A long time ago, not so far away I lived in California. My girls were very young then and I worked in construction accounting. I lived in a nice apartment complex in El Cajon, California. I was looking for something to buy. Now, my price range for a home was between $100,000-125,000, that will give you an idea of how long ago we are talking. I needed to be near good schools, parks, and of course work. I looked high and low and after exhausting El Cajon began looking elsewhere....only now I was looking for employment and a home. I found both in Santee, CA. I chose Santee because I found a wonderful condo complex, which at the time suited my needs. There was a wonderful pre-school near-by that had very affordable tuition. I found work that was near my home, life was good.
It wasn't until years later I discovered what lay beneath my decisions. You see back then El Cajon was struggling with a very anti-growth ideology within their citizens and local government. They were fearful that they would 'lose their suburban feel'. Meanwhile, Santee was of a different ideology and worked very diligently to utilize their assets, which as land, the small local airport and such. They encouraged clean business to move in and many 'tilt up' business offices were built. Businesses moved in offering good paying positions. At the same time there were affordable condominiums being built. What it did was 'woo' young professionals like myself looking to invest in an affordable home, school their children and work in the same community.
The point I am trying to make is that although I didn't choose a community based on what was happening with each of their local politics I did see what those different policies created and was drawn to the community that was growing and had all of those things a person would be looking for.
Our community has always attracted retiree's from far and wide and why not. Kingman has fantastic weather and is still affordable and even though we don't have major shopping or cultural events it is only a hop, skip and a job away....our community has benefited from those people that have moved here.
Shouldn't we all embrace the idea of growing our community to appeal to a wide range of people? When you get a home ready to sell you want to 'stage' it and make sure it's appeal is for the greatest audience. What about your community? Shouldn't the same thing go? We could set the stage for business to choose Kingman over another community which in turn will generate interest in young professionals to come as well. I don't know....sounds simple to me.
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