The North Country's "Invisible" Economy

According to most conventional standards such as income levels, high unemployment, and welfare rates, Northern New York is generally considered a poor area. One state politician went so far as to describe “the abject poor of Essex County” in a prominent speech years ago. Many folks took exception to that comment. While there is no denying the implications and human costs of a difficult employment situation and poverty, this is not the whole story. The picture of the North Country may look worse on paper than it actually is on the ground.

Despite all the challenges, there is a lot going for this region. One reason for this is the region’s invisible economy, which is something quite different from the “underground economy” that is often reported as working “off the books” and shady or illegal activities.

Our invisible economy is made up of a variety of human activities that make people’s lives better, but are not reflected in state or federal economic indicators. Being land rich (if cash poor), direct use of natural resources, close-knit families and communities, and traditional rural lifestyles offer opportunities for replacing cash income.

Over twenty years ago researcher Shanna Ratner, now of Yellow Birch Consultants, did a study of Crown Point, NY and found that such money-replacement activities were the third largest source of “income “after earned income and government transfers, such as Social Security. Direct use of natural resources, garden produce and livestock raising were found to be major additions to the quality of life of many households.

Some more real life examples of this type of economic activity:

· A family heats with wood instead of heating oil. The average home using heating oil burns 800 gallons per year would spend $2000 on fuel when it costs $2.50 per gallon. Using wood as a fuel saves this family hundreds of dollars each year.

· A young North Country couples moves back home. The husband’s family gives them a building lot, and the wife’s father is a skilled tradesman who helps frame the couple’s home, saving thousands of dollars in building costs.

· A rural family relies on a large garden, freezing and canning, and venison to provide the mainstay of their diet. They also keep chickens and a half dozen beef for their own use and to sell.

I am sure readers can think of many other examples from their own life experience.

By its very nature, determining the actual size in dollars of our invisible economy would be difficult to determine with any certainty. Whatever its actual total dollar benefit, these other forms of economic activity add to the quality life of many North Country residents, giving their families a buffer against the vagaries of the larger economy.

Other People's Money

What if I told you there was a place that received far more money from its state government than its residents paid out in taxes? Wouldn’t you like to live there?

Well, welcome to Northern New York.

As hard as it may be to believe, North Country residents benefit from large amounts of other people’s money. Without it, the effects of the draining of dollars from the region mentioned in the previous post would be unsustainable.

The myth goes something like this; Northern New York sends a lot of its hard earned money down state to pay for other people’s roads, subways, and welfare. Whole political campaigns have been built on this premise.

The reality is that our way of life in Northern New York is heavily subsidized by money from other New Yorkers. Woe to us if the good folks in the suburbs of Yonkers, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo ever rise up and say no.

This was made clear a few years back with an article in the Watertown Daily Times entitled, “State Pays More Than it Takes, North Country is Net Gainer”. According to this article North Country counties collectively received four times as much money from New York State as was paid by residents in taxes. At the time, Franklin County received nearly eleven times as much from New York State as it paid in taxes, St. Lawrence County received over four times as much as it paid in taxes, Lewis County received over three times more from the state, and Jefferson County received 2.5 times more than it paid. Money from other New Yorkers contributed to our town roads, schools, law enforcement, social services, and corrections, and many other services and institutions. While the Watertown Times article covered four counties, it is safe to assume a similar situation exists for the whole region.

And this does not take into consideration the huge amounts of federal money that comes into the region.

Frankly, it is hard to imagine what life in Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties would be if we could only rely on our own tax revenues. State contributions to the region are a real windfall that needs to be put to the best possible use. One way to do this is to find ways that to keep it from so quickly leaving the region again.

A Colonial Economy?

Perhaps you have heard the old joke about the North Country being a Third World country and the black fly is its national bird.

We may not be a Third World country, but is our economy a colonial economy? That was what was being said three decades ago about places like Vermont and other northern border areas like Northern New York. Research found that seven out of ten dollars being spent were leaving the area within a week’s time, going to metropolitan areas. One of the major sources of this money will be discussed in a future post. It has been argued banks and businesses were calling the shots for a region located hundreds of miles away. When there was a local presence by these large organizations, outside people were often brought in to fill the well paying jobs. This type of relationship, more than anything else, may account, in part, for the traditional ‘upstate/downstate” divisions in our state politics.

Such a trend is stark in its implications. Economists refer to “leaks” in an economy, but the rate at which money leaves our region is alarming. Our milk, #1 saw logs, and other resources are not being sold to build wealth, but simply pay the bills. In turn, the money received turns over very quickly leaving the local economy almost immediately

Beyond giving it a name or label, there is the whole matter on how to change this dynamic, how to slow down the drain of money and resources, how to keep more of it in the region a little longer. Spending money in ways that stay in the local economy would help. This, along with our geography, is part of the challenge we face as we consider economic development and the prospect of scarce and expensive energy sources here in Northern New York.

