Foothills Digest - Fox & Hound Article - Summer 2019

The following is the 8th out of 8 Fox and Hound articles available from the Foothills Digest. It is the first collaboration that I have had with Sarah Everly. The current edition of the Foothills Digest is available on newstands and magazine racks in the area. I won't publish that article here until it comes out of general circulation. You should think about getting a subscription to the Foothills Digest. It is very artistic, has great literature related to our area, and it supports many of the entrepreneurs and creative people and their endeavors in our region.

In my mind, Sarah comes to this series with a bend that Gabriel got along too well with the Wascawee Weepubwican. We'll see. I'm not here for debate. I'm here for discussion. I have the thoughts of an Independent Liberated Free Man and I don't get stuck in Corporate Media Political Dogma and Rituals. If that is the altar from which you form your prism, then you will never understand a person like myself. Let's move forward in these discussions. My angle is to get as close to bringing a discussion of reality and realism to the public as possible. You won't see a list of Republican talking points in my discussions.


The following article is about "Quality of Life."

My personal reflection on the modern Democrat/Progressive/Liberal/Socialist of 2019. Everyone has ideas about how we move forward towards making people's everyday lives better. It's how we move from ideas to actions and then towards implementation that we differ. I like ideas that are Achievable/Doable and rooted in realistic principles. I'm into making your lives better as soon as possible. Pie in the sky, grandiose ideas lead to frustration and disruption and cause more harm than good. It wastes time, because people end up throwing their hands up in the air and having to start all over again. Feelings come and go like a whiff of air. Logic is steadfast and foundational. It is something we can build upon. We have to root our ideas in Logic and not Feelings.

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(The Hickory Hound: Thom Shell)

To open this dialogue with Sarah, the general topic is about what it would take to get Millennials to stay in our area. In a text, she says that her interpretation of past Fox-Hound articles: “mention “young people” and how our community needs to evolve to keep Millennials upward, but it is banter about Millennials instead of with them.”

I think some people may misunderstand where I am coming from, if they think that my main focus is just on attracting ‘Millennials.’ My focus is upon Science and the overall vitality of our community. Local officials, around 20 years ago, laser focused on attracting retiring ‘Baby Boomers’ because they thought the sheer numbers of that generation’s population would bring growth to our community. Unfortunately, retirees don’t create the economic velocity that young up and comers do and this most likely played a huge role in the economic malaise that we experienced in the first decade plus of this century. It threw our overall Ecosystem out of whack.

Chicken or Egg? Which comes first, the social dynamism of a community or its Economic Well-Being? My thoughts are in these articles, as well as on my website. Success is defined pretty simply, because “Quality of Life” correlates to economic growth, therefore our community’s overall “Quality of Life” is dependent upon growth in the largest workplace and consumer demographic -- Millennials. In other words, if young people aren’t living here or moving here, then we aren’t succeeding.

My thought process relates to not putting all of your eggs in one basket. We don’t need a certain generation. We don’t need a certain type of industry. We don’t need any certain category. What we need is balance. ‘If the chickens ain’t layin’ no eggs, and no eggs are hatchin’, then soon we ain’t gonna have no chickens.’

The reason why I have said that we need young people, and haven’t just said Millennials, is because of the demographic evidence -- lack of balance -- over the past twenty years. Besides, Millennials are now entering middle age. We have seen population stagnation for a generation and if we don’t stem the tide, then we are going to see population decline. Look at the Rust Belt areas of Western New York, Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Northern Indiana, Michigan, if we don’t regenerate, then that is where we are headed.

I’m all about a call to action. That is how I got involved in civic engagement. At 52 years old, as a DeGeneration X’er, I have seen my family pass away and move away to the point that there are only 3 of us left here. I have put ideas on my website, in this magazine, and in the public. The only thing that politics and good government can successfully do is create an environment for people to participate. The Millennials and iGen are going to have to buy in.

What will it take for them to buy-in? Perceived opportunity. Do they like it here? Do they want to be here? Can they afford to stay here? Do they have a future if they stay?

I have never had a problem with listening. I’d love to hear what the younger people have to say. I’d love to know what would make them happy, because I know that attracting these people to stay home, or to move here, is the key to the vitality and viability of our community.

We have a lot of ingredients that make for community success, but we’re having trouble with the recipe. Is there something missing or are we just not putting it together right?


