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In Newport, business and community leaders are working on attracting new residents and what they're calling "lifestyle entrepreneurs." They want to brand the coast as a place to live, work, and play to slowly convert tourists to residents — residents who will bring their businesses (and their money) with them.
But what impact will this actually have? Can the slow movement of one entrepreneur after another make a real difference to the local economy? Many people say yes, but Tim Duy, an economist at the Univesity of Oregon disagrees.
We'll get into this debate tonight at a local watering hole in Newport's trendy (and growing) Nye Beach. If you're in the neighborhood we welcome you to join us at Cafe Mundo. The reception begins at 6 pm and the show starts at 7 pm sharp.
And in case you're far from Newport, we hope we'll have a chance to meet up with you in the future. This program is the first of several we'll be doing in the coming months to explore how rural communities are coping with the recession. We'll be travelling to Southern and Eastern Oregon in the coming months. The Rural Economy Project is a partnership between OPB and the Rural Development Initiative, Sustainable Northwest, and The Oregon Consortium & Oregon Workforce Alliance.
But for today's show: have you recently moved to the Oregon coast? What do you do for a living? If you're a long-time resident, what kinds of new businesses and people would you like to welcome? What do you think of the branding of the coast?
NOTE: We'll be recording this show in front of an audience on April 19th at Cafe Mundo in Newport. There's a reception at 6 pm and the show starts at 7 pm sharp. It's first come, first seated, so get there early!
Tagged as: coast · rural economy
Photo credit: kightp / Creative Commons
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Before thinking about attracting "lifestyle entrepreneurs" coastal towns need to address something that most destination resorts and retirement communities have NOT addressed: where do you affordably house people who are going to be employed by "lifestyle entrepreneurs". Cities' planning needs to include AFFORDABLE HOUSING or the coastal communities will continue to face what they have been facing and even what destination resort communities face daily - there is nowhere for the minimum wage or "min wage plus a pittance" service people to afford to live, consequently it is very difficult to find people to help run the small businesses that make up a coastal community. Not all "lifestyle entrepreneurs" are going solo, most need to have at least one employee.
I would love to live in one of the coastal communities esp. to escape the increasing pollen/pollution problem of the Willamette Valley. I moved here a decade and a half ago. I have seen only one job vacancy in my field in the coastal community ranging from Reedsport to Waldport in that decade and a half. Jobs are extremely scarce and even if one gets a job in a coastal community, because wealthy retirees - many from out of state - have cornered the housing market, where is there any reasonably priced housing? Answer - there isn't any!
Think about any start-up business yes even by a "lifestyle entrepreneur." If they are already independently wealthy or well situated, fine. But "well situated" doesn't describe most lifestyle entrepreneurs. Living on a stashed salary of about two years while launching a business, which is pretty much a standard recommendation from the experts, doesn't leave a lot of room for ultra-expensive upscale housing - no golf course residences, ocean view top floor condos, etc., or even that adorable ramshackle seaside cottage surrounded by weathered picket fences and seagrass popping up through the (perilously) shifting sand.
All in all, coastal communities' planners must have enough housing diversity to be able to attract both the lifestyle entrepreneurs themselves as well as their prospective employees.
Wondering what all the new NOAA employees are going to do about finding housing when NOAA comes to town???
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---and I'm back from the show and learned that a "lifestyle entrepreneur" is someone who moves to an area because she (or he) enjoys the lifestyle it offers, then creates a niche that allows her to pay the bills. Around these parts, that's just about everyone! We call it "Survivor: Newport!" because you really have to want to live here to survive the disparate economy marked by low wages coupled with high rent and grocery costs.
But is sure is pretty :) How lovely to enjoy coffee on the north jetty any given morning before walking to work ~
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Be careful of what you wish for, you might get it.
IF a branding and marketing campaign successfully lures thousands of newbies to the lovely Oregon Coast, might the Natives lash back? Look at the status of former Californians in Bend and the rest of Oregon.
Oregonians want friends but at arms length.
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Jacob, I even got this as an expat rural Washingtonian when I moved here in the 90's. The unfriendliness was so marked that the business I as a relo'd "lifestyle entrepreneur" wanted to start in the Willamette Valley was systematically and with many illegal and violent activities destroyed by the locals, so in short order I sold the facility I had acquired with very high (clearly foolish) hopes and went back to the same career I had in Washington. From this and in the ensuing years I learned that many local businesses take someone from the "outside" as a dire threat and I believe that this is because there is so little money in Oregon that the most vicious fighting is over what little money there is to go round.
You mention status of Californians but did you know that throughout the nineties the largest number of new Oregon residents transferred from Chicago? True statistic from the DMV.
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The people that want to come to the coast will come of their own volition. THere is no need to market the coast. THose marketing programs are state government jobs we can do without.
The people dragged in by marketing are the ones that leave after a winter.