THE North Country

There are thousands of miles of north country between the northern tip of Maine and the Great Plains. All these regions are on the margins of American life, with colder climate, poorer soil and weaker economies than the rest of the nation. All this is familiar to Franklin New Hampshire and Franklin counties in Maine, Vermont and New York. Bob Dylan sang about it in “Girl from the North Country” and “North Country Blues”. The Green Mountain Trading Post in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom has a community calendar called “North Country Notes”. Meanwhile, in 1997 Howard Mosher wrote a book entitled North Country about the northern borderland of the U.S. and Canada. Forty years ago a young poet, self-proclaimed “Captain America”, living in a Rochester suburb pined for the St. Lawrence Valley when s/he wrote a poem that began …”and so my friend, how are things in the North Country…..”
So, with the phrase north country so commonly used and shared, how is it that our neck of the woods has come to be known as THE North Country?
Perhaps the answer lies with Irving Bacheller, the region’s best know author, and his most famous book, EBEN HOLDEN: A TALE OF THE NORTH COUNTRY, published in 1900. Depending how you want to frame it, this work was the last best seller of the nineteenth century or the first best seller of the 20th century, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. It was also turned into a New York play. In any case, it was his ode to the North Country including local dialect and folklore. Despite the fact that Bacheller’s northern New York was already starting to disappear with the beginning of the new century, the identification with the phrase North Country may have been fixed in regional consciousness at that time.
A century later the phrase is very much with us. Its boundaries and definition may vary widely from person to person, but the experience of place is something that we share and that binds us together. While there may be many physical characteristics to point to, north country may be as much about a state of mind.

"Sustainability Today"

Naming a blog is not as easy as it might seem. Some names are quite mundane like “Bob’s blog”. Other names sound exotic or the meaning is not readily apparent like “The Archdruid Report” or “Causabon’s Book”.

So I decided to keep it simple.

Sustainability today. It is meant in a couple different ways. What does sustainability mean to us in the early years of the 21st century, at this particular point in history?

The other meaning is with a sense of urgency, but not desperation. Sustainability today. Not tomorrow. Not next week, not next month, or next year. A little like “Peace Now”, but more specific and focused.

Whether we come at sustainability from the perspective of climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, financial crisis, or simplicity and frugality, living more sustainable lives, making our communities more sustainable is the central task of our times. There is not a day or a person to waste, and today is what we have to work with to move things forward.

I am actually pretty optimistic about the future of the North Country in all this. It has some definite strengths. I hope to share those as well as other thoughts about sustainability in the region in the coming weeks.

Tilting Windmills: Getting to "Win-Win" in Hammond

Recently I had the opportunity to facilitate, not one, but two lengthy, sometimes heated discussions about the wind law in Hammond. An outside company has come to town wanting to build an industrial scale wind facility, and the community has become divided in a variety of ways: a sizeable number of people are unhappy with the town government, newcomer and old timer, summer folks and year round residents. At the end of one of the meetings I stepped outside my prescribed role, and spoke about the need for Hammond residents on both sides of the issue to figure out their bottom line and then look for a “win-win” solution.

So how might Hammond or Cape Vincent, or Clayton, for that matter, get to “win-win” on the wind power issue in their towns? Someone in Hammond, anyway, commented that the wind issue is the only thing that divides town residents. If that is the case, then I find that encouraging. It would mean that there is a reservoir of good will and common ground to reach a broad agreement that would truly move the community forward.

What might that process look like?
• Stop the personal attacks
• Stick to the issues.
• Each side needs to figure out their “bottom line” on what they can live with.
• Bring in a mediator.
• Both sides need to realize that if the town is not united in their approach, only the company will benefit.
• Consider a moratorium of specific time duration to buy time to deal effectively with the outside company.
• Hire a consultant to assist in dealing with the wind companies.
• Put out a Request For Proposals that would make wind companies compete to offer the community the best deal.
• Work for concessions of electric power and economic development funding from the successful developer to benefit the whole community.
• Explore other green energy options such a solar facilities or grass pelleting.

Based on what I heard, I am not sure that folks in Hammond realize they are in the driver’s seat on this issue. Their wind is a desirable resource, and they need to hold out for a good deal. North Country communities have struggled so long that they are often too quick to please anyone who holds out the promise of money, jobs, or a different future. If the folks in Hammond go for “win-win” in the community, it would be an excellent warm up for going for “win-win” with a wind company.

A Place Apart

Many North Country residents consider Northern New York a special place for a variety of reasons. One of its most significant features is our geography-- that it has been –and remains very much a place apart. Sometimes it does not seem that way; after all, we do get cable. But try to get out of here on any given winter morning, when you absolutely, positively need to be in Syracuse, Albany or elsewhere. It can be an adventure.
It has always been this way. For American colonists, the rugged Adirondacks proved an effective barrier to northward settlement. When settlement did start in earnest it was nearly two decades after the American Revolution in the early 1800’s. To put this in perspective, the Northwest Territories (Ohio and Michigan) had been opened to settlement with the Northwest Ordinance in the late 1780’s and the Lewis and Clark Expedition started a couple years before Canton, NY was founded in 1806.
When settlement did come, it was a westward migration from overcrowded Vermont, across Lake Champlain. It was primarily a youth movement, a new generation looking for tillable land, and in many cases the settlers were just passing through on their way west, or stayed just a few years. Even now, Northern New York is not a popular destination, but a region most people pass through on their way to Western New York or east to Vermont.
Today, Northern New York is on the margins of the larger society, backed up against the border with Canada to the north and isolated geographically by mountains to the south.
None of this takes away from the natural beauty and sense of community that is also a part of the North Country. At the same time, recognizing that our geography makes us “a place apart” needs to be considered in meeting not only our current circumstances, but in addressing our future economic and energy challenges as well.