Under our current economic and political drift, Haines seems destined to become either an industrial mine site or a seasonal recreation enclave for the wealthy.
Neither of those would be an improvement over what our town is today.
Haines could evolve into either extreme because we don’t take our future seriously. For a lack of common direction, we allow outside forces to shape us.
We disagree vehemently over even mundane issues. We hide in the shelter of our political “tribes.” And we wait for new developments to happen to us, then we argue over them, rather than taking an active role in our fate.
There are many reasons our community takes a passive role in its own development (See blog piece on this site: “Why We Fight All the Time”), but the upshot is, over time we’re likely pay for our inability to work together to forge a common future.
This is my plea to Haines Borough leaders, current and future: Grab hold of this valley and steer it toward a middle route that doesn’t include industrial resource extraction or Disneyland National Park. Stop focusing on something big and start imagining a lot more of a little.
Build on our strengths toward a future that is family-oriented, blue collar and white collar, and welcoming to Alaskans from all income levels and all walks of life.
There’s a way to do this, but it will require raising and spending public money, foregoing get-rich-quick schemes and maintaining a long-range vision. Given our town’s history, there’s almost no chance this would ever happen, but nonetheless, the idea must be voiced.
In 1973, E.F. Shumacher wrote, “Small Is Beautiful,” a treatise for sustainable economies. His thesis included that large systems tend to be harsh on people and the environment and also less flexible and accountable than smaller ones.
The corporate model was ascendant at the time of the Schumacher’s book. Fifty years later, the problems with “big” are much more apparent. Through lost wages, shrinking opportunity, and the rise of the oligarchy we’ve learned that mergers, leveraged buy-outs and the rise of giant corporations did not serve most of us well.
Bigger wasn’t always better; often it was worse.
Here in Southeast Alaska, we have immediate examples of big’s failure. The industrial, clearcut logging industry was big, but it busted after the ripest trees were harvested. Cruise tourism grew so big that towns now are seeking limits. Big is a bust, more times than not.
Slow, steady and sustainable are the keys to healthy community growth, and we already have local models to prove it, including Haines Brewing Co., Port Chilkoot Distillery, Zen Bathworks, and Haines Packing Co. From a small storefront on Main Street, Wildhaven Wools designs clothing that is sold nationwide.
Our town has profitable businesses conceived and operated by our most innovative residents. But when light manufacturing is raised as proof of local success, it’s too often maligned as “only a few jobs.” But what is only a few jobs plus only a few jobs plus only a few jobs?
Eventually, it’s a lot of jobs. How do we get there?
Part of the answer lies in maximizing assets. Another part is retaining an energetic workforce. Yet another is filling in existing gaps. Our guiding principle should be that we are not looking for a Messiah or a jackpot or something big. We’re looking for small and sustainable.
Some examples of our woefully underutilized assets: Fort Seward and the Haines State Forest.
The Hotel Halsingland, Chilkat Center, the Old Barracks Building and the Fort Hospital form the nucleus of a campus, a place where groups could come to meet, retreat, hold classes, or give presentations. Because of its spectacular setting, pastoral grounds and impressive architecture, Fort Seward is an asset, not a liability.
As a community, we need to rally for a Fort vision and improvements to match the private investment that’s occurred there in the past 20 years. “It’s private property” is not a reason not to launch a public effort. Private landholders will be at the top of the list of stakeholders invited to the first meeting.
The state holds 248,000 acres of forest in the middle of our valley that should be returning a lot more money to the state and to the Haines economy than it does. Why? Because the state’s top-down management creates uses that are out-of-synch with community wishes.
In the past decade, the state’s plans have shifted from carbon sequestration to logging in areas set aside for habitat restoration as well as logging every stick of timber in the forest held by the University of Alaska.
Maybe, instead of rolling our eyes at the state with each new proposal, the borough should formulate its own plan for the forest and submit THAT to the state. A plan authored by residents of the Chilkat Valley (and perhaps requiring voter endorsement).
Let’s tell the state what we want, first.
As part of the Haines 2005 community planning effort, luthier Rob Goldberg met with former sawmill owner John Schnabel and former logging company CEO Bill Thomas about new potential uses for the Haines State Forest timber.
Goldberg showed Schnabel and Thomas a piece of clear spruce he identified as the ideal guitar top. Schnabel and Thomas laughed. But 30 years later, Goldberg is still making guitars from local spruce and Schnabel and Thomas are long gone from the scene. So what about guitar tops? What about two or three public-use cabins? What about use of forest spruce to launch a log-house-building school or industry in Haines?
Why do we allow disjointed management by foresters living outside of Haines to unilaterally dictate use of our forests?
With enough political will, other “gaps” we could fill include fixing the road to Chilkat State Park (which has been in disrepair for 40 years), using a Boat Harbor harvest fee to fund completion of the downtown harbor, and foreclosing on shuttered Main Street buildings.
Once we begin to focus on small improvements instead of big ones, the ideas are nearly endless.
A sign on the mayor’s wall says, “Towns grow when they become an enjoyable place to live.”
Nationally, we are learning this is true. To entice Walmart executives to move to their home town of Bentonville, Ark., the founding Walton family has spent $74 million improving the town, including $13 million on 210 miles of bike trails.
Ken and Diane Hendricks, co-founders of a construction supply company, poured $100 million into rusting, forgotten Beloit, Wis. Now, young professionals from Chicago are moving to a town with a thriving downtown with a landcape-sculpted riverside park and arts scene.
Haines doesn’t need grandiose improvements, but a year-round recreation program for adults and youths would at least put us on par with places like Seward and Craig, Alaska. Improved and new hiking trails, adult education programs and a ski hill should also be within reach.
Further, to keep an enthusiastic workforce to fill the jobs of our expanding economy, we need to meaningfully address our town’s paucity of affordable housing, childcare and preschool, all vital for attracting and anchoring our next generation of workers and residents.
Finally, we need a place to enshrine our plan and to keep us working at it, regardless of what’s cranking up the coffee klatches or Haines Borough Assembly. A revived Haines Chamber of Commerce or a local economic development group could be the vehicle necessary to keep the dream alive.
Without a permanent champion, our goals fade like the yellowing pages of as every dusty plan tucked on a shelf at city hall.
That’s an outline for the Future of Haines, if we could ever agree to it.
It’s modest enough to get buy-in from out two Indian tribes, increasingly vital partners in our town’s future. It’s not glamorous but it doesn’t need to be. Many people already want to live here. Our task is to make improvements that might help them do that, or inspire them to, while making the place better for those of us already here.