Shocking statistic
I was at an all-day planning meeting today along with 200 or so other community leaders to launch “Horizon 2.0“, a new phase of the Horizon Project which was completed in 2003. It’s a great plan, but the devil’s in the implementation. Some good speakers, including the former mayor of Indianapolis, Bart Peterson; Bob Jorth, the executive admin. of the Kalamazoo Promise; and John Fetterman, the mayor of Braddock, PA, a town of 3,000…that used to be a town of over 50,000 with a density comparable to modern day Brooklyn. John just made the cover of The Atlantic this month.
The shocking statistic (have you read this far?) is this: according to Bill Johnson, Chair of the original Horizon Project, in 2000 the RV Industry made up 35% of Elkhart County’s economy. In 2008, the RV Industry and its suppliers were somewhere between 50%-65% of the County’s economy. Yikes! No wonder we have 17% unemployment, with so many of our eggs in one basket.
An interesting discussion and group. Lots of good conversation — which, of course, is not implementation. But conversation can lead places. I’ve actually attended far fewer of these meetings than I did before I started RedPost. I’ve just grown tired of meetings and talk and much more interested in doing something real, with as immediate of results as I can muster. But I did enjoy myself today, and a free lunch is never bad for a ramen-profitable company like RedPost.
My point I made over and over today: grow/attract/retain high-wage jobs to the County and we solve the drug problem, the education problem, social services problems, so many other issues that come from having a below-average median income and lots of low-skill, low-wage jobs. Easier said than done, of course, but I’m trying to do my part!
