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OPINION: The Gold Mine Under Our Feet, Part One |
Teddy Herzog | 2/25/10
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Every day, I hear about someone new who is leaving our Pagosa Springs community. Typically, that person leaving is younger, maybe with kids, and off to find an easier living somewhere else.
Every week, I hear of another business -- or three -- that is going out of business. And, the number of defaults and foreclosures and people going bankrupt is sprouting upward like mushrooms.
The next twelve months will continue to be economically challenging.
But our community of Pagosa Springs is situated on top of a gold mine. Accessing the "gold mine" is a matter of discovering that the gold is here and digging the access tunnels. Or, in our case, what is missing is our decision to make our community economically viable.
 Our community is reaping the results of its former ways of thinking. I like to say that if you want to know what has been going on with yourself emotionally and spiritually then take off all your clothes and stand in front of a mirror for a good long time. And take a good hard look. Similarly, if you want to know what has been going on, emotionally and spiritually, with our community then drive up and down Highway 160 and take a good hard look.
To see what we as a community have been committed to, get in your car and drive around. This is the result of what we have been committed to. I won't name it. Call it out for yourself.
There will be the obligatory talk about the condition of our roads in this next campaign for County Commissioner. There will be the obligatory talk about "economic development". There will be talk about getting the construction industries and real estate machine up and running again.
But ... the entire future of our community rests, first of all, on the downtown core.
If we get the downtown core right, the rest of the community will ride on its coattails. If we blow it downtown or let it continue to crumble, then there will never be the heart and soul that we need to create the true economic engine that lies before us waiting to be claimed.
There is no "County" as distinct from "downtown". We are a unified, small community. Period. Until the community unites behind a clear vision that we are all sitting on a gold mine, the access tunnels will not be opened.
There was once a myth about an "us" and about a "them". There was once just a small town and ranches. Then there was the Fairfield subdivision (now known as Pagosa Lakes). There were political struggles to create a second town out of the west side. Then the town annexed all the good commercial land up Highway 160 right up to Pagosa Blvd.
The County Commissioners always did their own thing. The Town leaders always did their own thing.
Once upon a time, mediocre was good enough.
Once upon a time there were dinosaurs, and volcanoes and creepy-crawly things.
Then times changed.
I hope that the candidates for County Commissioner don't spend a whole lot of time talking about improving roads this campaign. Can we just get to the punchline here? There is no money.
Is it time to talk about creating some money? Like, is it possible that we are sitting on a cash machine right now?
Pagosa Springs can have some of the best opportunities for education in the West. Pagosa Springs can be the capital of green sustainable living. Pagosa Springs can be the cutting edge of modern business nestled within a mostly undisturbed wilderness. Pagosa Springs can be a must see destination for learning, play, healing and connection to mother earth. Pagosa Springs has what people from all around the world want to see and enjoy.
Not like some pie-in-the-sky pipe dream. But like — yeah really, we can create any of these visions here in this place called Pagosa Springs.
Is anyone opposed to having our educational system be known as the best in the West? Is anyone opposed to becoming the capital of green sustainable living? Is anyone opposed to becoming known as a cutting edge destination to call home and set up your internet-based business?
So, this election year, I would love for all of us to talk a little more about a future worth living for. I would love to hear a few more of us stand up and yell "hello!" "Did you know that there is a gold mine underneath our feet?"
I need to start doing that.
I am not talking about rampant, crazy development and sprawl. I am talking about taking the very best of what we have now as a small little mountain town which is one of the top outdoor recreation destinations in the country. I am talking about our upcoming new internet cable bandwidth coming from Bayfield (and, hopefully, also from Sante Fe).
I am talking about packaging and promoting what we already have here as a place of healing, a place of play, a place for sustainable green living, and a place that invests heavily into both higher and lower education.
We can keep the heart and soul of our community intact and at the same time develop the existing potential for attracting internet-based businesses who want to be part of our wonderland, mountain community.
What is missing is our collective decision to make our community economically viable. What's missing is called "taking a stand". What is missing is an absolute commitment to being "remarkable".
We are all sitting on a "gold mine" right now. All of us.
Our community has spent a lot of time, previously, arguing about what it is that we don't want. In the past two years we've spent a lot of time just watching the local economy implode. Things are falling apart here. Things are breaking down in our little mountain town.
But "breakdown" is the opportunity to speculate anew. "Breakdown" is not the end of possibility but the beginning.
As humans, we all tend to operate with ourselves and with other people as if we have permanent qualities. The way that we characterize other people opens or closes possibilities for ourselves. Where we die - commit suicide - is in our characterization of other people and ourselves. Being "right" about how it "is" does not allow for the possibility of something new.
The time has come to articulate a positive vision for the future. The time has come to take a stand for economic prosperity. The time has come for us to promote and make available what we have for the benefit of other people. And we are going to have to do the work to get there.
“This community is at a moment where it is really going to decide what it is going to be going forward.”
So spoke Henry Beers to a select group of Town leaders in May of 2007.
“Places that endure, think in long time frames. Not changing, unfortunately, isn’t an option.”
“Transformation is taking what has been, in order to imagine what can be, and then acting. That’s very different than just plain old change.”
“For any living organism or any vital community -- vitality requires transformation. And, it takes courage.”
“And when you put a lid on that, or when you say that you’re not interested in that -- you are basically setting a timer on your own demise.”
Mr. Beers pointed out that “a lot of time and energy is spent trying to build consensus. But, you can’t get crowds to lead. You just need a few people with their hair on fire.”
Bold leadership is required.
“You need to be idea led and public opinion informed. But if you let public opinion wag the dog, the Town will never be better than the worst opinion. It will be the lowest common denominator.”
Read Part Two... |
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