No Recess in Greeley? You've Gotta Be Kidding!

Today I am on a rant. I love many things about Greeley thus far but the more I investigate the more contradictions I find. Some of them less understandable than others.

For example I have been told that the local school district has almost completely eliminated recess in the public schools around town. My first response was "Your joking." My second response was "Where are the parents?". My third thought, unexpressed, was "Maybe school has become like the nice homes on this street--no children allowed outside." My fourth thought was the show "COPS" should be outlawed (social middle class fear is such a powerful political tool to get bad policies in place). My fifth thought was "I wouldn't want to be a third grade teacher in this town or any other grade for that matter." My sixth thought was "Did they ban sugared cereals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner too?" My last and final thought "Why not just strip the education system of anything left which is meaningful to a well rounded and healthy child and send the kid into a prison block each day." That should improve their learning productivity--no distractions just four bare walls and A, B, and C.

Why is the solution to our education issues chemotherapy--if the toxity of the remedy doesn't kill there may be a small chance at success.

Enough said. Short-sighted policies stink. Human beings are not robots and children were not meant to be raised in a modern Dickens work block mentality. Kinesthetic movement, learning, and socialization go hand-in-hand.

Now on to the next rant.

This is more my personal politics and strategic planning ideas. I cannot find a restaurant small business supply in the area. Oh yeah I can find Sam's Club but I find I cannot write about my ill-feelings towards outsourcing and the lack of living wage jobs and social equality and shop at Walmart (which is, essentially, Sam's Club). I just can't bring myself and my small pocketbook to perpetuate certain things in our economy and then gripe about the consequences my shopping habits produce. And I am much more tied to remedying the consequences of Walmart mentality than I am to low prices.

That said I guess I may have to stop moaning about this problem and just buy retail. Which I wouldn't mind so much if a diversity of quality fresh foods were available in Greeley without doing the Stepfordville Whole Foods scene. Why can't poor people eat well with moderate expense? Why isn't there more small business competition in this town? Why are we endowed with the most egregious corporate pretty-darn-close-to-a-monopoly commercial choices? Why do I need to drive to Fort Collins or Denver when Greeley is large enough to produce this value for its taxpayers? The questions don't seem to have a sensible ending.

Okay, I know. There is an answer to my rant somewhere. There must be some logic to it. Otherwise the People of Greeley wouldn't be so quiet about these things. After all it will be their children and grandchildren's town in the future. Is the only thing that matters how green and well kept the front yard is and that the walkway to the door is swept? Or is there more to the quality of life in Greeley behind those closed doors.

Data compiled after the 2000 Census On Greeley Industry. Columns below represent number and percent respectively. If anyone has a local or State study compiled more recently I'd appreciate a link to the source. That's the problem with a census--it gets old quickly especially when there has been so much change in the era of technological advances. And I will need to find a comparable city in Colorado to advance any logical conclusions.

Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining	698	1.9
Construction	3,197	8.8
Manufacturing	4,552	12.5
Wholesale trade	1,198	3.3
Retail trade	4,469	12.3
Transportation and warehousing, and utilities	1,230	3.4
Information	1,066	2.9
Finance, insurance, real estate, and rental and leasing	2,477	6.8
Professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services	2,378	6.5
Educational, health and social services	8,321	22.9
Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services	3,530	9.7
Other services (except public administration)	1,599	4.4
Public administration	1,635	4.5

The Greeley Barrio

Today I broadened my horizons a bit.

My local "Tour Guide" took me into what he calls Greeley's Barrio districts. I found the small business developments I mentioned in my earlier posts. To be fair there are also a few around the University as well. I thought the bookstore and the music shop were interesting. But I was saddened by the overall plight for some of these Mom and Pops.

It looks like, again thus far, that Greeley's local government has methodically isolated these Mom and Pops as they shifted the growth emphasis into the southern end of town with the new development and planning. This pulls the Stepford families into the chain malls and markets and isolates the Mom and Pop's into niche populations which ultimately will limit their growth potential and capital that they would need to expand into other areas. Particularly the Stepford zones. This is an indirect method of supporting mega-chains with minimum wage and non-living wage jobs.

