week of 3/5/03
 
 
 

Be careful what you wish for — you may get it
By Mark Jamison

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a fellow who occasionally appears on the pages of SMN. We were talking about planning and growth here in western North Carolina and specifically in Jackson county. The discussion began when one of the other fellows present, a retired professor at WCU, brought up a letter I had written to the Sylva Herald criticizing WCU.

The point of my letter had been that any planning initiative devised by local government had to take into account the impact of institutions over which local government had no control. As an example I used WCU and its quest to expand regardless of the cost and consequences to local communities and Jackson County in general. I wrote that WCU had abandoned much of its traditional role in the community in favor of a vision that almost completely ignored local communities and people. I asked if it was appropriate for WCU to embark on an ambitious growth program in light of the environmentally and culturally sensitive nature of our area.

One of the comments the fellow made was that at some point locals were going to have to adjust, change their thinking and step into the future. I found this comment very unsettling and more than a little arrogant. I am always at a loss to understand the thinking of those who insist that the other fellow must change his thinking.

When I read last week’s editorial in the SMN regarding WCU’s plans for high tech development, I was reminded of that earlier conversation.

On face value high tech seems like the answer. The fact is one cannot pick up a paper on economic development without reading of the limitless economic opportunities high tech development offers. The one thing most of these papers don’t elaborate on is that in attracting (and the key word here is attracting) high tech industries an area almost always risks displacing local people and communities.

Thirtysome years ago I worked for a brief time with a division of the Forest Service in the area of California that is now known as Silicon Valley. The area was primarily small town and rural, and while no one can deny the tremendous economic growth and impact the high tech industry has had on the area, one also cannot deny the devastating impact on land use and local populations. Today people will buy a $200,000 house and tear it down just to put up a bigger one. Teachers, policemen and firemen, the mainstays of a community, cannot find reasonable or affordable housing on decent middle-class salaries.

We ought to be concerned with economic development here in the mountains, but we ought to also be concerned with the preservation and sustainability of our communities.

Perhaps our goals ought to be more modest. Perhaps rather than attempting to attract “a trickle that could easily become a waterfall” of outside development we ought to consider developing the resources we have. Perhaps in growing bigger and seeking more, in becoming a “player” we will lose more than we bargained for.

I am not suggesting that we ignore opportunities for growth and development, only that we look at them with a critical eye and realize that everything comes with a price. There are folks who have lived here for generations. They have lived lives of meaning and worth long before this area became a preferred destination. Many of the people who have come here in recent years have come to share in the existing culture and community. We should not discard those people or their values in the never-ending quest for more.

I am suggesting that we need to examine our local economy for opportunities that would help us sustain and strengthen our communities. For years WCU was known for its teaching programs. These should be developed and promoted at least as heavily as some of the newer initiatives. WCU has a wonderful geo-sciences and natural reosurces department. Certainly we would benefit from sustainable forestry and farming programs. Developing these types of programs would help in preserving open space and farm and forested lands in some semblance of the rural landscape we currently know. Programs like these might allow the people who have been on the land to stay on the land.

It is true that Western North Carolina has a wealth of natural beauty and a wonderful quality of life and while we should appreciate and protect that we must be careful that we don’t simply sell it. The trickle that becomes a waterfall may one day become a flood, and that which we valued so much may be completely gone to us.

(Jamison is a former member of the Jackson County Planning Board who lives in Cullowhee. He can be reached at mij918@earthlink.net)