pundits say we're entering the information
age.
Libraries are major sources of information. An
investment in a better community library would almost
certainly be an investment in economic development. Even
so, a small-town library will never be a capacious research
facility.
But why is it that I have to carry half a dozen library
cards (most acquired through ruses and chicanes) to borrow
the books I need in a timely manner? Couldn't there be a
Statewide Library Card
which lets you check books
out anywhere and return them anywhere?
What of schools? A 1987 survey showed that 64 percent of 130 major corporations listed primary and secondary education as their major community-affairs concern. It costs them money to provide the training in basic skills that should have been done in the classroom. The physicists at the Supercollider, as well as the self-employed artisans in little towns, all want to send their children to good schools. Any town will need good schools to prosper in the future.
Our current legislature, now in session again, has not
demonstrated any willingness to improve Colorado's
educational system -- even though the statehouse is full of
people who say economic development
is of vital
importance.
The traditional route to economic development consists of subsidies and tax abatements. It thus attracts freeloaders and dubious enterprises.
Instead, economic development ought to consist of making Colorado a better place to live, no matter what part of the state you live in. If Colorado towns aren't so cut off from the mainstream of American discourse, if they have excellent schools and easy access to ample library resources, then they'll attract the kind of people who can help them prosper.
Even if such investments don't show an immediate financial return and the state economy remains moribund, we'd still be better off than we are now.
So we'd win either way. It's simple, which may explain why our politicians and civic leaders haven't figured this out yet.
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