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The point: high housing costs, low wages, few full-time jobs, few jobs with insurance or benefits. The Wilder group spoke of "affordable" as $200,000 homes . . . but more than half of the workers in Lincoln County make $10 an hour or less. I know several people working for less than minimum wage, as working "off the books" is one way local employers get around a higher minimum wage. The few living wage jobs are being slashed, either eliminated or cut to become part-time, non-benefitted jobs. As for entrepreneurs, just drive down Highway 101 and tally up the businesses that have closed in the past 12 months. There are many hardworking folk who have tried very hard to make new businesses work, but there is simply not a local economy that can sustain them. I am a professional with a long career before moving back to Oregon, and to the coast. I spent 2 years without employment, and for the past 4 years have worked 3 jobs, none full-time, averaging 70 hours a week. I got insurance last year, but spent several years without. I pay 70% of my income for my modest housing. My standard of living has never been lower in my adult life. Yes, it's beautiful and yes I enjoy what the coast has to offer, but I often think my decision to live in Newport was starry-eyed and overly-optimistic.
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I bet none of the "Wilder" group ever had to survive on minimum wage! Anyone who considers $200,000 as "affordable housing" needs a very, very strong reality check (e.g., a checkup from the neckup). They really need to hear that they are living in a parallel universe - a monied one -- it certainly is NOT the reality of Oregon life today especially in coastal communities.
I had to wait a bit to compose myself and write this because I was off in gales of hysterically derisive laughter at this actually not-so-funny belief apparently held by someone who hopes to mold the coastal community in Oregon along the lines of spectacularly failed coastal communities elsewhere (even those supported by those parallel-universe monied types who still have to drive over two hours to get supplies because all the local stores have closed).
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The challenge in using greed to motivate people is to anchor it in as much productive behavior as possible. Economies boom and bust because the ‘skimmers’ start outnumbering the producers.
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I was a member of last night’s audience and posed the question of what might be done for those residents of the coastal communities that are barely getting by in the current economy. There was much of discussion of efforts underway to recruit "lifestyle entrepreneurs", and the positive economic impact they would have on our communities.
An economic study conducted by The Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association outlined the following:
Tourism accounted for 6% of the Coast’s earned personal income and data from 2003 shows transfer income (social security and other government assistance), constitutes 23% of the total personal income on the Oregon Coast. Investment income (retirement accounts such as individual 401k accounts and pensions) constitutes 23% of the total personal income on the Oregon Coast. Taken together, investment income and transfer income constitutes 46% of the total earned income on the Oregon Coast.
At the surface, the Oregon Coast looks prosperous, but the reality is a third of the families on the Coast are one paycheck away from financial disaster. A significant segment of the Oregon Coast’s population is trapped in a cycle of poverty.
Download the full report here: http://www.oczma.org/detail.php?item=30
I think efforts to improve the overall economy on the Coast should be directed to attracting businesses that could provide jobs to a wide variety of people already here rather than attracting more "lifestyle entrepreneurs" who, though they may have some positive impact on local economies, contribute little towards solving the larger issues facing the flailing coastal economy.
It is true that such efforts have been undertaken as the recent announcement of NOAA basing it’s Marine Operations Center here, which will bring approximately 175 employees to the area. Construction is expected to begin soon, employing up to 100 workers, on facilities to host 4 NOAA vessels, with berths for 2 visiting vessels, plus labs and offices.
These are noble efforts but not long term solutions for the coastal economy. Rather than following the notions and ideas of a few well meaning individuals, perhaps a Coastal Economic Consortium could be formed and an earnest study undertaken to realistically determine what might be done to improve the economic situation for everyone with more representation from those not from the business sector.
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And where are those new NOAA employees going to live? There is so little affordable housing in that area.
So, are these NOAA employees who no doubt represent the average American worker with average salaries going to rush right out and buy their "affordable $200,000 home"???
I don't think so.
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I'm very pleased that the Portland-centered Think Out Loud has finally headed to the coast where I was born and grew up and where my father was a logger and mother a nurse at Bay Area Hospital. My parents are still in Coos Bay and my life is still very much shaped by the coast even if I can't find a job there.
My question though is why didn't TOL interview any of the fishermen in Newport, or the loggers, or the folks who live off the natural resources there (such as farmers, herders, etc)? I think it's important to bring "new money" and jobs to the coast--I truly do, but you didn't bring anywhere into this conversation the people who have lived there the longest and who have struggled the longest and WAY BEFORE the "economic downturn" that we're currently experiencing. Furthermore, it would be useful to look beyond the local and address the ways that the federal government has severely limited the ability for fisherman, farmers, and loggers to survive on the coast. I've seen the destructions of limitations on fishing and logging (even sustainably!), meted out by the federal government with the agreement of state officials, in my home town of Coos Bay and up and down the coast. Why didn't this come into the discussion?
If you want to get at the "real" heartbeat of the coast, you would have brought farmers, fishermen, and loggers to your forum. AS I said, I appreciate the focus on the coast, but only focussing on newcomers and "entreprenuers" is unfortunate and not reflective of the families and individuals like myself who grew up and continue to live on the coast.
Sarah Griffith
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The coast understandably attracts retirees. I would think additional health care facilities and more health care providers would be welcome and profitable businesses!