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Union County is more diversified than many rural communities — with people employed in timber, agriculture, education, government, and manufacturing — but it's still feeling the pain of the recession. Boise Cascade just announced that it will close its La Grande mill in about two months, resulting in 120 layoffs (about 225 people in Union County lost their jobs when Boise Cascade made cut backs earlier this year). And Dixie Lund, the president of Eastern Oregon University, says the Boise Cascade closure has sent a "ripple of fear through the community." With an unemployment rate already over 14 percent, how does a rural community like La Grande face the challenge of a global economic crisis? How will this recession change Union County?
One of the things that makes La Grande unique in Eastern Oregon is the presence of Eastern Oregon University. It is the third largest employer in the area and the door to a future for many young people. Like agencies and schools around the state, they're now bracing for a budget shortfall. At this point the president is planning for a 18 to 23 percent budget cut; she's worried it might be more.
Meanwhile, County Commissioner Nellie Hibbert says she sees the economic slowdown in her daily activities. A restaurant she loves used to be packed, but the last few times she basically had the place to herself.
Other news reminds us that even if the economy has slowed in La Grande, it isn't at a standstill: Bealls, a national clothing chain, just opened a new store in the town shopping center. Grand opening celebrations and fragrance give-a-ways might not sound like much, but they are a reminder that some opportunities remain, even in difficult times.
Do you live in rural Oregon? How is the economy affecting you, your friends, and your neighbors? If you have lost your job in a small town, will you move or stay? What do you hope will be the same about your community when the recession is over? What changes would you welcome?
Please note: This show will be recorded in front of a studio audience at 7 pm on Monday May 11th at Eastern Oregon University's Zabel Hall. Seating is first-come, first-seated and doors open at 6 pm. The show will air on OPB the following morning at 9 am. If you live in the La Grande area please join us for the taping, otherwise post your comments now to get the conversation started online!
Tagged as: agriculture · eastern oregon · lumber
Photo credit: Everett Helm
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If Boise Cascade is going to shut down for good, I am concerned about the property that will be vacated. I would like to see the property developed not into residential property, but something that would help the local residents gain employment in family wage jobs. I would like to see the excursion train come all the way into La Grande. The property would be a great spot for a train depot for Amtrak and the excursion train. I envision restaurants, hotels, a park and greebelt along the river. A Cabela's store would be awesome here and draw lots of tourism. We are a great location for outdoor enthusiasts and we must tap into that energy to draw people to our great town.
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That property is zoned heavy industrial and would remain so until it is suggested that the zoning be changed, at which time a lenghthy public process would ensue. Likely, we won't know for quite some time the long-term future of this site. It is way too soon to begin planning for something other than a heavy industrial use at that site. With or without Boise at that site, Union County remains in need of good-paying family-wage jobs. Whatever locates or remains at this site would need to contribute significantly to the local economy in similar ways to what we've enjoyed with Boise's presence. But for now, it remains Boise's site, and until we're told otherwise, it's likely best to support Boise's efforts to reopen in the future.
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Remote rural communities that have at best a stagnant population growth can only really grow their economies by focusing on export-based industries, also known as traded sector industries. Generally speaking these types of industries can be catagorized by those that sell their products or services to a geographic market area far beyond that in which they are physically located. Manufacturing and resource-based industries are the classic examples of this, although in the modern economy there are many other, especially service-based industries, that also fit within this category. Even tourism can be considered as an export-based industry, so long as it is bringing new money into the local economy. The bottom line is that unless a community wants to aggressively (overtly or inadvertently) pursue poplulation growth as a strategy (which most will not, and for good reason), then in order to grow its economy a community must focus on importing new wealth. This doesn't mean, however, that the only strategy is business attraction and recruitment - those are very expensive and risky propositions, especially for remote rural areas. But this also does not conclude recruitment should be ignored as a strategy - it should be merely be ranked in priority below existing business retention & expansion and entrepreneurial development. A community can only grow businesses and jobs three ways: new from the dirt (entrepreneurial development), from existing (business retention & expansion) or new from outside (recruitment/ relocation). And, as Adam Smith noted, businesses need three basic things: access to capital, land and labor. Communities need to carefully assess and provide good access to these three things and focus on finance, workforce and availability of infrastructure & shovel-ready land.
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What about shipping our call center jobs to rural locations instead of other countries? The wages would probably be lower than in metropolitan areas which would be good for business, and the jobs aren't location specific.
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I'd like to refute the notion that "Remote rural communities that have at best a stagnant population growth can only really grow their economies by focusing on export-based industries." In fact, I would assert that this is one of the sources of their woes because money and resources is constantly being shipped out of the area to corporate headquarters elsewhere. Imagine if the goods and services produced in La Grande and the Grande Ronde Valley were used soley to benefit the area!
