With Bill Gates celebrating his 52nd birthday in October, it may be time to accept something those of us with touches of gray find a little difficult to absorb: that the next big companies to influence the direction and character of the U.S. economy will not be started by members of our generation.
The nation's 78 million baby boomers are starting to retire. Filling their shoes are some 40 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 34. Cities across the country are in fierce competition to attract this much smaller group, especially the educated among them who are engaged in knowledge and creative industries such as high tech and software, publishing, research and development, banking, consulting, television and radio, design, film, music, toys and games, advertising, architecture, performing arts, crafts, video games, fashions and art.
A group of local economic and cultural activists is asking why Lexington ó with median age 33 and home to two universities, renowned greenspaces and a gradually emerging "urban village" character ó should not more aggressively reach out to that next generation of innovators and leaders.
Welcoming the involvement of young professionals and entrepreneurs in activities and discussions that have in the past been the turf of an older, mostly male generation is the focus of The 30/30 Group, an organization chaired by Preston Osborne's Vitale Buford with the support of founding members Shari Fiveash, senior vice president of Commerce Lexington; downtown developer Phil Holoubek; and Urban County Councilman Jay McChord. Full disclosure: this writer is serving in an advisory capacity for this group.
The mission of this group is to use Commerce Lexington's already impressive annual Leadership Visit as the springboard for a yearlong process of identifying ways Lexington can evolve into the premier American mid-sized city Mayor Jim Newberry has envisioned.
In the view of this group, there is an urgent message contained in Lexington's rankings in Forbes Magazine's recent listing of the nation's 200 Best Places for Business and Careers: 120th in "job growth," 157th in "culture and leisure" and at the absolute bottom ó 200th ó for "income growth" over the last five years.
According to Holoubek, the primary aim of the group is to make scholarships available to 20- and 30-somethings interested in the educational and networking opportunities of the annual trip but who are in the formative stages of their careers and unable to afford expenses. "By including knowledge-based young professionals on the annual chamber trip via the 30/30 program, we are able to begin creating a city that is attractive to this same group of knowledge-based young professionals."
The ultimate goal, he explained, is to better understand the amenities that this group expects and demands from the city. "Public art, outdoor cafes, pedestrian friendly streets, hiking and biking paths, an engaging music scene, and a 24-hour downtown with cool housing options," are among them, he said. "Once we better understand these needs, as a city we can begin to implement these amenities. If we do a good job of this, we succeed in recruiting knowledge-based young professionals, which in turn allows us to attract knowledge-based companies paying higher than average wages."
How are the dismal rankings reported by Forbes possible for one of Kentucky's urban economic engines? The answer may have a lot to do with Lexington's late start, compared with many other mid-sized cities, in working aggressively to attract and retain young urban professionals; educated, increasingly never-married 25- to 39-year-olds who love their work and demand little from their community.
"One of our biggest issues is trying to find engineers who want to go into sales," said Heather Henley, a public relations specialist for the rapidly growing Lexington-based Big Ass Fans. "That's kind of a specialized crew of people, and we have trouble because we have to pull them in from all over the country." Henley said that unless potential recruits already have family ties in the area, they're reluctant to come to Lexington. "Usually the best luck we have is with people who already have family ties to the area, which limits our pool."
Henley also cited lagging workforce development. "We sponsor several scholarships for the (UK) engineering college to try to get the kinds of students that we need. To put it bluntly, one of the problems we have is just getting kids that come out of school ó we don't mind hiring straight out of school and teaching them the business ó but we get a lot of folks right out of school who just aren't prepared for the workforce."
USA TODAY reported that "in today's economy, companies want to locate where they can attract their ideal workforces. YUSPies (Young Urban Single Professionals) work long hours and demand few benefits. Governments like them because they pay high taxes and don't demand many services. So cities have gotten smart. Instead of just pushing development with stadiums or office parks, innovative towns lure Yuspies and bet the jobs will come."
In Louisville, Mayor Jerry Abramson has set his sights on bringing back the human capital that have been lured away by the opportunities of larger cities. Once a year, Abramson treks across the country to counsel the expatriates, young professional Kentuckians who have lost their way, he said, and left the state.
Abramson is targeting the young talent that have started their families and are now facing the prospects of expensive mortgages for starter homes outside the city limits with painfully long commutes.
"Now they begin to remember good old Kentucky," Abramson said.
Last year's trip to Chicago, billed as a Bourbon tasting, attracted 600 people. Humana, Brown-Forman, YUM! Brands and Mercer came along for the ride.
"I could have filled a 737 and brought those kids home, if I had the jobs," Abramson said.
Similar trips have taken place in Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco.
"If you're a business in Kentucky and you hire someone who went to school or was born and raised in Kentucky, the odds are Ö your (training) investment will pay off, because they are going to stay with you. They know what they are coming home to," Abramson said.
The Lexington Fayette Urban County Government relies on payroll taxes for 83 percent of its revenues to fund the full range of public services. Experts in local economic development assert that the more robust job and income growth becomes, the healthier the city's treasury, and ultimately, the more local government can afford to do to ensure that Lexington makes the short lists of talent as well as corporate site location managers.
In the Lexington of 2007, some 20- and 30-somethings are choosing to remain in their hometown after graduation from one of the area's universities or colleges, hoping to make a go of it in a less stressful environment than what is experienced in major urban centers. They are intrigued by recent significant political change that has brought progressive leadership and the promise of a downtown revival. Others had left Lexington after becoming disillusioned by unrealized economic and cultural expectations, a "town/gown" disconnect that defined the Lexington of the late 20th century. With their perspectives since matured and sharpened by the withering challenges of daily life in the nation's mega-metropolises, many who have returned say they were lured by the scale of Lexington with its promise of city amenities and charms of smaller towns.
Without including this knowledge-based young professional group and arguably without the 30/30 program, Holoubek asserted, Lexington is in danger of continuing along the path reported by Forbes. "Prior to the past couple of years, young professionals were not proactively and aggressively recruited to engage in the planning of our city's future," said the 30-something developer of Main & Rose and the Nunn Building Lofts. "As a result, we didn't put in place the amenities they demand, and young professionals therefore departed from Lexington, or bypassed Lexington altogether, in favor of other cities." In summary, he said, engaging knowledge-based young professionals is critical to the future economic success of our city.
In June of '08, the chamber's Leadership Visit, now in its 69th year, will provide some 250 leaders in local business, government, civic, academic and community affairs opportunities to study the music, film and university city of Austin, Texas, a city where creative and knowledge industries thrive.
30/30 program leaders are calling on the business community to invest in an endowment administered by Commerce Lexington that will fund future trip-expense scholarships for those who can meet criteria based on need and level of interest in civic and community affairs. Those in the age demographic who would like to be considered for a scholarship must apply by no later than November 30.
"The 30/30 program is the most critical improvement to the annual chamber trip over the last decade," noted Holoubek. "The fact that in just two short years, we've increased attendance by this group to far more than the originally intended 30, and the fact that chamber trips have suddenly become sold-out months in advance, speaks volumes of the importance of this program to the future of our city."
Businesses interested in contributing to the 30/30 scholarship fund should contact Shari Fiveash at Commerce Lexington by calling (859) 226-1613 or e-mailing sfiveash@commercelexington.com.