Commentary—

Trying To Motivate A State

That’s Fat And Happy

By William A. Collins

Hard to seek,

A distant star;

When we’re happy,

As we are.

The Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC) is worried. It laments that our state is near the bottom nationally in job creation and economic growth. John DeStefano, in the recent campaign, likewise articulated worries about our future. It seems that our land development is all messed up too. We’re a poster child for sprawl.

Well, not to worry. We like things this way. But just to be safe, the governor has now given one of her employees the added job of spurring development reform. He’ll promote “smart growth.” And as for the economy, while the CERC deplores our crumbling inner cities and decaying education system, it plainly doesn’t understand the social forces at work here.

The people in the state who count are happy as is. In the public eye, Connecticut’s only real problem is traffic. A few more lanes ought to take care of everything.

Remember, we are the richest state of all. Our real estate market, though perhaps suffering a momentary burp, remains one of the hottest in the nation. Rich people crave to move in. They fill our coffers with taxes and support a booming service industry. They provide soaring employment for stockbrokers, accountants, landscapers, caterers, nurses and plastic surgeons. Who needs manufacturing? With “free trade” on the march, that’s disappearing all over the country anyway.

So it turns out we already have what most rich people (and those who hope to be rich) pine for. There’s large-lot zoning, segregated schools, low taxes, good train service, and fine shopping and dining. OK, the traffic is a bear, but fixing that is really what government is for.

And those depressed central cities of ours have, at least in small sections, magically perked up. That oozing money from New York City has already revitalized Stamford, Norwalk and Danbury, and is even now chasing poor people out of Bridgeport. Meanwhile Yale and its hospital are busy absorbing New Haven. Even downtown Hartford is turning into condo town for the childless old and young. Sure city schools may still be dismal, but if you’ve got kids, just move to the ‘burbs.

Furthermore, as we know, the state has long taken a proactive role in pretending to do something about this urban economic imbalance. It has squandered $770 million on Adriaen’s Landing, $91 million on a white elephant football stadium, $40 million on a new home for Diageo liquor, $3 million just on moving US Tobacco from Greenwich to Stamford, and countless other millions on subsidizing an armada of corporations to open offices in towns where they were already planning to go. Developers thus have added considerably to our raft of wealthy citizens, if not to our balanced economic growth.

All this is to be expected. Connecticut is a suburb of New York and Boston, which make their money by massaging money. No natural resources, open land, or cheap labor required. Which is a good thing, since we don’t have any. If we need certain kinds of workers, we simply either import them or outsource. Yes, we do put money into job training, but our heart really isn’t in it. We’re fat and happy just as we are. Poor DeStefano ran on a sincere economic development and “smart growth” platform, and lost by 20 points.

Of course, we will always have a spot for high-tech business too. It doesn’t take up much room. Subsidizing stem cell research and moviemaking will further add to our basic stock of wealth without polluting anything. At the same time, more wealth attracts more immigrants. They continue to rush here with no subsidy at all, just to take our multitude of underpaid service jobs.

So let’s hope that “smart growth” does at least protect our water supplies and open space, and maybe give us more mass transit. But if you’re young and you aspire to a “normal” middle class life, you’d better head for North Carolina.

(Columnist William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of Norwalk.)