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I am in Flagstaff, Arizona this morning staying in the Hotel Monte Vista. This downtown hotel is a blast from the past. There is nothing fancy about this hotel, but it has a rich history and is extremely charming. We are in the Bob Hope Suite, which the front desk claims once played host to the great entertainer. There is a picture on the door from his younger days. The room looks a lot smaller and much different than the type of rooms I imagine people like Bob Hope would have stayed in. Across the hall we noticed was the R.E.M. Michael Stipe suite.

I discovered by reading a caption under a photo in the lobby that the hotel was built in  the 20s’ and was actually an early Flagstaff economic development project. From the hotel’s website:

“When tourism was on the rise during mid 1920′s local residents agreed that Flagstaff needed first-class accommodations. Existing hotels were old and outmoded. Fundraising began in April of 1926, and within one month investments of prominent citizens and funds donated by the novelist Zane Grey, totaled approximately $200,000. Ground was broken on June 8.”

The residents of the community pooled their money to make the hotel happen. In fact the hotel was first  called the ‘Community Hotel” and later named Monte Vista during a naming contest. Today the hotel seems to house a wide variety of guests. I saw couples, snowboard-dudes, rockers, and punks. Since Flagstaff is a college town (Northern Arizona University), I imagine many of the guests are related to the University.

The residents of the 1920s’ Flagstaff community initiated a process I think is a apt model for economic development today. I meet and work with small towns and rural communities and they are often frustrated at what they can actually do to make their community prosper. They are influenced by what they read  in the media about communities attracting huge employers and changing their world. As many who read what I write I don’t believe in the hollow promise of attraction. For some communities it is a necessary and required part of their overall economic strategy, but it has to start with some “bright spot” in their local environment. A bright spot or a positive is something the community can point to that they already have. It can be the rural life, it could be their proximity to  transportation or it could be some aspect of recent or ancient history that can be the bright spot of their strategy.

Many communities, large and small can do the same thing. Ken Wise the former economic development head in Rochelle, Illinois was a master of finding the local bright spot. He took advantage of what seemingly were disadvantages or new challenges and turned them into success. Whether it was a train spotting platform to provide train buffs a safe and fun place to watch the many trains go by, or building a local power plant to reduce the cost of electricity, or getting local people to invest in property and business out at the new interstate, Ken knew how to do economic development the K.I.S.S. method: Keeping it Simple and Stupid.

I challenge the local economic developer to find the bright spot in your community. All you need is one to work with. Gather whatever resources you have and make it happen.

It is high political season in Illinois with very hotly contested fights in the gubernatorial contests on both  the Democratic  and Republican side of the aisle. It is particularly nasty on the Democratic side where our current Governor Pat Quinn, you know the guy who took over for our “innocent” governor Blago is fighting it out with the State’s current Comptroller, a guy named Dan Hynes. Both are Chicago guys, and both somehow think they can turn around the State and balance the $12 billion hole in the State’s budget.

On the other side the Republican’s have a whole host of fella’s who want to take away the Democratic hold on the State and do their version of “I can fix all the problems”. Even our local State Senator Bill Brady is running and was most recently polling around third place. Amazingly, the last Republican named Ryan to run for the office is running again, and even though he was late to the party, he is polling first so far.  Too bad, because our local guy Bill Brady has been working hard for a long time to make his name known, and to have someone decide at the last minute to run and push him out of the lead so quickly must be frustrating for Mr. Brady.

The issues include the fiscal health of the State, the economy, economic development, human services, education, etc. the same stuff we have been dealing with in Illinois since the beginning of time. It seems as though we can never get past the same problems. Why do we have the same problems here in the State? Is it because we fix these problems and then someone comes and screws things up and they get broken again? Or is it because we never actually fix our problems, and merely place band-aids on the wound. Yet the wound is not superficial. It is deep and runs long. The band-aid we have been using will not cover this wound. It will not heal. Not the way we are trying to fix it.

