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Area needs steady growth to prosper
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More than a few interesting questions have come up in recent talks about economic development in and around La Grande. One has to do with the status quo, as in, “Are you happy with the status quo?” La Grande Mayor Colleen Johnson raised the query as she tried in a city council work session to spark discussion of the local economy and whether enough things are happening fast enough. Johnson maintained that things have gone stagnant. She also said the status quo isn’t good enough, at least not for her. She held that the community needs to grow. People are free to agree or disagree, and of course, they do. There are those among us who think the only good growth is no growth at all. Others think the Grande Ronde Valley should be sold and developed from pillar to post, the quicker the better. Still others, a wise majority, know that sure, steady, well-modulated growth is the best thing that can happen to us all. For Johnson and others, population growth is one indicator of economic health. As the mayor noted, we haven’t seen much of it in recent years, just as we haven’t seen much new business and industry, creation of family wage jobs or increase in the average wage. Now come the latest population estimates from Portland State University. Between 2006 and 2007, all of Union County grew by 140 souls, from 25,110 to 25,250, or 0.6 percent. Since the 2000 census, the county’s population has gone up 2.9 percent. That’s better than some Eastern Oregon counties like Wallowa and Baker where population is eroding. Still, it’s well behind the state’s growth of 1.5 percent in 2006-2007 and 9.5 percent in the seven years since the census. Explosive growth like that in Deschutes and Crook counties isn’t to our advantage, but it seems there’s room for improvement. A barely growing population isn’t a sign of a vibrant economy. It instead points to a community that is not attracting industry and the people needed to work in it. It shouts stagnation. It bodes ill for city and county governments, schools and local merchants. This isn’t to say our community leaders are sitting on their hands doing nothing. In both the public and private sectors there are people working hard to stimulate business. The prime example is the La Grande Business and Technology Park built by the City of La Grande and the Union County Economic Development Corp. The infrastructure is in place and the UCEDC is looking high and low for tenants. Should one or two new businesses locate there in the coming year, and county population grow by 240 instead of 140, it will be a sure sign that Union County can and will prosper. It will be a welcome but not radical departure from the status quo, which, to any reasonable mind, is no longer acceptable. |
