Retaining Our Best and Brightest

Grand Terrace City Limit signs say the city’s population is 13,500.  What was once the case is no longer the case.  Every year, the state Department of Finance demography unit publishes updated population numbers for each of California’s cities.  This year, Grand Terrace’s population was reported as 12,285.  In general, loss of population is never considered a good thing when you are trying to attract new investment to your community. The good news is we have new housing projects being built, several more projects in the pipeline and very brisk sales of existing Grand Terrace homes being put up for sale.  The not so good news is that the City is not retaining enough of its professional, upwardly-mobile, young adults and there is a good chance the price of existing homes will exceed the budgets of first-time home buyers.   Often-times, those graduating from college, trade school, public safety academies for fire fighters and law enforcement officers, to name several, are leaving “The Blue Mountain City” for jobs in other Inland Empire cities that serve as regional employment centers and possess cultural, shopping, entertainment, educational and community facilities attractive to young professionals.  It goes without saying the lack of these attributes also limits our ability to attract such professionals as well as retain our own. While Grand Terrace has excellent youth sports programs, by the time our young people get to the age of 15 and older (think 18-34), the menu of activities available is extremely limited.  For concerts, minor league sporting events, movie theaters, museums, many attractive eateries, coffee shops, boutiques and specialty stores, our young people—indeed, all of us--must almost always leave town to avail ourselves of these goods and services. In order to be able to sustain ourselves economically and, ultimately, to prosper, we must leave the past in the past, turn the page and make Grand Terrace an attractive destination for new investment.  We can make a huge down payment on our future, by taking full and complete advantage of what could be the most significant development project in our 40-year history.  Economic growth and opportunity is the only way we will be able to fully realize our promise as a community and assume our rightful place as one of the region’s most important destinations. The project referenced will be the first to offer housing products that cater to young professionals and young at heart older adults.  New public facilities will be built and incredibly important public infrastructure will be constructed as part of this project and placed into service.  New jobs-producing commercial and industrial development is also part of the plan. You’ve heard me say, or read what I have previously written, that Grand Terrace cannot cut or tax its way to economic prosperity.  It must seek economic prosperity by working diligently to ensure its business to business, business to government and business to community relationships are optimal and each sector of the community is eliminating barriers to economic opportunity and doing whatever it can to support new business investment in our city.  Increasing our property values and sales tax revenues through new housing, commercial and industrial development, and the refurbishment of existing structures (like Woody’s Classic Grill), is a proven strategy in retaining our best and brightest. We cannot prosper if we continue to lose our youth and new households.  You can help to reverse this trend by voting for me on November 6, 2018. Henderson:  City Council 2018   www.kenhendersongt2018.com  kenhendersongt2018@gmail.com