Published June 4, 2006 in the Hibbing Daily Tribune
By Aaron J. Brown
Last week Minnesota Public Radio aired a series entitled “Growing Pains on the Iron Range.” The news series detailed many of the proposed economic development projects in our area and the growth they promise.
The stories spoke of thousands of jobs from projects like a steel plant near Nashwauk, a coal gasification power plant in rural Itasca County, rare mineral mining on the East Range, Mesabi Nugget and more. It’s be easy to declare victory and do a jig, but I’ll leave that for all the people seeking re-election next fall. We should go into this exciting phase in Iron Range history with our eyes and ears open and our priorities straight.
I’ve brought up Richard Florida’s “The Rise of the Creative Class” before, but it deserves another mention. The economist theorizes that the success of any city or region depends on its ability to attract creative people of all vocations. In other words, no matter how much money you give prospective companies in tax breaks, incentives and startup help, you won’t thrive until creative people want to live in your town and innovate on their own.
How can we do this? Infrastructure. Not just for these new projects but for the whole region. The state and federal governments have already spent a lot of money on these economic projects. Grist for the mill, one might say. It seems to me, however, that we could have doubled every single grant, loan and tax break we’ve given these companies and we’d be only a fraction of an inch closer to making them happen.
Ultimately, a project is economically feasible or not. Ultimately, a region can support an industry with its education, workforce and transportation infrastructure or not. Our money is better spent on general infrastructure, potentially used by everyone, rather than specific incentives for individual companies, many of which are still in startup phases.
The late author Paul Gruchow once wrote in his essay “What We Teach Our Rural Children” that rural people subtly teach their sons and daughters that they must flee to be successful. I see this all the time. People cling to the hopeful notion that one day our kids won’t have to leave the Range, but then tell them they must leave to be successful. We will never improve this area until parents teach their children that there is value in the place where they grew up and show them, I repeat, show them how you can make the world better while living right here. We are people of value and substance. Why am I saying that in an economic development column? Because the best economic development is always home grown, and we haven’t been growing much ourselves lately.
In his essay, Gruchow also warns rural Americans of the lessons we teach children when we hold nothing sacred as someone promises jobs. Jobs are important. Pride in our homeland is more important.
So I say again, economic development must include action for every promise and the best way we can show the world that we mean business is to figuratively light up Iron Range infrastructure like a torch. Don’t stop until it’s visible from space. That’s what the men and women who ran our Range towns did during the fast growth of the early 1900s and it’s what we should do now.
The real hope for the future of the Iron Range probably won’t come as a magic economic development project dropped from heaven. I am 26 and have already lived through two busts and two booms. Real change on the Range will require work, sacrifice and, most of all, forethought.
Every home in northern Minnesota should have access to high speed Internet and telecommunication lines within a decade. Our high schools and colleges should stress the history and future of this region through job training and innovative programs. We need to upgrade our wastewater plants in countless Range towns. We need better roads and more transportation options. (Including, for the love of all things holy, adding lanes to the remaining two-lane portion of Highway 169 in Itasca County). We need to make the Iron Range a great place for creative people to live. If we do that, we will have created jobs in the process. If these big promises made by elected officials and high talking business leaders come through, good. But no one controls the fate of the Iron Range more than the everyday people who live, work and die here.
We don’t need promises; we need action.
Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune.