Quality of Life = Jobs
Iguess I’m becoming more of an independent voter since I caught myself nodding in agreement with Ken Griffin, our Lieutenant Governor. He was speaking at the Grand Opening of the MAD PlayScape in El Dorado, and since inquiring minds want to know why Richard Mason would nod in agreement to anything a Republican would say, let me try to give you a rendition of his remarks. His remarks focused on the new MAD Destination, PlayScape, and you bet he said it would create jobs. Yeah, every Republican known to man must say “jobs” at least 20 times during any speech. Of course, I’m making that up, but it’s hard to listen to one without your ears ringing with “jobs. jobs, jobs”, but this, “little jobs” 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 yes, believe it or not he said the attractive, destination projects underway were critical to creating jobs. No, he didn’t mean the several actual brick and mortar projects would have jobs, he meant the destination features such as PlayScape, and the other MAD projects would bring in thousands of visitors, and when 10,000 folks showed up on June 1st to hear and see Hank Williams Jr. the jobs would follow. Yes, I was shocked, because for once a Republican had seen the light, which very simply is to increase the quality of life in a town is critical to bringing in jobs. (Don’t ask for a campaign contribution, Ken. I have other issues.)
When I watched several hundred kids screaming with joy as they tackled PlayScape, dancing under the squirting water spouts around a giant red Razorback, I can tell you right now, those kid’s 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. Yep, 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 and let me tell you why. For a number of years El Dorado was home to a major chicken processing facility. The plant and white-collar workers moved a few years back, but they left the waste rendering processing facility. You can imagine the smell of burning chicken scraps and other disposable parts of a chicken, you get the picture. Did it smell bad? I can’t put words strong enough in this column to tell you how bad it smelled. When the winds switched and blew from the southwest a horrid smell would waft over downtown. The rendering facility finally left, I was ready to dance naked in the rain, but there were folks who said, “Well, I hate to see 15 jobs go.”
Well, we’ve got a great state and a good quality of life, if we will just work at it. Let’s put the idea, that we would put up with low-end jobs that reduce our quality of life in the past. No, I don’t want any jobs that pollute the air, land, or water in our state, and I’ll 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 Lt. Governor said to the crowd gathered to open PlayScape. First, the most obvious: Quality of life comes before jobs. That’s right and the better the quality of life the better the quality of jobs that will come. A few examples: 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? Well, the Texas folks I know who live in Austin tell me “They’ve ruined Austin.” They? Who are the “They?” Well, they are the “they.” The hundreds of thousands of people who moved there because of the great quality of life. Well, what happened? Very simply put, 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, and its quality of life is on a downward spiral. The city government and many of its citizens are scrambling to restore the Austin that once was Texas’s dream city, but with a still mushrooming population they have an uphill battle. Austin is just one of the mega cities around the country where people are desperate to leave, and naturally they are leaving because their quality of life has been eroded.
But, I know you’re saying, “What has that got to do with Arkansas?” It has a lot to do with developing a balance between population growth, jobs and your 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 of life you want. When the infrastructure falls behind jobs, growth, congestion, pollution, and crime that combine to erode quality of life, then 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. Let me give you my take on the area: With the University, Crystal Bridges, fine restaurants, and the surrounding Ozarks that are loaded with many other examples of true quality of life items, I think those folks up have a great quality of life. However, what happened to Austin should be an example of what could happen to Northwest Arkansas, but I’m optimistic. I see trails constructed, trees being 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 their master plan to be pushed forward, and their 20-year plan should become a five year plan with a regional county sales tax enacted to shore up their 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.