Personally I have always liked the idea that each individual can be responsible for their own sustainability by creating their own business rather than being dependent on a single employer for life. But it hinges on the idea of equality before the eyes of government. Well at least the illusion of equality. The idea that corporations will take good long term care of their human assets went out more than just a couple of decades ago. Yet some city planners seem resolute on hanging onto this notion. That doesn't make me anti-corporate. I have served my time in the CEO chair. In modern society, the population growth alone of course requires a diversity of job options, but closing out the home grown businesses is a bad proposition in any city's long term quality of life equation. It limits not only the options of the poor climbing the ladder to the promised land but also the options of the middle class dependent on their middle management positions. Often these middle managers carry the bulk of the important and servicable knowledge in a company. The last thing corporations want is to see this knowledge walk into their own personal dreams of opportunity. It is politically viable, I'll argue, that by closing off these options the corporate back is limiting its competitive risk. Besides who is going to look out for the home front better than those roots are planted in it and whose children are product of its schools and other social interactions.

In my view, if my quick assumption proves to be true, bad planning can be a subtle (or not so subtle) form of racism. Granted there may be concern that the "barrio" areas need lower tax rates so that chain low-wage labor is available for the industry mills in town. Yet good long term planning development management has modern methods of integrating these areas so that all sectors are equally represented fairly by government and taxpayer dollars. When an area is in obvious decline it should be targeted for help. Wouldn't it be nice to see the trees replanted, the sidewalks groomed, plaza and park areas integrated in these declining areas. Maybe a nice plaza where community festivals and events can be held to draw people from across the city to take notice of the variety of small business options in the area. In truth it was sad to see this divide in a town of such friendly people regardless of the driving factors for the conditions. My Tour Guide said his wife doesn't even feel safe driving there by herself.

I will roam around next and see if I can find any economic development initiatives aimed at bringing the small business sectors back so they can have more equity of representation and easier access to all market segments regardless of income, social status, or cultural background. I think I'll take a look at the Greeley City Council representatives too and their background and political track records. I need to see the whole tale before I can come to any reasonable opinion or workable suggestions to improve things.

It is always a double edge sword to coming into a new town. There is this amazing objective outside view of things because you are free of the cultural and political local history which drives the making of systems and often results in dogmatic methods employed in development. And at the same time there is a lack of the subjective understanding of what has occurred in the past and what has been tried in the past. It takes time and a lot of exploration to become knowledgeable on the topics.

I am reading a couple books on Greeley history and going through the news archives to try to learn more. That is between time spent watching for swirling clouds of course. In that regard I imagine I am similar to other Greeleyites.

Where Have All the Mom and Pop's Gone?

One of the best northern Colorado assets I have noticed, to date, is the friendly personable people of this city. They are wonderful in one on one encounters. Open, sharing, full of great ideas, and just pleasing to interact with. Each city I've lived in always has its own flavor and I enjoy the challenge of exploring Greeley. Of course, as my mind tends to do, I like to deconstruct the systems and processes that make the Greeley Rolex tick, so to speak, and that way I can better understand the city which is my new home.

Cities are fascinating organisms to me. They live, they are dynamic, they change with the times and the generations in mostly predictable ways. What really sparks my curiosity though is how organized, or not-so-organized planning, impacts the future of the organic dynamic. If you go too slow the blood supply is cut off and the organism cannot flourish and change. Hence, eventually, it begins to decay and die. Move too quickly and growing pains spring up and conflicts sprout when the population can't emotionally keep pace or comprehend the changes going on. There is a balance in everything--the challenge is finding the point of balance (as my Grandmother used to say).

So just where is Greeley's balancing point? I thought I'd start from the "Geeks" point of view and look at the economic development zones. What I found was an interesting puzzle of pieces. The first piece belongs to northern Colorado at large--the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation. Since I've been interested in sourcing out locally owned businesses and community assets, and worked a long time ago for an economic development agency in another state, I specifically began my quest by looking for this resource and to understand the role their leadership or leverage of wealth plays around town.

Browsing through town again yesterday I noticed a rather large piece of real estate behind Kohl's and across from Safeway just off of 35th street. (I'd love to say I got the street right but I am still working on sorting out the difference between streets, avenues, and courts in this town). A perky but quivering sign gave the last name of Kohl as the Realtor. A coinky-dink? Now, as an aside, readers should know, one of my own personally worst assets is that my brain turns endlessly analyzing systems and strategies. One of my best assets (and sometimes my worst social asset) is that my brain turns endlessly analyzing possibilities. I am truly boring at parties. Enough said. I can hear the snoring already. But back to the point, I thought what a great place this little piece of commercial heaven would be for a development based on locally owned small businesses and start-ups. A real boost for those unemployed by the downturn in the economy. Of course it is a pricey piece of commercial land too. That wouldn't be the only hurdle to overcome. I am not that naive.