You will not find the answer on how to solve the State’s problem’s here.  I have an idea and some opinions, but I often think rationally and that is not part of the public discourse these days. I have a different issue. Have you listened to a politicians radio  or TV ad these days? Have noticed one thing they ALL say? Think about it for second…Everybody running for office always says they are going to get elected and “FIGHT”. That’s right, they are going to fight, fight fight. for you!

So what are they fighting about? Well they are going to fight for jobs, the working people, the mothers, families, veterans, business, jobs, (did I say that already?), the river, lakes, environment, the electric companies, big banks, the other politicians, (in the other party, of course), they are going to fight for unborn children, born children, hospitals, healthcare, better roads, infrastructure, the sanctity of marriage between a man and a women. or between a man and man, or women and a woman (with a divorce rate of 50% nationally why don’t they just make it harder to get married in the first place or a divorce in the second place). They will fight the terrorists, illegal immigration, illegal texting while driving, better education, higher education, better teachers, better students, better buildings,

Have you noticed what I am talking about. Politicians are always “fighting for you”. I know that the words used in advertising like this are symbolic of the type of leader these people want to be. Yes, I understand that, but let me propose to you that we need less candidates “fighting”  and instead just making some really great rational decisions about how we as citizens of our town, city, state and country are going to get along. Fighting gets you in trouble. It is a nasty dispostion, that in the end only makes one look bad.

Just recently David Brooks wrote in the New York Times, that mirror’s my thinking here. He writes about populism and the “they versus us” mentality it brings forth. He says it’s an issue of  poulists against elitists:

“These two attitudes — populism and elitism — seem different, but they’re really mirror images of one another. They both assume a country fundamentally divided. They both describe politics as a class struggle between the enlightened and the corrupt, the pure and the betrayers”

I think we as people deserve better than bunch of squabbling populists or elitists “fighting” their way into our hearts. These types of words and attitudes simply divides us, and makes the work of building the republic more difficult.

Are with you me or against me on this? Do want to fight?

When I was a student in college I underestimated the value of internship. My first internship and only one in undergraduate school consisted of working for the County Administrator here in McLean County. He was a really great guy and wanted to impart all types of knowledge on me. He took me under his wing. To this day, nearly thirty years later, he and I are still good friends. I recently saw him when passing through his Wisconsin hometown on my multi-state journey this past summer. His friendship and inspiration got me to where I am today. Without that first internship I probably would not have been admitted into graduate school. He went to bat for me when my less than stellar grade point average didn’t.

I have always tried to pass on the kindness of my intern mentor to the half-dozen interns that have worked for me in various positions. One is currently an employee. My internship was unpaid. I worked 9:00 to 5:00 every day in the summer in this internship. No pay, and no benefits. Today, we have potential interns snub their nose at us if they find out they aren’t going to get paid. My recommendation is to take the unpaid internship, any internship and make it work for you. What have you got to loose.

This March when we go to Washington D.C. we will bring a scholarship  intern. She or he will get to experience what it is like to work with community leaders, our congressional delegation and others to get a job done: bring some money back to the community for good projects that create jobs, capital investment and a high quality community. Our One Voice trip is a a great experience for anyone interested in the legislative process. It is  designed to have impact, and make an impact on  our delegation, but also our participants. We hope our intern who comes with us on the trip is inspired to do some life’s work based upon their experience.

You can help our scholarship  student. We are having a fund raiser for the Richard Eikenberg Scholarship fund. This fund was established to help students pay for the trip to Washington DC. We hope to generate enough money to pay for a student and provide a head start for next year. Next year we hope to enhance the experience for the scholarship winner by bringing  them in earlier in the semester and work on the project itself.

Today, you can send a student with us and let them be inspired. Maybe they don’t have the perfect gpa, but going on a trip like this may inspire them to do greater, bigger and better things for their community.

Richard Eikenberg Scholarship Fundraiser, Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at the Bank of Illinois, 200 West College Avenue in Uptown Normal. $50 per person. $75 percouple.