by Martha Quillen
The transfer of wealth from America’s middle classes to those who already have the most continues – with very little resistance.
“Why Workers Won’t Unite,” an article by Kim Phillips-Fein in The Atlantic this April, explores why laborers haven’t come together to reverse this ominous trend – and also why old-fashioned economic and organizing strategies won’t help.
What The Atlantic doesn’t explain is what role we ordinary citizens play in this fiscal freefall. Yet surely we must play a role, because it is our fortunes that are declining – not the fortunes of plutocrats and tycoons.
But instead of discussing our common plight, we fight, about almost everything, and sometimes we get too emotional.
And thus, when I heard that KHEN was going to air a discussion about how to keep local political discourse civil, I wasn’t inclined to listen, because I had tried to discuss that topic on occasion and I’d learned something: Don’t, because it never leads to civility. Instead, it inevitably leads to a discussion about how wrong, out-of-order, impossible, corrupt and ignorant the other side is. (And all too often Salida’s civility lectures are not about civility; they’re about who should get to speak, and who shouldn’t, which is creepy and undemocratic.)
But the KHEN program featured Forrest Whitman and Monika Griesenbeck, who are friends of mine. So I listened, and they were great. The show was great, and the moderator was great.
But nothing was resolved. It’s a sure bet that both Monika and Forrest still believe the other person’s side is a threat to Salida’s economic future and tranquility.
So who’s right?
Well, that would depend upon what sort of economic future you have in mind, which is presumably what we’ve been trying to determine with all of this arguing.
In Salida, the mines, railroads and unions are gone. But for decades, Salida managed to survive as a market center, which sold clothing, hardware, housewares and the like to people in our sprawling rural region. But now the Internet is snatching up a lot of that bounty, so our city is remaking itself into a destination tourist resort.
To get an idea of what this change may mean for Salida, contemplate a startling fact: The cities of Breckenridge, Winter Park, Silverthorne, and Frisco are all technically smaller than Salida, with permanent populations ranging from a little less than a thousand for Winter Park to 4,648 for Breckenridge, in comparison to Salida’s 5,407 (2013 U.S. Census estimations). So who are all those condos and businesses for? Visitors.
And now the city of Salida is trying to attract more visitors, but the citizens are not all supportive. So we’re divided and fighting, but not just about money, about almost everything.
In Salida, we’ve fought about water rates, street repairs, transparency, bump-outs, groovers, bike paths, civility, the SteamPlant Theater, festivals, concerts, and proposals for new outdoor swimming pools and art and a hockey rink. What the factions actually want isn’t always clear. Some residents characterize our fights as being between newcomers who want more amenities and old-timers who don’t. But that’s problematic. Billy Carlisle, the man behind Salida’s cost-cutting movement, is a relative newcomer, and Jim McCormick and Ray Kitson, vociferous defenders of public investment, have been local business leaders for decades.
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So what is everyone really fighting about? And why have we split so neatly into two factions? With Phillips-Fein’s help I finally saw it. We are fighting about whether we should operate our town to please the working class or the visitors.
And there’s some indication that most voters favor pleasing workers. But that hardly matters, because the workers don’t have any money. And somebody has to pay for Salida, our water, streets, infrastructure ….
But there’s also a problem with which citizens favor workers. It’s clearly those who care less about money, and don’t have as much of it. And without money you have less influence, which makes it hard to be taken seriously, which may eventually mean that workers will lose their place in our world – because other people can pay more for it.
According to Phillips-Fein, “At every level of our society today, the idea that only people with money matter is confirmed daily. From the kind of health care that we receive, to the schools our children attend, to the parks near our houses, our segregation by wealth renders a common social experience nearly impossible.”
But this sort of class segregation doesn’t occur in Salida, where we share the same schools, churches and neighborhoods. Yet Phillips-Fein’s observation gave me my first real clue about why Salidans have divided into two constantly feuding camps.
We live in the same place and share the same facilities, but we don’t want the same things because the working class doesn’t need the sort of amenities vacationers and retirees seek. Workers spend most of their time behind a keyboard, or fixing things, or caring for others, and when they get home they want peace and quiet, and home-cooked food, and an empty parking space in front of their house.
Workers can’t afford concerts every weekend, and lattes twice a day, or high-end restaurants. They generally don’t want jetports, can live without bike races and festivals, and spurn pricey events. And for the most part, working Salidans see the wilderness as their playground, so they don’t need Salida to build one. That’s why they live here, so they can fish on the Arkansas and camp up the North Fork.
Which brings to mind a joke that the monitor of the Griesenbeck/Whitman discussion told. The good news, she said, is that the newcomers bring sophistication and higher education. And the bad news? The newcomers, she quipped, bring sophistication and higher education.
But her assumptions are just rude; we are not a bunch of rubes. We are good, hard-working people. And we are not unsophisticated. Why, my husband and I were using the Internet and making a living working for a big New York City conglomerate more than two decades ago. Well, okay, I’ll admit that I probably haven’t bothered to have my hair done since then, and I still have that avocado kitchen sink. All right, we weren’t fashionable, but we weren’t ignorant, or naïve about the outside world, either.
The newcomers, however, are naïve. Those swimming pools and convention centers they clamor for are never going to make money. Those sorts of investments take continuous maintenance and usually operate at a loss. Their purpose isn’t to make money, it’s to draw tourists and retirees and new businesses in. And therefore, this is just the beginning of more changes to come.
People say this place will never be like Breckenridge, and they’re right. It will be its own place. But to keep it moving forward, the city will have to keep adding new attractions and maintaining the old ones. And due to the heavy investments necessary, it won’t be affordable.
So in five or six years, I hope to retire to a working-class sort of town that’s kind of tattered and backward, but still affordable. And I’ll leave this town to the movers and shakers; except by then, they’ll probably be starting to look for someplace cozier with an old-fashioned community radio station and free parking, where there aren’t so many apartment buildings blocking the views.
We’re all just doing what we can to make a buck. But if we keep on letting money and materialism rule us, eventually we’re going to sell out our greatest treasures: democracy, our neighbors and our planet.
Like many Salidans, Martha Quillen’s not sure whether she’s a worker or retiree, newcomer or old-timer, or has mostly been a worker or business owner. But she feels it’s imperative that citizens think about how their community’s plans effect all of the above.
