More Families Leaving Prescott (Phoenix, Tucson: transplants, real estate, houses)

[DellNec]

Declining enrollment affects school budgets - The Prescott Daily Courier - Prescott, Arizona

More and more families and leaving the Prescott/ Tri-City area due to the tough economy that Prescott has. Families have a hard time surviving in this town. Many of them are moving to Phoenix to find jobs, in addition, Phoenix has a lower cost of living.

"A lot of families are moving to Tucson and Phoenix for jobs they can make a living at. We hear all these great things about the economy coming back up, but it's skipping the rural areas."said Mike McCrady, a third-grade teacher at Miller Valley School and Prescott Education Association representative.

What do you think Prescott & PV can do to help with this family flight problem????

[khuntrevor]

Low wages have always been a problem in Prescott and all of rural AZ. It's about time that was reconciled with a very high cost of living.

[wretched wrench]

Originally Posted by DellNec

Declining enrollment affects school budgets - The Prescott Daily Courier - Prescott, Arizona

More and more families and leaving the Prescott/ Tri-City area due to the tough economy that Prescott has. Families have a hard time surviving in this town. Many of them are moving to Phoenix to find jobs, in addition, Phoenix has a lower cost of living.

"A lot of families are moving to Tucson and Phoenix for jobs they can make a living at. We hear all these great things about the economy coming back up, but it's skipping the rural areas."said Mike McCrady, a third-grade teacher at Miller Valley School and Prescott Education Association representative.

What do you think Prescott & PV can do to help with this family flight problem????

Two things have always been true:

1. Wages are responsive to supply and demand. An oversupply of labor forces wages down. However, an undersupply of labor does not force wages up as directly as one would expect. Employers will relocate or hire immigrants, for example.

1. People leave smaller towns for better economic opportunities in larger towns. This has been happening since the industrial revolution. Many smaller towns across the country have become little more than bedroom communities or retirement communities. The Prescott area has a high percentage of retirees, but is unlikely to become a bedroom community owing to the lack of a major employment center near enough.

Certainly attracting more employers would be an answer, but in a downturn economy, that is more easily said than done. And factories like to build where there is an abundance of cheap labor.

In essence, there are forces at work here that are difficult for Prescott/PV to have much effect on.

[DellNec]

Originally Posted by wretched wrench

Two things have always been true:

1. Wages are responsive to supply and demand. An oversupply of labor forces wages down. However, an undersupply of labor does not force wages up as directly as one would expect. Employers will relocate or hire immigrants, for example.

1. People leave smaller towns for better economic opportunities in larger towns. This has been happening since the industrial revolution. Many smaller towns across the country have become little more than bedroom communities or retirement communities. The Prescott area has a high percentage of retirees, but is unlikely to become a bedroom community owing to the lack of a major employment center near enough.

Certainly attracting more employers would be an answer, but in a downturn economy, that is more easily said than done. And factories like to build where there is an abundance of cheap labor.

In essence, there are forces at work here that are difficult for Prescott/PV to have much effect on.

Good points.

Where I believe Prescott has failed is that it never promoted itself as a family community. In all of its magazine and self-promotions, it focused mainly on its real estate and tourism. It never sold itself as a great place for one to raise a family.

The other area of failure is that Prescott/PV never gave incentives to large corporations to relocate here and many of the retired residents objected to such corporations relocating here. They wanted it to remain a high-end retirement area, yet any person with a background in social science knows that a city needs a viable young family orientated base in order to survive long term, especially a rural spot like Prescott.

Prescott's business and community model was a complete failure and in essence is what will destroy itself if change is not made. I can tell you that people view Prescott as a place to visit for a day or if you are older and wealthy, a place to retire. In Phoenix the college crowd and youth view Prescott as a dead-end town, nice to visit but forget about living there and finding a career job. The youth will make statements like, "as soon as you can leave & get out of Prescott, the better." They see no hope and no future for themselves in Prescott. That is a sad statement.

The families that try and live here end up moving away because they cannot survive due to the lack of good paying jobs, so they move to Phoenix.

[observer53]

"Large corporations" are not going to relocate to a community like Prescott. The infrastructure to attract them has to be there first. It's off the interstate system, the airport is small, the workforce small and not with the right skills... many of the amenities that are needed to attract those businesses aren't there. And, they don't get built on the chance that a corporation might come in, especially since, as you note, there's a large component of the population that doesn't want that kind of growth.

[wretched wrench]

Originally Posted by DellNec

....... many of the retired residents objected to such corporations relocating here. They wanted it to remain a high-end retirement area, .