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(The Fox: Sarah Everly)

In 2001 my family moved to the Hickory area. I was 9 years old and to me Hickory was a wasteland. Empty buildings littered the roadsides, parking lots were cracked and overgrown with weeds trying desperately to reach the light. The town was stagnant. There was a lack of youth. The youth that was here was wildly underpaid and their children? wildly undereducated.

Eighteen years later my peers and I have grown up. In large part, the once empty buildings are now filled with businesses owned by the under forty population. Growing up in the recession taught our town’s youth to make their own prosperity, to make wealth out of barren land and broken buildings. All of this makes it appear that this area is a lively and prosperous place to settle. It makes us look like, as Hound phrased it, we have the perfect recipe, but there is so much that isn’t seen to outside eyes.

As our under forty populations put their hours, hands, and heart into stimulating prosperity in our towns, they are being repaid by housing markets that leave them in vicious cycles of predatory landlords and few options to find a home they can afford. Our Boomer populations are selling their homes for four times what they paid, and anything sold under 120k is going to investors and serving as a fifth or sixth rental property. In my own experience I have found housing to be more affordable outside of our immediate area. Time and time again I have seen my peers move their families to Morganton, Nebo, or Charlotte, often taking their businesses with them. Add the housing crisis to the insurmountable student debt crisis, and public school systems that are still lagging behind and you have a recipe that is forcing us out of the areas that we largely helped lift out of recession.

I have to earnestly agree that our ecosystem is out of whack, but it is also my belief that we are facing another economic collapse. If housing prices do not fall, the market will crash. If interest rates do not stabilize, businesses will waste away or leave entirely. If our younger residents continue to work so tirelessly and only the Boomers benefit, we will burn out. If wages continue to leave tradesmen rolling pennies at the end of the month, they will follow the cash flow elsewhere. Plainly put, this area will be facing a drought of youthful prosperity within the next five to ten years. Do we want to stay? Yes! This is our home. We pulled the weeds, we paved the parking lots, we filled the empty storefronts. We had the odd privilege of helping craft this wasteland into the beautiful and bountiful community it appears to be. The idea of leaving is heartbreaking for many of us, but many of us are left with no choice. Can we afford to stay? Perhaps some of us, for now, but I’m not sure how much longer. Our recipe is lacking sustenance.

This is not to say that millennials consider Boomers to be lazily benefiting from our hard work. Many of them will never have the chance to retire because they too are lacking opportunity and prosperity. While eighty five percent of our community is panic stricken over billing statements each month, the other fifteen percent sip from wine glasses at country clubs or stand around in circles discussing rounds of golf. Things that most of our community will never get to do. It is bewildering to me that a town that once sought out retirees, is being sustained and developed by a population that will never get to retire.

A call to action. In previous versions of this column the call to action has largely been to raise wages, lower cost of living, etc…

I have to agree with those sentiments, but those things do not happen quickly. They may take years to happen. What condition will our community be in by then? We need swift actions. Actions like stimulating, or even adding more nonprofits. Non profit Microlending has been proven to bring communities up and out of their stagnation. These institutions often focus on lending to minority populations such as People of color, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, those with credit challenges, and those who do not have an established business portfolio. Adding lenders who service people that would otherwise be rejected by traditional banks to our community gives every individual an opportunity to pull themselves up, succeed, and then allow their success to benefit our community’s ecosystem.

Creating affordable access to trade certifications, hiring people of color, shopping locally, opening affordable and safe daycares, pushing our school systems to deliver quality education to our children, all of these things are immediate actions that we, as a community, can do to keep our younger populations prosperous, and upward.

Boomers to Generation Z, we all work hard. We all deserve quality of life. We all deserve a stronger, more united community. To borrow from Gloria Steinem, humans should be linked. Not ranked. When we accomplish that, we’ll know we’ve created the perfect recipe.

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James Thomas Shell’s Question:

Sarah, I appreciate very much where you are coming from with your article. If you go back and read all of the articles that Gabriel and I corresponded on, then you will read about some of the very issues you elaborate on here. I have been a big proponent of microlending and small business generators since the inception of the Hickory Hound in 2008. Can you further elaborate on how we can bring this to fruition and maybe how it might help you or someone you know on a personal Level? I understand where you are coming from, but there are many who don’t understand and can’t relate.

I understand your angst related to housing. Many of the issues, related to housing in our area, stem from the financial crisis of 2008, which had a lot to do with lending to people who got in over their heads buying overvalued houses. What do you believe can be done to re-open the marketplace to lower- income home buyers without going back down that path again? Maybe, as you alluded to, the market will have to reset by allowing housing values to fall to a level of affordability that correlates with those lower income levels. Are you looking for a government solution?

