I guess I'm becoming more of an independent voter since catching myself nodding in agreement with Tim Griffin, our lieutenant governor. He was speaking at the grand opening of the Murphy Arts District Playscape in El Dorado.
Since inquiring minds want to know why Richard Mason would nod in agreement to anything a Republican would say, let me give you a rendition of his remarks. He focused on how Playscape would create jobs. Every Republican known to man must say "jobs" at least 20 times during any speech. It's hard to listen to one without your ears ringing with jobs, jobs, jobs, but this talk took a different twist.
He related some of his visits to Arkansas towns where the refrain was "We need jobs." Sound familiar? Yes, but his reply was a shocker. He said El Dorado was doing what would really bring in quality jobs, and that the attractive destination projects underway are critical to creating jobs. He didn't mean the actual brick and mortar projects. He meant destination features such as Playscape and the other MAD projects would bring in thousands of visitors, and when 10,000 folks show up to hear and see the likes of Hank Williams Jr., the jobs would follow. I was shocked, because for once a Republican had seen the light, which is that increasing the quality of life in a town is critical to bringing in jobs. (Don't ask for a campaign contribution, Tim. I have other issues.)
When I watched several hundred kids screaming with joy at Playscape, dancing under the squirting water spouts around a giant red Razorback, I can tell you those kids' quality of life took a jump upward. The quality of life, as our lieutenant governor pointed out, is critical, and if your town has great restaurants, a world-class Playscape, and entertainment such as Old Hank, the good quality jobs will follow, and you won't have to settle for the low-end state-subsidized ones that no one else wants. Over the years we have settled for the bottom of the bucket when jobs were concerned, and as far as a lot of our past leadership was concerned there were no bad jobs.
I don't believe that. Here's why. For a number of years El Dorado was home to a major chicken processing facility. The plant and white-collar workers moved away a few years back, but left the waste-rendering processing facility. You can imagine the smell of burning chicken scraps and other disposable parts of a chicken. When the winds blew from the southwest a horrid smell would waft over downtown. The rendering facility finally left, but there were folks who said, "Well, I hate to see 15 jobs go."
I don't want jobs that pollute the air, land, or water in our state, and will do what I can to stop any company that proposes to locate here with a factory or has a polluting process that reduces our quality of life.
Let's consider a few facts in the light of what the lieutenant governor said to the crowd gathered to open Playscape. First, the most obvious: Quality of life comes before jobs. The better the quality of life, the better the quality of jobs that will come.
Bigger, and I mean more people, doesn't always follow an enhanced quality of life. When the population growth overwhelms the infrastructure, quality of life begins to shrink, and that is exactly what is happening to Austin, Texas.
Twenty-five years ago, if you had polled Texans to pick a desirable place to live, Austin would have easily topped the list, but today? Folks I know who live there tell me, "They've ruined Austin." They are the "they." The hundreds of thousands of people who moved there because of the great quality of life. What happened? The infrastructure, which provided the quality of life the people wanted, didn't keep pace with the population growth.
Today, Austin is being strangled by its unrestricted growth. The city government and many of its citizens are scrambling to restore the Austin that once was Texas' dream city, but with a still mushrooming population they have an uphill battle. It's just one of the mega cities around the country where people are desperate to leave because their quality of life has been eroded.
What has that got to do with Arkansas? It has a lot to do with developing a balance between population growth, jobs and quality of life. For example, if you think an increase in jobs followed by a skyrocketing surge in population equals a better quality of life, you had better lower your expectations as to how much quality you want. When the infrastructure falls behind, that's when jobs, growth, congestion, pollution, and crime combine to erode quality of life. It doesn't matter how many jobs are created. If everybody who has a pulse can get a job, it still doesn't make a quality of life town.
I've spent a lot of time in northwest Arkansas over the past 50 years starting out with six years at the university. With the UA, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, fine restaurants, and the surrounding Ozarks, those folks have a great quality of life. What happened to Austin should be an example of what could happen to northwest Arkansas, but I'm optimistic.
I see trails constructed, trees planted, and money being spent to improve the city cores in almost every one of the major towns in the area. However, there are problems on the horizon. With the tremendous population growth, the infrastructure is close to being overwhelmed, and if that happens congestion will follow. What needs to happen is for the region's 20-year master plan to become a five-year plan, with a regional county sales tax enacted to shore up infrastructure to where it can accommodate an exponentially increasing population.
And they can start by moving the hog farm off the Buffalo National River Watershed.
Richard Mason is a registered professional geologist, downtown developer, former chairman of the Department of Environmental Quality Board of Commissioners, past president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, and syndicated columnist. Email richard@gibraltarenergy.com.
Editorial on 06/03/2018