A lot of them have to do with surveys, statistics and such. For instance, have you noticed the unemployment rate in Portland, Ore., lately? In May it was 12.3 percent. It’s one of the worst unemployment rates in the country. They’re blaming some of the same things we’re hearing in Tucson: a once-hot real estate market that’s now as gloomy as Portland’s weather can be and dried-up credit markets.
But Portland was supposed to be a city that’s doing things right, especially when it comes to attracting the young, educated professionals in the so-called creative class.
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Seriously, though, it appears Portland was attracting the right people. But not the right employers. There may be a lesson there.
What’s our problem?
People from other countries can be better adjusted socially than we Americans. For instance, why is it the United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world? About 750,000 teens get pregnant every year. And the rate is growing.
A study put out last month by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Guttmacher Institute, both in New York, shows there was a 10 percent decline in teen contraceptive protection from 2003 to 2007 and that the teen birthrate went up 5 percent during those years.
Whatever we’re doing doesn’t seem to be working.
How dumb are we?
Similar topic: The anti-alcohol police were quick to try to spin the results of an 8½-year study done in Greece that showed the biggest contributors to increased longevity in the Mediterranean diet came from drinking moderate amounts of alcohol, eating little meat, eating lots of vegetables, eating fruits and nuts, and using olive oil.
The temperance busybodies were quick with follow-up press notices. They were all concerned that this would be a signal Americans could drink great sums of wine. The study clearly said moderate amounts of alcohol.
Where’s the action?
Not an e-mail — though that is how I got my reservation confirmation — but it can be an eye opener to stay at a local resort as I did for a convention at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa. The Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau’s official destination guide opens with these words: “Welcome to Tucson, Arizona — one of the longest continuously inhabited areas in the Northern Hemisphere.” It goes on using words such as “thousands of years,” “dusty frontier town” and “nestled in a valley.” Not exactly verbiage that imparts an image of Tucson being, hip, vibrant and a place that’s on the cutting edge.
E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.
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