Yeah, let's blame it on the California transplants. They get blamed for everything else.

Well, almost everything.

I am a retiree, and know a lot of others, from several states, and have never heard this from anyone. Admittedly a small sample, but fairly representative.

The only business enterprise I have heard any of them dislike are the halfway houses, rehab facilities, etc.

[DellNec]

Originally Posted by wretched wrench

Yeah, let's blame it on the California transplants. They get blamed for everything else.

Well, almost everything.

I am a retiree, and know a lot of others, from several states, and have never heard this from anyone. Admittedly a small sample, but fairly representative.

The only business enterprise I have heard any of them dislike are the halfway houses, rehab facilities, etc.

I don't blame the retirees, I blame the city politicians & council members.

I can tell you that there are quite a few of the retirees that are very vocal, very rich, and have a lot of political pull and they DO NOT want the growth of businesses here in the area. They make it known and the politicians do their bidding. Now if the politicians had the courage to not give in and do what is better FOR THE COMMUNITY, and not just cater to these people, we would have a more viable town today. Unfortunately when they squeak, the politicians oil their wheels.

I would be curious to see a poll about how many people are opposed to large business growth and those that are not opposed to large business growth. I would not be guessing to say that the majority of "anti" business growth would be from areas like "The Ranch at Prescott" and "Prescott Lakes".

Case-in-point, the widening of Williamson Valley Road. The "No 5 Lanes" people got together, hired a lawyer, spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, in an attempt to stop them from widening WVR. These people were very wealthy retirees who opposed any type of road expansion. In the end, they lost, but they fought hard to stop it.

It is this type of mentality that is causing school enrollment to drop, businesses to leave or refuse to setup shop, and families leaving Prescott.

Originally Posted by observer53

"Large corporations" are not going to relocate to a community like Prescott. The infrastructure to attract them has to be there first. It's off the interstate system, the airport is small, the workforce small and not with the right skills... many of the amenities that are needed to attract those businesses aren't there. And, they don't get built on the chance that a corporation might come in, especially since, as you note, there's a large component of the population that doesn't want that kind of growth.

I can tell you from experience being involved in the business world in Prescott, there were some large corporations wanting to come in and setup shop, unfortunately they were greeted with frowns and closed doors.

These towns are run by a minor few, who DO NOT speak for the majority but they wield the power and money so they have the final say.

Prescott is not family friendly, that is a fact. PV does a little better but still nothing to write home about. Chino Valley is more welcoming but being so small and out there, they really don't have much power to do anything.

If things continue status quo, as the younger population continues to dwindle and more and more families leave Prescott. The town will experience a really bad stagnation that will effect the service job work force.

A town this is experiencing the flight and loss of the youth and families as noted in this article, is a town that is dying a slow death, that is a fact.

[smilinpretty]

It is the good 'ole boy concept or mentality that I see running this area. I see there is a Prescott business park, many empty lots there. I believe if there was incentive for a business to locate here, like ten years of not paying property taxes, businesses would come. I have met several people in Phoenix that said they would love to live in Prescott but there are no jobs. I know many businesses from california are re-locating to Phoenix. I bet if a big corporation would set up business, they could locate all the needed workers. I agree with you, there will be stagnation and more and more families moving out.

[DellNec]

Originally Posted by smilinpretty

It is the good 'ole boy concept or mentality that I see running this area. I see there is a Prescott business park, many empty lots there. I believe if there was incentive for a business to locate here, like ten years of not paying property taxes, businesses would come. I have met several people in Phoenix that said they would love to live in Prescott but there are no jobs. I know many businesses from california are re-locating to Phoenix. I bet if a big corporation would set up business, they could locate all the needed workers. I agree with you, there will be stagnation and more and more families moving out.

You hit the nail on the head. It's only a select few who have the power and say in this area. These families control the area with an iron fist. Nothing changes without them OK'ing it. Their names are found in the street names, parks and buildings. I'm surprised they haven't change the name of the town to reflect their names. Narcissism knows no end.

[Packard fan]

Originally Posted by DellNec

You hit the nail on the head. It's only a select few who have the power and say in this area. These families control the area with an iron fist. Nothing changes without them OK'ing it. Their names are found in the street names, parks and buildings. I'm surprised they haven't change the name of the town to reflect their names. Narcissism knows no end.

I'm gonna say that's true in MOST smaller towns anywhere in the US. Especially those places that are older, not near a big city AND like Observer said, no big airport, freeways and no real or any railroad connection. Prescott IS that way.

Word has it Lake Havasu City is about the same tho it's less than 50 years old.