CASE 1: FACING FUTURE FACES
Introduction
It did not happen all at once. It did not happen everywhere. And it did not happen with clarity. Sometimes change is hidden in plain sight. Twenty years ago, the state’s populationwas 60% rural. The “big city” was Oakville, population 120,000. Only about 5% of high school graduates left the state for college. Of those who stayed, 80% stayed for good. Life was good. Calm, uneventful, predictable. Over the last twodecades, wage rates and land prices attracted investor attention. Particularly abroad. Slowly, foreign-owned manufacturing, especially auto manufacturing, found the welcomemat out in the state. New factories now sprawl across one rural land. And that has sparked the re-location of inputs industries to the state, all needing relatively low-skilled local labor. That, in turn, has drawn the interest of a range of national nonprofits focused on refugee resettlement. Bit bybit, O akville’s Titus Jones Airport has seen clusters of new faces in the arrivals lounge, all carrying plastic bags with the We Care logo. Oakville and four other historically “small towns” have grown. Oakville is now a city of 500,000. Three others are knocking on the door of 250,000. Five years ago, the legislature passeda special budget appropriation so that the university could open new campuses in the growing cities. The new President of the university is creating newminority- oriented programs in the business school. The new Provost speaks three languages. The associated shifts ineconomics and life are unmistakable. Affordable housing is at a premium. Sprawl has created transportationnightmares – Oakville’s “business district” is now a hodgepodge of str ipmalls dotting the exurbs. Public transportationhas not kept up, and the resources needed for new equipment and new routes are a monthly topic of budgetarydebate in all four CityCouncils. Gradually over the past decade, in nearly every shop window in Oakville and its sister cities, there are new signs. “Se habla espanol” is joined by “ 우리는 한국어로 말한다 “ and “Falamos portugese.” The local Save-a-Bunch Food Mart has three whole aisles of foods whose cans and boxes even themanager, Mary Smith, can’t read. M ary’s son just announced he would be taking Mai -Yoon Kim to the prom. Mary is not happy, but on the other hand perhaps she could help get Save-a-Bunch better placed in the ethnic market? It seems sometimes that there are really two states, one rural with little change and one urban with a school systemwhose students speak a total of 15 languages at home, whose commercial leaders are executives from cultures, especiallyAsian, without a tradition of community involvement, and whose children are not native E nglish speakers nor comfortable in the “teamwork makes the dream work” traditional culture of the state.
6 | P a g e
Powered by FlippingBook