What's in a number?
When it comes to our growing region, perhaps it's more precise to say what's not in a number.
What’s The Point?
As the economic opportunities pick up in Northwest Arkansas, it’s important to continue focusing together on ways to grow while mitigating the challenges growth brings.
The folks who work at making estimates and evaluating statistical data suggest sometime this summer the Northwest Arkansas area will hit the mark of 500,000 people.
What's not in the number is a guarantee of success or an assurance that all the impacts from that growth will be positive. What's not in the number is a magical switch that, once activated, will trigger a flood of new manufacturing, service or retail jobs for the area. What's not in the number is a sudden outpouring of road and highway money to tackle the challenges of effectively moving all those people around day to day.
But what is in the half-million mark is exactly what Northwest Arkansas wants: Opportunity.
That's what Sam Walton sought when he packed his family up in Newport, having had a leased store location pulled out from under him. He landed on the Bentonville Square, on a property he became owner of with room for expansion. As almost everyone in Northwest Arkansas knows, that one store became the birthplace of the world's largest retailer, Walmart. It's impossible today to overstate the importance of one man's leadership in sparking the boom years for Northwest Arkansas.
But, of course, no one man is responsible. Regional leaders, and public support, led to such future-changing projects as the construction of Beaver Lake in the 1960s and completion of Interstate 540 and a regional airport in the 1990s. Cities made decisions that allowed or promoted growth in various ways, with each community putting their own stamp on the kind of expansion it desired.
Northwest Arkansas has, at least by the standards of the last couple of decades, seen difficult times since the national recession took hold in 2008. Nonetheless, many economically depressed areas of the country and state would appreciate having Northwest Arkansas' good fortunes even in the lean years. Growth creates opportunities to solve problems; stagnation makes every little problem seem insurmountable.
Growth in and of itself is not evil, as some might suggest. It's growth at all costs that represents a danger for communities. The residents, businesses and government leaders have a lot to work with and work for, and there are a good number of people striving to make sure growth here happens responsibly. It's critically important Northwest Arkansas doesn't do damage to its many positive aspects in the midst of these many opportunities.
And negatives will continue to be a concern, whether its additional crime or the debilitating effects of traffic congestion or the temptation to allow our region's expansion to become an excuse for a less personal, interconnected region of people. No matter how much we do or don't build, it will forever be the human connections and concerns that identify Northwest Arkansas as a place people want to be a part of.
Things are looking much brighter for the future in Northwest Arkansas, and that will remain true as long as communities work hard on preserving connections with their pasts and people remember that differences don't have to divide. Strong communities use challenges to become even stronger. We believe Northwest Arkansas is capable of doing that.
Commentary on 03/28/2014