There’s No Place Like Home

By Cindy Gomez
Editor

With all the hubbub about the Census coming our way, we’ve begun to wonder what the impact will really be, especially for areas hurting most from the recession. Of course, we all know we’re supposed to fill out the Census form and mail it in. We’ve heard the benefits of an accurate count for our communities: jobs, adequate funding for public works and infrastructure, public safety, schools, and businesses.

However, despite this knowledge it is likely that many people will still need a friendly reminder to complete their forms this year; so from HPR’s staff—make sure to calendar time when April comes to complete your Census 2010 form. But with all that said, can we learn anything from the last decade of Census data to ensure a better future (economic and otherwise) for our communities?

The makeup of our communities has changed significantly over the past decade. There was a large new immigrant population that has helped to stabilize the alarming exodus of people from North Dakota. In fact, from 2000 to 2008, the Latino population rose 69 percent! If we are to learn anything from our past, we should take a tip from Irish and Italian Americans who rose from the bottom rung of society to become two of our largest and most successful ethnic groups. So accepted are they that we no longer differentiate them on Census forms. White people (Germans, Italians, Russians, Poles, Irish, English) are just white people. However, Latino populations are still sub-categorized into White—of Hispanic origin and non-hispanic. Do we still need these distinctions? What is their purpose, if not to distinguish Latinos from Whites? I look forward to the day when qualifying racial labels are a source of cultural pride and not a dividing line in the sand.

But the nearly double digit increases in new immigrant populations cannot be discounted either. The Census has given us much information about these groups. The wages of people of color are still woefully disparate when compared to their white counterparts. There is still a big gap in the educational achievements of whites and non-whites. With odds like these facing new immigrant populations and communities of color, it is no wonder that young people finishing their educations and entering the work world are weighing their options carefully.

We’ve heard it said that “It takes a village to raise a child.” Beyond raising the child, there is something more that we must do in our communities to keep them—and their many talents—in our states. Maybe the saying should be “A community concerned for its youth offers a wide variety of opportunities from which to prosper.” We in the F-M area have a lot to offer young people from birth to college graduation. Beyond that, there have to be opportunities for our community leaders, our emerging artists, our up-and-coming business entrepreneurs, and our next award-winning film makers. They all need a place to grow.

Limited opportunities to flourish and low wages are contributing substantially to the continued exit of our talented youth from North Dakota. Though we border Minnesota, which ranks in the top 15 states in terms of wages, North Dakota is still abysmally low, ranking in the bottom five. If we are truly interested in keeping people in the state, we need to give them a tangible reason to stay, and a quality of life that will keep them here.

Beyond having places to “go” and “things to do” in North Dakota, people also need adequate and affordable housing and good jobs. Artists, writers, and musicians are at a particular disadvantage when it comes to opportunity in the F-M area. The numbers of venues for artists to perform in are dwindling while at the same time aggressive litigation from ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC (performance rights organizations or PRO’s), have forced venues to limit live performances. Local venues are required to pay thousands to have musicians playing live. If the venue charges a cover, the big three want a cut of each ticket sold.
You might say, “That doesn’t affect venues that have all original music.” But you would be wrong. If one artist played just one cover tune at anytime, PRO’s could sue for $750 to $150K (depending on the usage and situation), per performance. With threats like these, it is no wonder that small local venues would not want to take a gamble on that possibility.

Fargo-Moorhead has grown significantly in its art spaces. But, let’s be frank. These art spaces cater to a small, established group of artists. For new artists to get to show in one of these established galleries, they need to get their feet wet in less established venues first. Coffee shops and restaurants are great places to start, but there are not enough them to give new artists real exposure. In short, there is a missing step.

Considering that during a recession there is less funding for arts, edging smaller galleries out, there is inevitably a vast gap between a young artist’s education and becoming established in the arts community. There is really only one way to overcome all these overlapping issues. And that involves taking proactive steps to change the opportunities for our youth and all our talented community members. When we harness the positive abilities of our citizens instead of focusing on negative attributes, we embrace them in the community giving them a reason to stay and enriching us with their new ideas, new lifestyles, and new contributions to society. Communities of color need incentives to stay and appreciation beyond the role of laborers. Youth and their hard work have to be appreciated, and not only when the town is flooding, but also when they need to be nurtured and accepted in the community.

As our own children are beginning to prepare plans for their futures we wonder: will they feel that there is “no place like home” or that they simply “can’t live here anymore”?

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