Last year, National Geographic's Traveler magazine published
a special millennium issue, "The World's 50 Greatest
Destinations." It recognized the Grand Canyon, the Great
Wall in China, Venice, and the Lake District in England as
special places you wouldn't want to miss in a lifetime if you
had the choice. In North America just nine places were
designated. Vermont was one of them.
A big piece of our gross state product that is contingent
upon the magic of Vermont. The tourism industry is 25 percent of
our economic activity. The made-in-Vermont industry is roughly
10 percent. Add to these the economic impact of the many other
businesses who have made Vermont their home because of the
special character and livability of the state, and you have a
substantial portion of our economy that rests on Vermont being
Vermont. It would be hard to argue that being one of the world's
50 best places is not a good thing for all of us who love, live
and work in Vermont. And since not many of us want to pickle the
state, we now have the challenge of making sure Vermont is still
on the list 100 years from now.
Here are a few of the questions we need to answer:
How do we grow without spoiling our nest? Will we really
learn from errors like Tafts Corners and the Barre-Monpelier and
Putney Roads? The planned redevelopment of downtown Winooski is
one answer. The Wal-Mart in downtown Rutland, and affordable
housing development in community centers of Bennington,
Brattleboro, and Derby are some other solutions that meet
community and individual needs.
How do we help maintain a healthy collection and balance of
businesses locally owned, by people who have a long term
commitment to Vermont? Independent retailing is an enormous
challenge, but our communities will be different places if we
lose Mazza's in Colchester, Coburn's in South Strafford,
Willey's Store in Greensboro, Peltier's in Dorset, Sommer's
Hardware in Montpelier, and Baker's News in Brattleboro. Vermont
is better off because of successful home-grown companies like
IDX, the Vermont Country Store, Mack Molding, Carris Reels,
Hemmings Motor News, and our collection of Vermont-based banks.
In this era of retail giants, globalization, takeovers and
mergers, maintaining a collection of healthy businesses held in
local hands won't be easy.
Can we find ways to move goods from one place to another
without spoiling the viability and livability of places like
Vergennes, Middlebury, Brandon, Ludlow, Wilmington and
Woodstock? Pitting communities against other communities only
means we all suffer in the long-term.
Will we be able to sort out how to welcome development that
helps us meet our economic needs without damaging our
environment or undermining the vitality of community centers?
Growth doesn't necessarily equal economic development. All
growth doesn't enrich our communities or produce good-paying
jobs.
Finally, we should probably have a discussion about scale.
How big is too big for Vermont? Over the past several years it
seems like the biggest debates are about very big projects that
will likely have very big impacts: Pyramid Mall and Wal-Mart in
Williston, Home Depot in Rutland, and a new city at the base of
Killington. We need to have the courage to say no to outsized
projects that undermine our economic and community interests.
Answering these questions is not easy work and it will take
the best of all of our thinking, but the stakes are very high.
Living and working in one of the best 50 places in world is a
very special privilege.
