The ERC vs Economic Development as Usual

George Rebane

This morning ERC held its annual meeting at the Holiday Inn with over 85 of the community’s leaders and interested parties there to enjoy breakfast and see what will pass for economic development (ED) this year.  Gil Mathew, ERC CEO, presided over a well-organized gathering and gave a fine welcoming speech. In it he pointed out to all that the first thing we really need is to agree on ‘what exactly is ED?’, else down the line some will be zigging while others are zagging.  At the end of his talk each of the tables were given some questions to discuss for about ten minutes and then present their thoughts to the whole group.  Well enough.

We duly bent to the task in the short time allowed, and came up with something between little and not much.  However our table’s leader, as most of the folks in attendance, was no slouch, and when he rose to speak, gave a good demonstration of what may charitably be called realtime synthesis – he put together a fine sounding group of words from which it was hard to get any, well let’s call it, semantic purchase.  Which itself was OK, since we gave him even less to work on.  Other tables delivered similar reports; with the ones who actually took notes doing a bit better.

What emerged was a polyglot of all the old saws from wanting high-paying jobs to “attracting a full-spectrum demographic” to providing a cradle-to-grave environment for those born in the county.  To me the most disturbing outcome was that no one really wanted to give the ERC any real guidance – Nevada County’s ED should be everything to everyone.  No one gave a little speech saying that we need to make some choices because our resources are limited both in kind and in their effect.

In the end, the holy grail of a “balanced community” is still somewhere out there beckoning us.  Of course, no one will stand up and say what constitutes balance, other than maybe having some significant proportion of young and old, rich and poor.  Even though many people wanted to attract high-paying IT jobs, the sign at the Bear River bridge should still welcome the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” arriving from some “teeming shore”.  While no one really called out for more “wretched refuse”, it was clear that in the ED plan some provision should also be made for them.

The existence of the retired/leisure constituency was recognized, but no one really knew how to handle them.  One fellow characterized the retireds as a static community upon which we better not depend – I guess this meant that they were old and would die with no one coming here to replace them.  Others simply agreed that “retirement will happen on its own” and need not take up much of any purposive ED plan.

The only actionable point on which most of us agreed was that we should make a concerted effort to attract and recover the well-educated young people who left here after high school graduation.  We figured that in the interval it would be possible to upgrade the farm enough to answer the age old question ‘how ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree?”  But, here’s the real kicker, what percent of our high school grads get college degrees in fields that make them welcome wealth generators?

Finally, one of the more remarkable ideas to come from the group was to just go out to the community and ask them what kind of ED would they like.  Walking out to my car, I was trying to puzzle out how I would deal with the data that such a community wide survey would produce – specifically, what kind of usable information could one make out of such a dataset?

So, having received no definitive guidance from its government and commercial sponsors, at the end the ERC was left to fend for itself.  Before closing prayer Gil Mathew did introduce us to a couple of capable looking people who will be acting as consultants in ED planning.  Their tasks are not yet clear, so I will conclude by suggesting that perhaps the first task that they tackle is to disprove the following statement – ‘Using limited resources to achieve the broad target of a demographically-balanced, economically-developed, small community is utter folly, resulting in no discernible direction toward either the desired demographic profile or an acceptable increment of economic growth.’ 

Should that task be considered politically intractable, maybe this one would serve instead.  Disprove the following statement – ‘Focusing limited resources on improving carefully selected, narrower economic metrics that take advantage of our community’s asymmetric attributes will maximize the chance of promoting meaningful economic growth in Nevada County.’

======== added later today

Russ Steele's review of this gathering can be read on NC Media Watch.  My preamble to this meeting was posted as 'Economic Development in Nevada County - Another View'.   

Comments

[gladtohavemademyexodus]

Good analysis of a difficult problem presented at today's meeting. It's easy for people to rail about what we need (The Onion) but coming up with actual positive solutions is much harder.

[Douglas Keachie]

[But, here’s the real kicker, what percent of our high school grads get college degrees in fields that make them welcome wealth generators?]

What percentage of them can afford to even go, given wages paid their parents and the lack of money for loans?

Dear George,

You don't call me dumbth, and I'll not strafe your blog again, or will I publish deliciously chosen snippets in appropriate places in The Union commenting areas. You also do not delete any of my posts here, or all bets are off on the latter. Let this be a lesson.....

[Douglas Keachie]

that should have been "nor" not "or"

[Overtaxed and Unheard]

Who is Douglas Keachie?
The Union
"Man arrested at 'Star Wars' showing for alleged videotaping
2:01 p.m. PT May 20, 2005

A 60-year-old North San Juan man was arrested just after 5 p.m. Thursday on suspicion of videotaping a showing of “Star Wars Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” at the Del Oro Theatre.

According to Grass Valley police logs, Douglas Keachie was arrested at 5:01 p.m. He was attending the 3:15 p.m. showing at the Del Oro Theatre on Mill Street at the time of his arrest."
But Del Oro Theatre co-owner Mike Getz said Keachie's actions Thursday amount to movie piracy. Signs near the entrance to the theater clearly state that video recording devices are prohibited, he said.

"People who are (pirating films) are costing us billions of dollars a year," Getz said of the cinema industry.

Keachie was approached by Del Oro employees after movie patrons complained of his use of the digital camera, which has a video component that Keachie said he did not use.

Keachie refused, Getz said, and only stopped snapping photos after a patron made a citizen's arrest and detained him until police arrived at the conclusion of the movie, Getz said.

"He was very uncooperative," Getz said of Keachie."

[Douglas Keachie]

What isn't in The Union newspaper is that Lucas himself had no beef with amateur stills. Within 3 weeks a search for Sith on Flickr.com, show 70,000 different pictures from the movie posted. Obviously no other patrons of theaters were arrested, once the bounty was claimed.

What else isn't in the Union and Getz isn't mentioning is that the MPAA had set up a bounty for the first "filmer" caught. So well oiled was the machine that it was not The Union that scooped the story, but rather an AP reporter out of San Francisco.

There is no doubt in my mind that Getz called MPAA immediately and they called the reporter, and he had it on the wire across 300 outlets before The Union could even get a reporter to give me a call. What did Getz do with his bounty, and how come he goes around begging the public for money to repaint the mural? Seems to me it would be a good use of the cash.

BTW, case diverted, 30 hours community service at a non profit I volunteer for anyway. Big Deal, no mugshot, camera and photos returned intact, guess they could see where they might have been sued, I've got better things to do.

Like enjoy the investment in our home theater, since we no longer go to any Getz theaters. Should I ever get an apology, we'll reconsider. We are neighbors on the North San Juan Ridge (3 air miles, but there's only 3,000 people up here).

Lemme Guess, AR or AlwaysRyghty of The Union posted this story. BTW, check the GVPD logs, I surrendered myself to them, after the movie was over, 3 blocks away. No use of video was ever found.

My wife adds that the new laws (1996, I think) for teachers allow for "fair use," and I am still active in my profession, as is she.