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Sarah's response to Thom

While it may be tricky to seek out microlenders to settle here, it’s relatively easy to educate our nonprofits about the existence of Microlending. Institutions like Women’s Resource Center work closely with programs like Work First. Knowledge of Microlending and how it works could cultivate opportunity for the jobless and underpaid women they serve. The same goes for Safe Harbor, Christian Ministries, etc... The people nonprofits ore serving are people that would be quickly rejected by conventional lenders. I’ve been a housewife for seven years. I have eleven thousand in defaulted student loans, a sobering reality that affects a massive portion of our community. A woman with a seven year job history gap and defaulted federal loans isn’t seen as a promising candidate for living wage jobs. She’s also not a candidate for traditional financing. If I decided to run a business, t4icrolending would be my only hope. Being provided with a low interest loan from a non predatory lender would help me establish a business that provides the means to get my student loans out of default and begin a valid work history. The fact is that thousands of our citizens ore in the same boat. Those thousands of citizens would similarly benefit from access to Microlending.

As for my ideas on our housing crisis, my opinion is not favorable to investors. While having a rental property is a wonderful way to build financial security, having six of them is an action of greed. My husband and I hove been searching for a home since February. Every home within our price range is swept off the market within hours, only to be listed for rent within three weeks time. These homes would come with a mortgage that equals half of what they’re being rented for. I also believe Airbnb is contributing to our housing drought. While families are being forced out of the city, homes are sitting empty half the year because renting them nightly brings in more cash flow than renting them to our residents. Cities like New York and San Francisco have enacted regulations on Airbnb in response the the cities’ rising homeless population. These regulations include guidelines that require hosts to be residents of the city that their Airbnbs are located and nightly rentals cap out at 90 days a year. If we enacted similar regulations hundreds of homes would be available to citizens nine months a year. Investors and Airbnb hosts, these two populations are leaving hundreds of victims in their wake and roaming wit little to no regulation and in turn the citizens that make our community prosperous are being forced to pay twice as much for housing or being forced out of our community altogether.


Sarah Everly’s Question:

As an individual with a focus on science, what do you think could be done to harness this interest and use it to benefit the younger populations in our community?

You’ve mentioned that you’ve watched your family members pass away and leave. I’m very sorry that has been the case. I am interested to know what kept you here. What actions and/or options were available to you that made staying in this community worth it? Do you believe these actions and/or options are readily available to every demographic in our community?

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Thom's response to Sarah

Sarah, our area was in recession well before it was acknowledged nationally in 2008 and we have never truly recovered. What some have interpreted as a recovery has actually been settling into a new normal. The Economic Innovation Group still lists us as an 'At-Risk' Community. That is a lot of what you saw in your teenage years. That is a completely different experience than my own teen years.

In the 70s and early 80s, my mother was a top-notch job recruiter in the Hickory area. Manufacturing businesses were actually paying people bonuses and helping them with housing to locate here. The problem was that as time went on there was resistance from our community's hierarchy to recruit more highly skilled technical industries. Regarding technical industries, a local entrepreneur started Superior Cable Company. Corning Inc. invested and eventually took over. People flocked to those jobs because of the compensation offered. This led to a Telephony Industry cluster in our area, which flourished before Trade Treaties caused a major scale back in the early 2000s, which coincides to the era you allude to.

The housing issue that you have faced is a National issue. In an Associated Press article out this week, we learn that "In the seven years since the housing crash ended, home values in more than three-quarters of U.S. metro areas have climbed faster than incomes... Nationally, home prices since 2000 have climbed at an annual average rate of 3.8%, while average incomes have grown at an annual rate of 2.7%." So yes, your personal experience is validated.

My personal experience? I moved back here because I was more comfortable with the family connection. My income would definitely have been higher outside of this area, but can you put a price tag on the family experience? I had to get creative and make a ton of sacrifices to buy my house and keep making the payments. I'm making less than I made in 2005. I haven't been able to afford upgrades, but the good thing is I locked in at the 2005 monthly payment. Because of the economics of the area, the value hasn't risen much. You are correct about rental costs.

As far as my experience versus others? That is more complex than I can answer here. I will say that my life has been built upon plenty of blood, sweat, and tears and nothing I have was accumulated through some special privilege. I look forward to future discussions.

Economic Innovation Group - Distressed Communities - https://eig.org/dci

Young homebuyers scramble as prices rise faster than incomes - Associated Press - JOSH BOAK & LARRY FENN - May 25, 2019