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EDITORIAL: Slow Down, You're Moving Too Fast |
Bill Hudson | 1/24/12
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About seven years ago, a small group of enthusiastic Pagosa citizens met in a downtown home to begin planning a new online news website — an enterprise that soon became the Pagosa Daily Post. One of the first articles written for that new website, by the website editor Crista Munro, concerned a rapidly growing local business called Parelli Natural Horsemanship.
The Parelli corporation was, at that time, in the initial phases of planning its new headquarters, and following a series of negotiations with various government entities and property owners, finally settled on Pagosa Springs as its home base. They then sought approval for a large office and warehouse to be located at the west end of the newly-built Aspen Village ‘mixed-use commercial and residential’ development along Highway 160.
‘Mixed-use’ was all the rage in 2005 and 2006, and some of us saw it as a way to combat the suburban sprawl and strip commercial development that was quickly coming to define the Pagosa community. And I do mean, ‘quickly.’ This little mountain town — with very little in the way of a sustainable economy — had been building hundreds of new homes every year.
Back in July, longtime home builder Larry Ashe summarized for the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation the recent history of the Pagosa construction industry. Mr. Ashe had just handed out some hand-written data sheets to the PSCDC board.
“Again, this is kind of a history. You can see, the first item on the list is the ‘Cost of Construction.’ The highest Archuleta County ever had, was in the year 2000. In the year 2000, 563 permits were issued, for a total valuation of $90.1 million. That number kind of tells you what the construction industry has been like, in this county.”
We didn’t know it at the time — back in 2005, when the Daily Post was publishing articles about the proposed Parelli headquarters — but the booming construction industry in Pagosa was unsustainable. It had been propped up artificially, by equally unsustainable mortgage company practices and unsustainable real estate prices, and the whole thing came slowly tumbling down in 2007 and 2008 — like a slow-motion film showing a house of cards collapsing.
We didn’t know it at the time, but Pagosa Springs was not destined to grow at 3 percent per year for the next century. In fact, it was not destined to grow at all from 2009 through 2012, but rather, it appears to have lost population. Hundreds of homes sit empty. Dozens of commercial spaces sit vacant, and those spaces that are still leased out are lucky if the rent is paying the mortgage and taxes.
That’s the reality. Pagosa Springs has slowed down. Drastically.
Is that a bad thing?
Some of our most powerful local leaders will tell us, “Yes, it’s a terrible thing that Pagosa’s economy has slowed down. You are either growing or you are dying. We must make generous use of taxpayer subsidies and immediately invest in big, questionable projects in a desperate attempt to revive the glory days of 2005.”
Earlier this month, we heard that the Walmart Corporation is buying some land in Aspen Village, directly behind the Parelli offices.
At last, someone is actually paying attention to Pagosa Springs — and it happens to be the largest retailer in the world. We all know Walmart; many of us shop regularly at their store in Durango. We all recognize that Walmart has a reputation for putting small mom-and-pop retailers out of business. We all know that Walmart has a reputation for hiring part-time employees and paying low wages, and for having certifiably mediocre service. But they sell cheap goods at cheap prices.
Does Walmart fit with the small-town, friendly, rural lifestyle that attracted us to Pagosa Springs? Of course not. Walmart is not interested in our way of life — they are a multi-national corporation operated to maximize corporate profits. But they do sell cheap goods at cheap prices.
Those of us who put our faith in Capitalism and Free Markets and Private Property Rights might argue that Walmart’s arrival is a good thing. We might argue that we cannot ethically keep Walmart from moving here, even if we believe they will ruin our town, because America is the land of the free, the home of the innovative entrepreneur, the supreme example of economic ‘survival of the fittest’.
Isn’t it Capitalism itself that made America great?
Those same folks might argue, meanwhile, that we need huge government subsides to build — for example — a new, privately operated amusement park on public land atop Reservoir Hill. And to build a new, privately operated geothermal greenhouse complex on public land in Centennial Park. And to fund the marketing of our privately-owned hotels and tourist amenities. And to fund an “economic development corporation” that has no budget, no marketing plan, no apparent intention to address the arrival of Walmart, and that duplicates services already available here.
Isn’t it Government Subsidies that made America great?
On Sunday afternoon, I had the honor to perform some ‘pre-show’ music at the new Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts. PSCA directors Tim and Laura Moore invite various local musicians to play music in the lobby before each play performance. Their show this month is "Guys on Ice."
I started off my selection of favorite songs with an old Paul Simon tune from the 1960s.
Slow down, you’re moving too fast,
You’ve got to make the morning last,
Just kicking down the cobblestones,
Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy... |
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