We have arrived

For years I have been saying in jest that if Fort Smith isn’t careful we will become the next Pine Bluff. We’ve arrived, at least in one ranking.

The website 24/7 Wall Street, a online media site targeting equity investors, published an article titled America’s Richest (and Poorest) Cities. Their criterion for selecting the richest and poorest cities in America was the city’s median household income determined by the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey.

Using this criterion, 24/7 Wall Street listed Fort Smith as the 9th poorest city in the United States with a median income of 36,061. Pine Bluff was the 10th poorest city with a median household income of $36,127. Fort Smith beat Pine Bluff in the race to poverty by $66.

Before you get too excited and believe that Fort Smith or Pine Bluff is really one of the country’s 10 poorest cities, let’s look a their analysis little closer.

Anchorage, Alaska, was one of the top 10 richest cities. Last week I spent two days in a meeting with other CPAs from around the country, one of which resided in Anchorage. I made some offhand remark that she lived on Easy Street among the country’s richest people and she immediately remarked, “compare the cost of living!” insinuating that I was full of bull and my remark was inaccurate when you factored in the high cost of living in Anchorage. Anchorage’s median household income was $71,494.

Because of the high cost of living in Anchorage, people need twice the median income to live as well as we do in Fort Smith. For instance, in Fort Smith a gallon of gasoline is $2.98 compared to Anchorage’s $3.60. Anchorage’s groceries are 25% higher than Arkansas. Utilities are higher. The biggest differences are that houses and health care cost almost twice as much in Anchorage as in Fort Smith. So the reality is that 24/7 Wall Street’s analysis is wrong. In relative terms we live as well as the citizens of Anchorage, a top 10 richest city, on half the household income.

A better indicator that Fort Smith is at risk of becoming irrelevant in economic terms is this. On the CNN Money website there is a calculator that compares the cost of living between different cities. When selecting Arkansas cities to compare with Anchorage Alaska, my choices were Conway, Fayetteville, Hot Springs, Jonesboro, Little Rock- North Little Rock, and Texarkana. Fort Smith, Arkansas’ second largest city was not an option. Fort Smith lives in the shadows of Northwest Arkansas much the same way as Pine Bluff lives in the shadows of Little Rock.

My opening paragraph stating that Fort Smith has become a Pine Bluff is meant to hook you into reading this article, not to be a statement of fact. Fort Smith HAS NOT become another Pine Bluff. But if we aren’t careful we could trend their way.

Pine Bluff had 18 murders in 2012. In 2011 Pine Bluff’s murder rate was 24.3 per 100,000 people compared to Fort Smith’s 5.8. Pine Bluff’s crime rate was 855.9 per 100,000 people to Fort Smith’s 461.8. Both cities were above the national average in 2011. (Arkansas needs to find a way to reduce its tweaker population.)

Pine Bluff’s population is shrinking quickly. Between years 2000 and 2010, Pine Bluff’s population shrank 10.9%. Fort Smith’s population increased 7.4% over the same time period. A shrinking population is the death of a city. (A quick note.The residents of Pine Bluff deserve to live life well too. This article isn’t meant to insult or demean Pine Bluff, but to point out what can happen if a city doesn’t take appropriate action when early signs of possible decline are ignored causing an exodus of families that can afford to leave.)

Our young adults move to Washington and Benton counties in large numbers. They are looking for opportunity. How many young adults do you know who have moved from Washington and Benton counties to Sebastian and Crawford counties?

For two decades I keep hearing our area “leaders” talk about our great future. The most common spin I hear today goes something like this. “With the confluence of the Arkansas River, our proximity to Interstate 40 and the soon to be completed Interstate 49, and access to railroads, Fort Smith should soon prosper.” Fort Smith won’t prosper if we sit on our collective butts. If we want Fort Smith to prosper, our young adults to have opportunity here, our quality of life to be second to none, we have to be proactive.

Fort Smith people can do great things. We saw what could be done when a few motivated individuals got excited about the Marshals Museum then out competed other cities to make Fort Smith the Museums home. This past Saturday, our area’s citizens and dignitaries dedicated the cornerstone of the Museum’s Hall of Honor. We need Fort Smith to build a wall of honor for noteworthy Fort Smith citizens starting with the names of the Fort Smith men and women who worked hard to make sure the U.S. Marshal’s Service chose Fort Smith as the Museum’s next home. We need to apply their model to economic development in our area.

If the people in Fort Smith and the surrounding area want to live well, we can’t be complacent. It takes work to make things happen. I’m far from an expert on how to incite change, but if you’re not moving forward you’re generally moving backward.

We don’t need to be competing against Pine Bluff. We need to be competing with Northwest Arkansas. Notice I said we should be competing with, not against Northwest Arkansas. Fort Smith just needs to find their significance again. Let’s start the conversation.