You could predict the response many Tucsonans had on Nov. 4, when Apple Inc. announced its plans to put a new plant and around 2,000 jobs in Mesa.
There commenced another round of teeth-gnashing and self-flagellation.
“I think a lot of people are disillusioned with Tucson right now,” commercial real-estate broker Pat Darcy told me after penning a column about what he thinks ails the Old Pueblo in Friday’s Star. “They don’t see a lot of good things happening here.”
Then there came the news, from a private group’s economic forecast, that Tucson will likely have slow growth in high-wage jobs over the next four years while Phoenix has fast growth. Yes, Tucson will also have strong job growth, the forecast by CareerBuilder and EMSI said, but it will be in the low- and medium-paid jobs.
Same old story in the city of landscapers, health-care assistants and waiters, right?
It’s tempting to throw up our hands, throw our tax-breaks on the table and beg for a big, high-paying employer to come here and wrest us from our malaise.
Let’s not.
John Boyd, who represents companies looking to select sites for expansions as head of his New Jersey-based company, put it to me this way: “You have to work on yourself first. You have to have the fundamentals in place.”
The way forward isn’t through throwing ourselves at a big company, but through the much more mundane work of building a better community, piece by piece and pursuing the opportunities that present themselves, however modest. That means improving business processes at the city and county governments (a work in progress), repairing our streets (also in progress), cleaning up the many drab and weedy roadways, and, most of all, of making our sure our populace is well-educated.
It may also require letting go of some of the cherished old complaints about Tucson.
This work is not as glamorous as landing an Apple plant in one swoop, but in the long run could it lead to exactly that sort of achievement.
Laura Shaw, senior vice president of Tucson Regional Opportunities Inc., pointed out that skilled workers are perhaps the most attractive factor for a company selecting a new site for expansion or relocation. The other top factor: a community where talented people want to live.
“In the 1980s, companies drove the relocation of talent,” she said. “Now, companies relocate to the talent.”
But for now, Tucson is not bursting with the talent that companies in many industries covet, nor is it irresistibly attractive as a community on its merits. So TREO and our local governments are left seeking smaller expansions or relocations that are achievable.
For example, Ascent Aviation Services Corp., a company formed out of the assets of the old Hamilton Aerospace, got approval from the Tucson Airport Authority last month to build a new hangar at TIA. The company, which performs commercial-aircraft maintenance, plans to add about 130 jobs to the 150 already there.
It’s the kind of good news that is routinely overlooked amid the gloomy recitations of grievances that make up much of local talk radio, GOP luncheon conversation and business-group gripe sessions. Yes, IBM scaled way back in Tucson, a crosstown freeway went unbuilt, baseball spring training left town, Rio Nuevo squandered millions and the City Council flubbed the opportunity to land Grand Canyon University.
“When is something bad going to happen? That’s what the mindset here seems to be,” Darcy told me, noting that he thought things were better here in the 1960s when he was growing up.
But at a certain point the negativity becomes self-fulfilling. A community that doesn’t believe in itself won’t spend the effort and money to improve itself and won’t be a good product to sell to companies looking to expand. We can look at downtown’s revival as the result of years of frustrating and sometimes wasteful effort that finally bore fruit, improving our chances for other opportunities.
Lea Marquez-Peterson, president of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, noted with cautious optimism that city business-permitting processes have improved over the last two or three years.
Still, the city’s reputation for poor treatment of business people will have a long overhang: I was regaled this month with a bitter story from a one-time local merchant who felt he was mistreated when getting a sign permit — in the early 1980s.
The reputation will ease if local governments keep improving their processes and local leaders succeed at promoting growth in the areas where we have advantages.
Boyd, the site selector, said Tucson will always labor in Phoenix’s shadow but would do well to take advantage of its proximity to Mexico and the trend of “re-shoring,” or bringing manufacturing and assembly work back from Asia.
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and county officials have pushed for increased trade with Mexico and growth in the related logistics industry, as well as more jobs in the aerospace and defense industry centered at the airport.
“In recruiting business to our region, we need to focus more on hitting singles and doubles, rather than swinging for the fences all the time,” Rothschild wrote me in an email, employing the oft-used baseball analogy. “Medium-sized businesses may be overlooked by others and still bring jobs — good jobs — and potential growth to our region.”
These may not be as flashy as an Apple plant, but they can keep Tucsonans working while we try to build the city where companies like Apple will want to be.
