St. Tammany Parish is a shining star in the Louisiana firmament. We are blessed with the wealthiest, best educated, most industrious, environmentally conscious, moral, ethical, and attractive population in the state. These are broad, self-serving allegations, some supported by facts, some by opinion, and some by merely wishes and prayers. In addition, each of these silver linings is burdened with its own particular cloud(s). For example, demographic data indicates that the St. Tammany enjoys the highest per capita net wealth in the state, however we also rank near the bottom in average hourly wage earned. How can this be possible? Consider the number of our citizens who earn their incomes elsewhere while enjoying the St. Tammany quality of life in their northshore “McMansions.” Meanwhile, the local job market is dominated by service industries, many paying minimum wage or slightly more. Only by the continued attraction and development of business and industry on the northshore can this disparity be corrected.
Strong schools and a well educated/trained workforce attract business. St. Tammany boasts a public school system that is envied by most of the state, and which consistently ranks in the top two or three. Yet, as State Superintendent of Education, Paul Pastorek, correctly noted, St. Tammany is only a “C student” when viewed in a national context, as our average ACT scores fall slightly above the national average. If we intend to self-limit ourselves to competing solely within Louisiana, then we’re in great shape. However, if we want to compete for industry on a national and international scale, then we still have a lot of work to do and the self-congratulations should be put on hold.
The State Department of Economic Development (LED) has implemented a program named Louisiana Fast Start, providing workforce recruitment, screening and training on a fast track for employers moving to, or expanding within, Louisiana. This has been modeled after a very successful program in Georgia, and is specifically intended to better match employment opportunities with educational/training levels. You see, for many and varied reasons, Louisiana’s post-secondary educational system disproportionately incentivizes attendance at four year versus two year institutions. One of the results is an unusually high failure rate at the four year institutions and a paucity of individuals trained with the appropriate vocational training to compete for the jobs that already exist. Under BILD: Higher Education, which stands for Businesses for Improving Louisiana’s Development, more than thirty business entities are advocating for improvements in Louisiana’s higher-education system, specifically targeting this disparity in the upcoming legislative session. However, solving this problem will require a reimagining and re structuring of higher education in Louisiana, including such sacred cows as tenure and civil service, and it is unclear whether we have the will to do that.
Polling data indicates that St. Tammany residents include the natural environment as a principal component in the quality of life that attracted them to St. Tammany Parish. New development is routinely greeted with disapprobation or at least disfavor, as soon as it becomes clear that trees will be cut and land cleared. Yet when a ballot initiative was placed before the voters to fund land acquisition for the preservation of open space, it failed by a 2 to 1 margin in an election with only a 9 percent turnout. In other words, we love open space, as long as we don’t have to pay for it.
The northshore was in the midst of a ten-year housing boom when Hurricane Katrina hit, and then things really got busy. Housing starts and home prices rose to unprecedented heights before the national housing bubble, national economy and restricted credit put on the brakes. However, even in the best of times, when houses were being sold before they were framed, we faced a shortage of workforce housing, the euphemistic name for what used to be called affordable housing. Land and housing costs, as well as public pressure, have resulted in a scarcity of homes that young families and service workers can afford. In this category, I include teachers, policemen, firemen, medical workers and most of our children when they are just starting their independent lives and families. Apparently, to many of us, our idea of “quality of life” precludes proximity to those in a lower socio-economic class, even when, as Pogo said, [w]e have met the enemy and he is us.”
As to morals and ethics, the U.S. Attorney’s recent assiduity on the northshore should dispel any lingering notions of moral or ethical superiority. Apparently, we are capable of venality comparable to our southshore neighbors, although perhaps we can argue that we take a quicker path to outrage and action. Some would argue otherwise.
I recently attended a meeting of Volunteer Louisiana, a state commission operating under the auspices of the Lieutenant Governor’s office, whose mission is to build and sustain high quality programs that meet the needs of Louisiana's citizens and promote an ethic of service. This was an eye-opening experience for me, as representatives of the Samaritan Center in Mandeville spoke of the homeless problem on the northshore. The what? How can the state’s wealthiest, best educated, most industrious, environmentally conscious, moral, ethical, and attractive population have homeless residents? How does this reconcile with our quality of life?
We don’t have the classic “guys sleeping on the benches,: although that may be primarily due to the fact that we don’t have a lot of public benches. What we do have is folks sleeping in cars or temporarily with friends or relatives. We have people living in tents, including kids attending our public schools. What we have even more of, particularly now, are the imminently homeless, those who are a mere thread away from foreclosure or eviction. What we do NOT have, however, are facilities with sufficient capacity to address this problem. Incredibly, we do have such shelters for stray animals, but every effort to create one in St. Tammany Parish has been squelched by local leadership and neighborhood protests. Again, our quality of life is inconsistent with acknowledging that this is a problem, much less taking steps to deal with it. The Samaritan Center exists only through public altruism; it receives no government support. The same is true of the Covington Food Bank. Both of these organizations are faith-based ministries and both are on the front line of ministry to the homeless and the needy. They both operate food banks and further stretch their meager resources to provide housing for the homeless. They need our help; as Dena Callaway of the Samaritan Center put it, “We feed them, pray for them, tent them, clothe them and give them gas money to drive on to another town.” Surely, the wealthiest parish in the state can do better than that.
Please visit the websites for the Samaritan Center and Covington Food Bank, at http://www.samcen.org/ and http://www.foodbankofcovington.org/Default.aspx?tabid=36, respectively. These sites include links to a number of other ministries and agencies that are engaged in helping the neediest of our fellow citizens.