In particular I have seen economic development resources devoted to incubating small businesses do a great service, over time, to nurture a thriving local community-based business sector. What a great marketing ploy for Kohl's as well. Diving in and helping to develop small Mom and Pops would certainly make me choose to shop at Kohl's every time over Home Depot (which is the closer store). Food and beverage businesses, small niche fashion shops, a woodworker or two, a tailor, and so on. Maybe a small business marketing center and education development classes for entrepreneurs nestled in between the Mom and Pops.

Now the trick, of course, is to create a mix of businesses that create the traffic within the area needed. Although being located next to the big chains there is already abundant and diverse traffic to be found. Another issue that can arise is the diminishing of other retail areas within the city. Although it already looks like Greeley has chosen to abandon some areas to the advantage of the big box stores as my posting on the Greeley Barrio suggests. So this problem may be moot politically is a majority of concerned citizens have not raised it before.

A third problem is job creation.

There are two sides to the coin that needed to be included in this discussion though. One is that a town needs both high paying jobs with health benefits and it also needs lower wage jobs for the local youth to step into and hold while attending high school and college. This keeps your next generation around long enough and interested enough to sprout roots and then stay in the community, once educated, so that the community can take advantage of new blood entering their economy as the tired blood puts their feet up for rest and recreation. This creates a flow of labor and potential for developing businesses and future tax base (lessening the need, during hard times, to bring in factory corporations which other communities frequently reject on quality of life issues). It also helps diminish the possibility of small shoddy service towns cropping up outside the city limits of Greeley with a regular flow of minimum wage labor living in town with roots and investment in the town's care. When internal property values rise too high for service labor (clerks, gardeners, daycare workers) to afford the working class move out taking, in general, precollege youth with them. The investment is to keep the youth around and interested in the future of the community. Ever drive by Aspen or Vail lately? A perfect example of the previous situation. A two class standard. Spouses also often hold these services jobs secondary to the main household bread winner to add a little income during tight times but still be conscious enough when they come home to be able to take care of other household needs.

A fourth, and divisive, issue to look at is the cry of "foul" by established businesses. Often middle-sized businesses lead this verbal charge but it is usually championed behind the scenes by the large corporate entities. In my view there are two ways to deal with competition. You can spend your energy and money always improving your business so you are the better option. Or you can play social and economic politics and squash it flat before it sprouts. In the long run playing dirty never pays off in my view. So I always recommend concentrating on the first option. It is a better use of capital resources over the long haul. My other comment is that a small business development incubator is a big positive, in the short run and the long run, to the consumers (you and I). We just don't have enough political clout to get our needs met unless it is an election year and our voices are collective.

However, after going through some of the information on the NCEDC site, I see that they have endorsed another strategy--if I am reading the five year plan correctly

"Priority #1:
Retaining Talented Workers and Jobs

Knowledge workers are our most critical competitive asset, and they are mobile.
If we don’t put them to work, we risk losing them to other regions. At the same time, our existing businesses are our best hope for new job creation, and our best ambassadors to the global marketplace. Their continued success must be a top priority.

Target: Business retention that really works.

We will strengthen our business environment so that companies can create more and better jobs for the people who live here. This means:

• Building better partnerships between government, education and business
  
  
• More sophisticated business tracking software and data gathering
  
  
• Regular visits to the headquarters of Larimer county employers
  
  
• Consistent, responsive development review and permitting processes
  
  
• Prudent incentive policies that help to create high-wage job opportunity

Target: Entrepreneurial Success

CSU and our high-tech employers spin off entrepreneurs with surprising regularity. We will work with our virtual incubator, SBDCs and other entrepreneurial support organizations to enhance entrepreneurial success rates, by:

• Creating a "growth company alliance" to identify young, growing companies and match them to appropriate resources
  
  
• Assist local efforts to bring Economic Gardening to Northern Colorado

Target: Higher Education Funding Success

CSU and our other higher education assets are a key part of Northern Colorado’s competitive infrastructure. We will advocate aggressively for a solution to the Tabor/Gallagher/Amendment 23 "perfect storm" that is placing higher education funding at risk in Colorado."

They, the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corporation, are about due for a new plan. It must already be developing. But it appears they have been targeting existing job expansion. There are some facts and pretty numbers posted that represent success so far. Without a context for comparison in the previous years or with a solid understanding of the portion of the population served (if you create 10 jobs in a population base of 100 that is pretty decent. If you create 10 jobs in a population base of 10 million--well that isn't such a plus). So I hold my opinion on the result of this strategy because I am still not familiar enough with the area.

