Terre Haute: We're in the Middle
Economic competitiveness does weird things to people's brains. We already know that it makes them offer rich corporations tax breaks and other perks that can sometimes come to half a million dollars per job created, with no requirement that the jobs be well-paying or that local people get hired for them or even that the company pay that money back if they fink on their promises. (That latter provision is called a "clawback," and New York state will be trying again this year to pass one. Keep your eyes out.)
It apparently also makes people say patently ridiculous things about their region, in the hope that someone might believe it.
Take the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation. Terre Haute is a small city in western Indiana. Like so many other small cities, it's had a rough time of it over the past several decades, but it's doing a lot better recently. There's some exciting development going on downtown and some good marketing of the region taking place. I'm curious to visit it. Nothing that follows should be taken as a coastal person making fun of the midwest.
However, THEDC staff might not think as highly of their region's assets as they would lead you to believe, since they seem to think it necessary to resort to lying to promote it. From the THEDC's Why Terre Haute? overview comes the following gem:
" Located within a 500-mile radius of seventy-percent of the population of the United States, Terre Haute offers an excellent network of transportation facilities, assuring business and industry ready access to global and domestic suppliers and markets." (itals mine)
That can't even be close to true. Anyone with the slightest idea of how far 500 miles is and how the population is distributed in this country (heavily coastal, still) should be able to immediately recognize that as a bizarre impossibility.
But like a good journalist, I decided to check my gut assessment. I asked my brother to use his ace GIS skills to whip me up a simple little map and population count. (Thanks Greg!)
The total U.S. population in 2003 was about 290 million. That means Terre Haute is within 500 miles of 29% of the population of the United States.
Looking at that number, one has to wonder if someone at THEDC mistakenly calculated the population outside a 500-mile radius. In that case, the moral of this story is perhaps more about math literacy than disregard for the truth. But not entirely.
Here's the response I got from THEDC when I asked about their statistic:
"Dear Miriam:
Thank you for your note. I agree with your observation. The point we're trying to convey is that we have a relatively good geographic location that is within close proximity to a large part of the U.S. population. I guess we need to either expand our radius or reduce the percentage.
Thank you.
Steve Witt
Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation"
(My observation was, for the record, "How is this possible?")
Steve Witt is the president of this organization. But even after having the problem pointed out to him, he doesn't realize (or at least doesn't acknowledge) that this isn't a statistic that is slightly inaccurate and needs tweaking. It's off at its base. The city is just not near a particularly large portion of the U.S. population. 29% is not kind of like 70%.
That doesn't mean it's a bad place to do business. It could even be considered good central location for trucking to lots of disparate population centers, perhaps. There are all sorts of other reasons why a place might be attractive to businesses. But Mr. Witt might want to consider that the intelligence and trustworthiness of local economic development officials could be on that list.
As penance for wanton disregard of the truth, I am proposing that for one year the THEDC should adopt Robin's suggested new slogan:
"Terre Haute: We're in the Middle."
(If they ever fix the assertion at all, that is. I got Witt's message on Wednesday, and it's still up there unchanged.)
It apparently also makes people say patently ridiculous things about their region, in the hope that someone might believe it.
Take the Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation. Terre Haute is a small city in western Indiana. Like so many other small cities, it's had a rough time of it over the past several decades, but it's doing a lot better recently. There's some exciting development going on downtown and some good marketing of the region taking place. I'm curious to visit it. Nothing that follows should be taken as a coastal person making fun of the midwest.
However, THEDC staff might not think as highly of their region's assets as they would lead you to believe, since they seem to think it necessary to resort to lying to promote it. From the THEDC's Why Terre Haute? overview comes the following gem:
" Located within a 500-mile radius of seventy-percent of the population of the United States, Terre Haute offers an excellent network of transportation facilities, assuring business and industry ready access to global and domestic suppliers and markets." (itals mine)
That can't even be close to true. Anyone with the slightest idea of how far 500 miles is and how the population is distributed in this country (heavily coastal, still) should be able to immediately recognize that as a bizarre impossibility.
But like a good journalist, I decided to check my gut assessment. I asked my brother to use his ace GIS skills to whip me up a simple little map and population count. (Thanks Greg!)
The total U.S. population in 2003 was about 290 million. That means Terre Haute is within 500 miles of 29% of the population of the United States.
Looking at that number, one has to wonder if someone at THEDC mistakenly calculated the population outside a 500-mile radius. In that case, the moral of this story is perhaps more about math literacy than disregard for the truth. But not entirely.
Here's the response I got from THEDC when I asked about their statistic:
"Dear Miriam:
Thank you for your note. I agree with your observation. The point we're trying to convey is that we have a relatively good geographic location that is within close proximity to a large part of the U.S. population. I guess we need to either expand our radius or reduce the percentage.
Thank you.
Steve Witt
Terre Haute Economic Development Corporation"
(My observation was, for the record, "How is this possible?")
Steve Witt is the president of this organization. But even after having the problem pointed out to him, he doesn't realize (or at least doesn't acknowledge) that this isn't a statistic that is slightly inaccurate and needs tweaking. It's off at its base. The city is just not near a particularly large portion of the U.S. population. 29% is not kind of like 70%.
That doesn't mean it's a bad place to do business. It could even be considered good central location for trucking to lots of disparate population centers, perhaps. There are all sorts of other reasons why a place might be attractive to businesses. But Mr. Witt might want to consider that the intelligence and trustworthiness of local economic development officials could be on that list.
As penance for wanton disregard of the truth, I am proposing that for one year the THEDC should adopt Robin's suggested new slogan:
"Terre Haute: We're in the Middle."
(If they ever fix the assertion at all, that is. I got Witt's message on Wednesday, and it's still up there unchanged.)