We are fortunate to have some growth in Whitewater, and part of that growth has come from new shopping center development, on both sides of the city (and it is to be hoped, downtown, too). If we have that obvious growth in retail space, why has poverty among families in Whitewater been rising over the last decade?
It’s because retail growth — even much more than we’ve had — would not have a decisive, immediate impact on poverty. The stores that will lease space in these new shopping strips will employ few workers, and certainly less than a light-industrial plant would. Retail shops will create both temporary (construction) and permanent (staff and service) jobs, but not nearly so many as a new factory.
Currently, Whitewater has a problem like some ‘low-aggregate-growth’ cities have – new retail space cannibalizes old, or otherwise does not amount to a cumulative lift for the community. We have a considerable amount of vacant space in Whitewater, and much of it may be vacant long after the new shopping centers on the eastside of town are filled. These now-vacant storefronts were once filled, but we can no longer encourage new businesses to lease space in them.
New shopping centers are progress. It’s just that they’re not a comprehensive solution, and I doubt that many think they could be. They represent gains, to be sure. They should not be expected to reduce the percentage of poor families in the Whitewater. When that number drops appreciably, and consistently, year after year, we will have reason to breathe easier.
Some communities with quaint downtown areas are not suitable models for Whitewater. Delafield has a quaint downtown district, but I cannot imagine anyone thinking that Delafield’s prosperous homeowners are prosperous because Delafield has nice downtown shops. Delafield may owe its success to a downtown, it’s just not Delafield’s downtown retail district; it’s Milwaukee’s downtown office district. The combination of interstate access and a role as a bedroom community to Milwaukee gives Delafield advantages that we do not have.
Cambridge, smaller and closer, is quaint, too. Cambridge has tried to position itself a destination for art, and it’s had some success in that regard. That’s a fragile niche, though. Cambridge’s economy felt the strain of an early 2000s recession, being dependent on sales that consumers postponed during those uncomfortable times.
Some retail shops may attract more retailers, if they’re complimentary niche shops, and if the access limitations to customers (from the bypass, for example) are not too inhibiting for new prospects. Attracting light industry, though, is another matter. We could use more light factories, but the decision (a risk in any case) to build a plant somewhere puts more at stake than a pleasant downtown will satisfy.
No one I’ve ever met, though, proposes that Whitewater’s problems would be solved were it to become a destination for patrons of art. Even the biggest supporters of this sort of offering from Whitewater see that it’s only part of a broader effort at economic development.
(As for that broader effort, I’ll not venture into a tax incremental financing discussion here, except to say the several new TIF districts in the city are not development; they’re merely the authorization of municipal expenditures through debt in the hope of spurring private development, of whatever district type.)
I, and others, will benefit from many of the new shops in Whitewater, with a greater selection of choice items, specialized from green grocers, meat markets, etc. I know that there can be something delightful about shopping for specific goods, from merchant to merchant. It’s French, at least before the hypermart. It is all very quaint, but then I have the luxury of appreciating something quaint. If my wife and I pay more, for being in a lovely little town, walking about with a mesh bag for our fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers, etc., we’re surely contented. Ambiance is as legitimate a component of a market price as any other.
These small aspects of upper middle class life are just that: aspects, and made most enjoyable when all else is well. It’s not that they’re not important (they’re a matter of success or failure for the butcher, baker, etc.). A well-ordered community – that is, one with a robust, spontaneous order – will have strength and growth in several sectors of its economy simultaneously.