Running blind

During the course of recent events, I was reminded of a somewhat rambling essay — titled “Brain freight” — first published May 31, 2009, in this space on The City Wire.

Creation of an intermodal transportation authority sparked the essay. The authority is now a reality — the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority (RITA).

In the rambling I noted how terrifically boring was the discussion of improving freight management. My smart ass comment was that the Yawn Factor was off the charts. That silliness was followed by the following six paragraphs that, with some luck, will again serve to also remind you of what I believe is a deficiency needing action and resolution similar to what RITA is now doing for freight management:

Let’s now consider that the Grade A Certified Boring-ness of a practical and innovative regional intermodal/freight management system is matched only by the Grade A Certified Importance-ness in the effort to A) protect and enhance jobs now in the region, B) improve our ability to recruit new jobs to the area, and C) add another important point in the argument to fund and construct Interstate 49 through western Arkansas.

We might in the near future add, with little fear of overstatement, this recently renewed effort to create a regional intermodal network to the Top 10 list of important things that have happened to the Fort Smith/Van Buren region — University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, Lake Fort Smith expansion, Marshals Museum, retaining the 188th Fighter Wing, etc. — in the past 15 years. Handled correctly, this intermodal effort could be positively transformative.

Therefore, you’d think I’d be damn grateful to the point of complete satisfaction to witness this event; this breaking of the petty chains that bind; this potential discovery of a way out of the swamp. And I was grateful, to be sure, but it was hard to stay focused.

There are those among us afflicted with an inability to stay focused on the right-fricking now because we can’t quit thinking about right-fricking tomorrow.

In the midst of this great intermodal leap forward, the imagination decided to go play with possibilities.

“What if,” the imagination rudely interrupted, “the energy and political will the movers and shakers are now using to better manage stuff within boxes was also used to better manage the stuff within brain boxes? Dontcha see? We could pursue a ‘Mentalmodal Management’ system that directs regional physical and fiscal resources to retain and recruit entrepreneurs and small businesses. We can ship in the smart people and keep more of our smart people from shipping out. Dontcha see? The same importance we denote to freight we could also denote to potentially lucrative capitalist ideas? Remember capitalism? We can grow our own high-tech, high-wage businesses! Dontcha see?”

It’s apparent, now almost two years later, we didn’t see.

Movement of the high-paying Golden Living executive jobs to Dallas, the near-comatose Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, and continued high unemployment rates in the region caused me to remember this essay.

Specifically, I remembered that as a region we have accomplished little toward aggressive, innovative and results-oriented support of entrepreneurs who have between their ears the next big thing. Or even the next small thing that will be a big thing within a particular business sector.

About five years ago, the Fort Smith Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center was on the verge of being a leading organization in Arkansas. But leadership changes at the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce and the city of Fort Smith caused the program to be pulled into the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. The fledgling IEC, built to be flexible and adaptive, was no match for the weight of academia.

Today, the bold and promising entrepreneurship programs in Arkansas reside in places like Northwest Arkansas, Little Rock and El Dorado. Yes, El Dorado.

Meanwhile, the Fort Smith chamber spends a lot of time and money on a regional alliance thingy because that’s what the governors and economic development directors of Arkansas and Oklahoma prefer because that’s what a consultant recommended. The city of Fort Smith continues to struggle with its economic development role. The UAFS has great resources and potential, but, again, the politics of academia typically runs contrary to the adapt-improvise-overcome flexibility required of entrepreneurial support programs.

In considering some clever ending for this essay, my imagination rudely interrupted: “What if the energy and political will the movers and shakers are now using to better manage stuff within boxes was also used to better manage the stuff within brain boxes? Dontcha see? We could pursue a ‘Mentalmodal Management’ system that directs regional physical and fiscal resources to retain and recruit entrepreneurs and small businesses. We can ship in the smart people and keep more of our smart people from shipping out. Dontcha see? The same importance we denote to freight we could also denote to potentially lucrative capitalist ideas? Remember capitalism? We can grow our own high-tech, high-wage businesses! Dontcha see?”

Am not sure our regional economy can afford another two years of being blind on this issue.