Dear HCN:
Congratulations on your
“Grappling with Growth” issue (HCN, 9/5/94). It will circulate
around these quarters and be referenced for some time to come. I
read Ed Marston’s essay on a possible bust and wanted to respond
with some different interpretations.
My
counterparts in southern Utah see the ups and downs of the
California economy in a whole different light. They are fearful of
an improving California economy, and see that improvement as
sending the next tidal wave of migrants surging up the streambeds
to places like St. George and Cedar City. They warn us, “You folks
in eastern Utah better be ready for the Californians to discover
I-70 the next time they can cash in on their equity.”
The same thing might be said of business
location intentions. Businesses need to be able to sell their
property and use that equity in a move. It is also helpful to
remember that Southern California businesses had to respond to an
earthquake this past year, which put immediate concerns on the
front burner over long range plans.
I do agree
that California prices were at unrealistic levels, but I also agree
that booms aren’t necessarily logical. I have a somewhat sick faith
that Californians will find a way to drive those prices back up to
their previously unrealistic levels again.
I
especially enjoyed the analysis of transience and churn. I think
this is especially true in smaller communities where the grass may
have looked greener and the view charming until the reality of
small town life hits home. I’m less sure of that factor in the
West’s micropolitan areas and edge cities. I suspect that an
analysis of communities within two hours of metropolitan areas
would show much less transience, as would an analysis of Boise,
Bend, Grand Junction, Logan, or Flagstaff and their
counterparts.
I think it may be best to
understand that while overall California trend- watching may be
enlightening, there are a variety of forces at work in the L.A.
basin that affect decision making. It takes a small fraction of
that population and business community making decisions to have a
great impact on the Intermountain West. As many people have said,
14 million people living there simply isn’t sustainable, and as Las
Vegas and Phoenix take on all of the undesirable characteristics of
that parent community, they too will start to spawn
escapees.
I am heartened somewhat by an
increasing recognition of the implications of these trends and a
desire to plan for the finite resources that will come under
pressure. Utah’s Republican governor is exhorting images of Brigham
Young as the West’s first “Planner” and “Settlement Director” in an
effort to help this state catch up on long-neglected
growth-management tools. Reinventing government does appear to be
trickling down to the trenches with land-management line staff and
new relationships are being forged.
Whether this
is enough, and timely, remains to be seen. Whether these new
in-migrants will smooth or exacerbate our boom-bust history remains
to be seen. What you perhaps didn’t mention about Paonia was that
the in-migrants of the “70s who managed to stay and survive have
graced that community with a breadth and depth of talent and
diversity that I suspect many oldtimers would now declare
healthy.
Randy Russell
Price,
Utah
Randy Russell is the
director of Carbon County Future, a community and economic
development agency in Price,
Utah.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline No bust yet.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
