Archive: Opinions

I must be one smart cookie.  I grew up in the number 7 most educated city -- where educated people decide to settle -- in the United States, and later I played in a band based in the #3 most educated city.  That is according to a recent Wallethub study ranking 150 Cities (or groupings of cities) from most to least educated.  Then I moved here -- Ithaca didn't even make the list.  What?  And why does that mean that the Town of Lansing should use some of that land across the street from the Town Hall to build a technology park?

Part of the reason Ithaca isn't on the list may be that, despite state official's claims that New York is becoming a business-friendly state it doesn't take a college graduate to figure out that it's not.  But if Ithaca was considered for the list I suspect it didn't make it because it is a victim of its own success.  People come here for school or for jobs, and then they like it so well they want to stay.  The end result is that the workforce is way overqualified for the available jobs.

When I first moved to Lansing a quarter century ago my view of the world order was shattered when the guy who was painting my house told me his educational credentials.  He was doing well in the painting biz, and seemed happy about it.  But it made me wonder how many PhDs we have here that are slinging burgers or working at Target, or at least working outside of the fields they worked so hard to earn credentials in.

I know of one at least.  My training and initial career don't remotely resemble journalism or online publishing.  I had a job I didn't like.  If I were to change jobs it was probably going to mean moving to a new community.  The lure of Lansing, Ithaca and Tompkins County kept me here, and with a terminal degree in a field I am no longer engaged in I guess I fit the profile.

Source: WalletHub

The Economic Policy Institute says it pays to go where communities attract well paying employers, because that attracts college grads.  The Wallethub study says, "In states with the least schooled workforces, the median wage is $15 an hour compared with $19 to $20 an hour in states where 40 percent or more of the working population holds at least a bachelor’s degree. Local governments appear to be catching on and maximizing the appeal of their cities to college graduates."

To some extent Ithaca, and specifically the Village of Lansing are doing the right thing.  The business and technology parks off of Warren Road are quite successful, especially the one near the airport.  The high-tech businesses, many of them offshoots from Cornell University, provide good, well paying jobs.  Likewise businesses like Borg Warner, Cargill and the Cayuga Power Plant.  But it's still not enough to make the best use of the available workforce.

High taxes, unfunded mandates... all the usual suspects make New York a place that, well, isn't very friendly to anyone who wants to move or live here.  According to data from the 2010 census, New York lost a net 1.6 million residents to other states between 2000 and 2010.  A few years ago I was watching TV in Florida when an ad came on with Governor Cuomo happily touting New York as a business-friendly state, trying to lure Florida businesses north.  It was good for a laugh.  I certainly found it funnier than that annoying gecko.

Tompkins County, and the City of Ithaca in particular, does an outstanding job of providing an attractive community that people want to live in.  When I think of Ithaca I think of Madison, WI or Cambridge, MA (both of which made the list, by the way -- Madison is the #3 most educated city, and Cambridge, along with Boston and my hometown Newton (famously providing the name for Fig Newtons in 1891) is #7.  But just being a magnet for educated people doesn't make it sustainable.  Even eggheads have to eat.

So what does the county need most, after the affordable housing the County has been desperate to get built?  Jobs for educated people.  And the kinds of companies that those jobs come with are fairly low physical-profile companies, buildings that could be built on the so-called 'Town Center' land in Lansing without impacting the view or the air quality.  This is not a new idea.  A technology and small manufacturing business park has long been a part of the Town Center discussion.  Part of the discussion centered on the idea that if people could live within walking distance of where they work, with attractive pathways and views, they would love to live in a town center here in Lansing.

The focus was on housing first, building up the population to support a modest retail center.  But why wait for housing to build the business park piece?  Businesses are better for municipalities than housing, anyway, because they are a good source of tax revenue that uses fewer services than homes and apartments.  And according to the Economic Policy Institute, highly educated people contribute more tax dollars to municipalities over time.

A Lansing, the Michigan one, made #8 on the list of most educated cities.  I'll bet that with the right kind of development our own little Lansing could also make the top 10.  Why not?  They named their Lansing after our Lansing.

If you are wondering, the top ten are #1 Ann Arbor, MI; #2 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV; #3 Madison, WI; #4 Provo-Orem, UT; #5 Colorado Springs, CO; #6 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA; #7 Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH; #8 Lansing-East Lansing, MI; #9 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI; #10 Raleigh, NC.  If you are looking to move to an educated city you probably want to avoid Brownsville-Harlingen, TX, last on the list.

And if you were wondering about that remark about me being a smart cookie, now you know what kind: a Fig Newton.

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