However, if one looks at the Board of Directors who are guiding these policies, going by the information presented, it looks like they all have a strategic interest (except maybe the brewery gent) in seeing the targeting policies focused on existing businesses rather than new business development. Growth without actively attracting the competition. Where are the Mom and Pop representatives on this board?

I am told that Fort Collins has a greater wealth of economic diversity than Greeley. That is good news. I am going to have to hop on over and explore Fort Collins next. I noted also that is where a number of the directors from the economic development corporation have chosen to live.

So what happened to Greeley? It would be nice to have support in moving the middle classes into self-sustaining ownership positions. This is what developing and incubating small business sectors can help to make happen.

I'll look for that answer next.

Chicken Little and Greeley Chain Stores

There have been a few times when I feel like a rube. For most of my life I have lived in towns a bit smaller than Greeley. I have also spent a good deal of my life working two or three jobs at the same time. It's the single parent/college story--but I'll save it for later. My sons are adults now and on their own so it has become my story of survival, rather than one of political necessity, to tell. Besides today I want to explore the world of shopping.

I've never been a good consumer. I've been in both marketing and education fields. This background spoiled me on the idea of brands unless that brand denotes high quality in comparison to the competitors. I've also have never been a froo-froo girl. In seventh grade I'd rather go out and play baseball or tetherball than get stuck in the bathroom with a bunch of gaggling-geesey cheerleaders redoing their hair and nail polish. True, that didn't make me very popular, but it has saved me wads of money and social anxiety over the years.

So while some of my friends were happy to hear that Greeley has well-groomed shopping malls, a Macy's, a Target, and a Lowe's, plus my fellow geeks are no doubt thrilled that I finally live in a place abundant with hardware and computer stores to boot, I have been a bit disappointed thus far. I looked to find the locally owned stores (not franchised nor chain joints) as I like to shop locally owned small businesses as often as possible for my daily life needs but did not find a flourishing sector.

Since I am single and only purchasing for me (I'd use French and do the word "me" the Ms. Piggy-way but I don't really want to disclose my penchant for invented grammar and spelling just yet) I have developed my own rule of thumb pocketbook-economics for locally owned goods. I am willing to spend from ten to twelve percent more to purchase from a locally owned store. After twelve percent, depending on the good, and I feel that horrible monster known only as Gouge digging through my purse. If I can't find what I want locally within my rule of thumb then I will source out to the bigger chains or go to the Internet.

My volunteer local tour guides think I am a bit twisted on this topic. It is an economic strategy I have honed over the years and worked out the numbers on doing community-based marketing. I certainly didn't invent it. I just like the idea of local system sustainability and feeding the local economic multipliers. I am not a proponent of Buy Local--exclusively. I've seen the math multiplier effect for this concept and it doesn't work in the long run. But, moderation in everything, there are prudent Buy Local practices that can be quite helpful.

I do confess though to having a bit of trouble sourcing out the Mom & Pop's in the local area. Even the restaurants I have been to so far are chained or franchised. I found some diversity around the college but the further out I go into the wilds of the prairie the fewer I have seen. But before I get scads and wads of email I have to declare I haven't looked everywhere yet. It is a process.

I have gone shopping at a couple of the local marketplaces for food. Beautiful, big, stores with loads of friendly checkers. Moms fresh out of the gym with babies and toddlers in tow looking for fresh veggies abound. My cheeky nickname--"Stepfordville". Always fascinating to watch the social interactions.

After a fruitless search on labels and fresh food to come up with locally sourced food and beverage products I turned to a kind happy produce guy. When told of my plight he looked a bit perplexed and acknowledged I wouldn't be able to find what I was looking for inside that store. Ordering is done from central command. Central command is not local it is state-wide. Central command gives the department heads a list of choices and the department heads are not allowed any write-ins.

Bummer!

Time to find a new store with its own local merchandiser or a Farmer's Market. My taste palette prefers organic veggies and I do grow some of my own having been raised in a rural area. But my checkbook prefers the price on bulk produced nonorganic greens. My preference and my checkbook get into an argument every time I go shopping. A quick mental mediation and I end up purchasing the greens that are known to have more pesticide use on them as organic and the rest of my purchases come from the bulk bins.