The flaw in traditional economic theory, a la Adam Smith, is that growth is endless and must be pursued endlessly. This simply isn't healthy, as any good ecology or biology student can attest.
No, we need steady-state economies of scale. There is a reason that the towns of early Europe and ancient China persisted for so long, and it's not export economies. We need to pursue sustainability, which includes the ability for all local residents to make a living and for the community to prosper. The more money is recirculated in a community, the more it will prosper and indeed even grow (which should make the traditional economists happy).
There are several ways to do this: Revitalizing downtowns and catering to locally-owned and operated businesses, introducing a commerical property taxation structure where rented storefronts are taxed less in order to encourage downtown business, supporting farmers' markets, encouraging buy local campaigns, raising corporate minimum taxes, doing business with and investing in Oregon-chartered local banks, and instituting local currencies (which are useless to corporate franchises but not to local businesspeople).
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You know, these historic red areas don't have much of a leg to stand on. For the 30+ years they have voted against tax policies that would help them; instead favoring a supply side tax policy that only benifits corporations. They have voted to cut funding to education and vital social services. They have voted for and supported anti-union candidates.
Now they want stimulus money, social services and jobs. HA.
Maybe if these rural areas didn't vote against their own self-interests they wouldn't be in the poor situation they find themselves in today.
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First, whether right or wrong, most of them where voting for not sending their tax dollars to be used by the "west side." There has always been an us vs. them attitude on both sides of the Cascades. Your comments reinforce this. So, what is your suggestion as to what should be done? I am hearing from you; let the schools fail, let the people that live there lose their jobs, let all of the rural areas of Oregon dry up, they were asking for it. I guess they could all move to Portland and live in a condo but, you probably wouldn't want those "reds" around. While I agree that rural communities have historically made decisions that are hurting themselves now, one only need to look at the businesses that moved into Island City as opposed to La Grande to see the defeatist policies of the local government, what can be done to solve the problem? Now is the time to be creative in solving the problem, not sweep it under the rug.
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Historically, the very reason rural areas even existed was due to their proximity to a natural resource. As economies change, rural communities are forced to reinvent themselves, to change the reason for which they exist. More often than not, this means they are transiitioning into a more diverse economy - the irony is that the very thing that will save them economically is the the thing that makes them very vulnerable. Why? Because now they're forced to compete on the same level for the same talent and the same businesses and the same investments with other more affluent, populated and connected communities. I believe it is this factor, not their respective voting records or local government policies, that has led to current rural struggles. But this choice was actually the better of the two, because the only other alternative was to keep going the status quo, and that has proven to be an even more perilous path.
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I agree with your post. Union County is a republican county and the voters reflected it in the last election. I wonder how many of those republican voters are unemployed and now using government assistance to get by? It's time the Union County republicans switch the dial from hate radio to NPR. The night Obama won the election, I remember someone yelling from their second story low income apartment. It was degrading to President Obama, and all I could think about was how the right wing would consider low income housing as wasteful spending. It's not bite the hand that feeds you, it's called chew the hand that feeds you.
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Although the voters in rural areas may have made bad decisions, there is no point in punishing them for it on principal.
Their circumstances affect the rest of the state and how we choose to help them should be looked at from a humanitarian prospective, on one hand, and as an economic investment on the other. We need to be sure that we are investing wisely.
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Here in E. Oregon their is a higher percentage of people who put their energy into producing something as a way to make themselves useful to others, and by extension make a living.
In urban areas there seems to be a larger percentage of people who have had to resort to extracting their living from other people.
It is not surprising to me that the more urban areas have more people that are better at chasing 'free' cash.
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I live in a rural town but not in Eastern Oregon; I live in Drain. We used to be a big timber town. We don't have public transportation like much of the rest of Douglas County.
People get by but if they don't own their own vehicle, people have trouble getting around. There is ONE doctor in town and a dentist is sorely needed here based on some who are toothless.
A lot of the community is on some sort of government assistance, whether it be food stamps, federal disability or Social Security. Many young people graduate from high school and soon leave.
Boy, could we benefit from industry!
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Comments are now closed.
As you discuss this, it might be timely to note that a recent report by the Associated Press has concluded that counties with high unemployment rates are the least likely to receive federal stimulus money because they did not have "shovel-ready" projects when the stimulus bill was enacted.
"The analysis also found that counties with the highest unemployment are most likely to have been passed over completely in the early spending.
Among them: Wheeler County, Ore."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_STIMULUS_LEFT_OUT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-05-11-11-38-15