According to a slew of U.S. economic, financial and political experts, real job growth is non-existent, capital is tight, many real estate markets are a mess and Washington is broken. Even President Obama”™s recent speech on the current jobs crisis was met with much skepticism.
Speaking to a sea of economic development representatives at the recent International Economic Development Conference in Charlotte, N.C., Mark Vitner, a senior economist for Wells Fargo, said:
- Growth is listless, with GDP below 2 percent;
- A shock, such as an escalating European financial crisis, will move us back into a recession (one in three chance);
- Job losses have exceeded every post-World War II downturn;
- The past three years are the worst-ever in housing starts and we will not start to see a housing recovery until 2014; and
- The economy will remain sluggish for years.
We are simply stuck in the mud, spinning our wheels and moving nowhere.
However, after spending several days listening to economic experts, for me, the most worrisome trend permeating the fabric of American life is that we are losing our capacity to dream big.
While visionaries are plentiful, their tools are in short supply because we are removing the grand palettes upon which these artists paint their ideas.
Robert Moses, a polarizing figure without equal in his day, could change the landscape of the New York City metropolitan area because his vision came with absolute power over budget and process. From building bridges and boroughs to parks and parkways, Moses spoke from the mountain, but it was his word ”“ not a higher power ”“ that became the law of the land.
Today, since developing large parcels of property in the real world is a never-ending process of reviews, regulations, lawsuits and rallies, we get Moses 2.0 ”“ visionaries building their empires only along the Information Superhighway. Dreams are fine, as long as we confine them to the height, width and length of a computer server.
I am not arguing for the return of Moses”™ absolute power, but there is no word in Chinese for “NIMBY.” China is not perfect ”“ far from it ”“ but its capacity for instilling a sense of universal purpose toward a specific economic goal is astounding and a good lesson for all of us.
I love our democracy, but why not give one individual the keys to a hurricane-ravaged New Orleans? We love picking architectural design contest winners, but love picking apart the actual planning process even more. Brad Pitt can build 10 green houses if he wants, but never a whole city.
Like Biosphere 2, let environmental groups run one whole city and prove all of their theories on sustainable living for once and for all. We did it for vice. It”™s called Las Vegas.
Ultimately, until we unshackle dreamers and dramatically reduce the nation”™s appetite for paperwork, processes, lawsuits and demonstrations, the U.S. will remain stuck in neutral.
Laurence P. Gottlieb is director of economic development for Westchester County. Reach him at lgottlieb@thinkingWestchester.com, on the web at www.thinkingwestchester.com, or OED”™s Facebook page, Thinking Westchester.