Well I have digressed into the mundane details of life and I can hear my readers snore. I'll throw a picture in of the Greeley sky for pleasurable effect and leave off the shopping chat for now but will return to this subject later on when I have collected more informed direction and opinion on the topic.

Until tomorrow... or the next day I find time to write.

When Flora Met Fauna

Gardens are the topic of the day. Gardens in Greeleyville to be exact. Shade gardens, edible gardens, well trimmed gardens, and gardens that take more water than the Nile can deliver, so to speak.

The trees, the parks, and the gardens, thus far, are one of my favorite things discovered in Greeley. As I explore more I am sure there will be other things and I will cover them in my blog. No doubt along with the small things I find disconcerting like the plentiful and myriad large rumbling, bumbling, garbage trucks that dominate the neighborhood street one or two days a week. But for today it is gardens.

I started laying out my kitchen garden early upon my arrival in town as I could not readily find sources for tasty organic products locally. They may be here and it may be I have just not stumbled upon a good source. So in the meantime the basil, tomato, red bells, and other necessities are potted in the backyard and doing well. Thyme, oregano, mint and other ground cover has been stashed between the landscaping rocks in the front yard. I enjoy exploring Mediterranean foods but I hate paying a fortune for good mint from a local store when it grows like a common weed in your garden under the right conditions. Besides these plants look beautiful. At least for now. I realize I have winter in store to learn about yet. And winter in Greeley will be vastly different than my previous winters. Snow tires are on my shopping list. Wool garments too.

These are all parts of the motivating experiences that lead to my rise and shine every morning. (Well, to be truthful, I don't shine every morning but I try to keep it in mind to try to for the sake of the others in the household.) It is interesting coming to a new area. For many reasons. I find myself sneezing, my eyes looking at its planted beauty through red rims, and slowly adapting. Talking to a local gardener dedicated at the current time to expanding his shade garden I found out a few things. He helped me build some good soils for my cooking herbs and to identify some of the tree pollens that may be bothering me. I have never had allergies before. I'd like to go back to not having them again. Our chat was productive and interesting to say the least.

First it had never dawned on me that there could be seemingly so much water in the middle of the prairie yet never quite enough. I thought twice about turning on the hose after my chat with the gardener. I decided to set out and see more of the flora and fauna and get some ideas on what would be practical. So I went around town and the University area yesterday and saw grand tall oaks bigger than any from home. Cottonwoods, Elms, and even Canadian Larch trees lined the streets. It gives one the sense that people have taken care over time to add green to their environment and nurture it with delicate parenting care. The lawns are proudly manicured in most sections of town and the landscaping shows signs of being groomed and shaped. It makes for a pleasant aesthetic. On campus, so I am told, the diversity of plant life looms even larger. I like different things and I appreciate a town where the houses and landscaping do not look like cookie cutter clones of the neighbors. Originality is a good thing. I wonder if it will play out in other areas of community life.

As mentioned, I already see qualities of diverseness around town. Maybe not everywhere, and maybe that is not always a good thing, but there are abundant examples of well cared for gardens available for the drive-by eye. I looked for a garden tour in the local media but could find none. If someone knows of one please let me know. I saw some divergent species around town that I'd like to know more about and understand how they fair in this climate.

Secondly, as I questioned the gardener, I found that most plants in this area, should be, geared towards the watering needs of the Blue Grass fondly cradled in most lawns. Equally surprising was the information that this type of flora and fauna requires about 40 inches of rain a year while Greeley gets a little less than the state average of rainfall a year at about 8 inches. Always having been fond of math, especially when it reminds me of my checkbook figures from my twenties, that leaves a 32 inch deficit to cover.

Does this mean that the groundwater systems are slowing being depleted or does the local watershed draw upon excesses from the more bountiful surrounding mountains and aquifers?

Ah I can see I need someone with more specific information to source out this equation.

Watersheds interest me greatly. More so since my growing understanding of the dangers of the ever encroaching salination of our fresh water systems as the population expands haunts my plans for having great-great grandchildren. Have I mentioned that I enjoy thinking about systems and how they impact the present as well as the future?

I guess not since this is my first posting. Life isn't just a box of chocolates. It is a puzzle waiting to be explored.

There will be more shared in the future to come. I enjoy writing and learning. I like examining the holes in the Swiss cheese of life. Considering my curiosity is now focused on my new home this seems a good peaceful way to begin my quest of discovery here. And as I seek out a new role here in your community I hope you, the reader, will join me on this journey.