It's a question that I've been asked more than any other in the four years since I founded Niagara Rises: "How can we keep young people here without jobs?"
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It's a fair query and there is no simple answer. It seems evident that all levels of government have let the city down, as there is a dearth of living-wages jobs to retain our emerging generations of would-be bread-earners.
From a grassroots perspective, there seems to be but one solution -- if there are no jobs, put people in a position to create their own jobs. That, and quite possibly this: Find a way to keep people here until the jobs arrive.
With those goals in mind, on Saturday, Sept. 18, the first-ever "Niagara 4U" tour will be held for the incoming freshmen of Niagara University. Seven coach buses will transport nearly 400 students and volunteers on a familiarization tour around the city and county.
Most familiarization tours of the area take in the views of Niagara's waterfalls, and this one will be no exception. In this instance, that is just a stepping-off point, as the tour has a deeper purpose of showing incoming college students the potential and affordability of living in Niagara County once they receive their degree.
Last spring, Carol Coletta, of CEOs for Cities, spoke at NU and stated that when a community can retain just 1 percent more of its graduating students, the economic impact on the area is $900 million per year.
That's a staggering number, and it represents precisely the type of dollars left on the table that has put our region in the deep economic hole we find ourselves buried in.
If Niagara Falls is to make a comeback, it has to begin and end with retaining the best and brightest of our maturing generations. Most everyone can agree that the loss of those same people in generations past and present has led to a city that has steeply declined in both population levels and economic viability.
Niagara University is a conduit that draws bright young people to the region. Think of it this way: If the university wasn't sitting there on Monteagle Ridge, how in God's good name would we otherwise draw hundreds of future lawyers, doctors, educators, engineers and business executives and owners to Niagara Falls?
There was a time, back in the '50s and '60s, when lower Main Street would host a NU freshman parade. Students would parade through the then-thriving business district and would be welcomed by shopkeepers and business owners.
Banners were hung decorated in the school colors of purple and white. As the students walked block after block, they were repeatedly welcomed and thanked for choosing Niagara Falls as their home for the next four years.
The business owners of that time period recognized that incoming college students are also incoming customers. Nothing has changed today, except for the amount of money students spend.
According to a recent Harris Poll, the average college student spends $361 per month in his or her community. That means the incoming NU freshman class of approximately 800 students will drop nearly $289,000 per month into area cash registers. Times that by four to account for all classes, and the total spending of the university's current student population is $1.15 million monthly.
That's a lot greenbacks by anyone's count, and it should be a rallying cry to local business owners that the rainbow leading to their own pot of gold has but two colors -- purple and white. The sad truth is that the university's students have been neglected by our business leaders for years. With the exception of the occasional drinking establishment that saw a lax checking of sheriff-issued ID as a quick way to prosperity, the students of Niagara have neither been courted nor valued by most local businesses.
That thinking has to change, for the immediate economic impact previously illustrated and for the much larger potential one lauded by Coletta.
The Niagara 4U tour will attempt to get the ball rolling in the right direction by enticing freshmen with the potential of Niagara County as a permanent home.
The tour will pass through the city's business districts, as well as those of the Towns of Niagara and Lewiston. The students will be shown the potential for startup business in these districts and they will also be shown a host of homes they could one day own at just a fraction of the cost of similar homes in most regions of the country.
The idea is to stress to these kids that, unlike many regions in America, Niagara County doesn't have much of a glass ceiling. In fact, we are a city and a county just begging for a new generation to come on in and assume the throne.
Young people are very valuable to a region in one key area: They are the ones willing to take a risk on entrepreneurial enterprise.
Someone in his or her early 20s without a family, frankly without anything to lose, represent the ones opening up new businesses at the greatest clip in this great nation of ours. If we retain more of them, NU students will do the same here, and that is one key way that we can create new jobs in Niagara Falls.
Dr. Dave Taylor is part of the driving force behind the Niagara 4U tour and he knows the importance of showing incoming freshman all Niagara Falls has to offer.
"What older folks might see as stagnation, college kids see as opportunity. Niagara Falls is a wonderful city steeped in tradition, and these kids will be the ones to write the next chapter," he said.
Niagara Rises Chairwoman Colleen Kulikowski is also a top real estate specialist in the area. She can't wait for the students to see some of the houses on the tour.
"An 1,800 square-foot house in move-in condition for under $50,000 -- where else is a young professional just starting out going to luck into that? Their mortgage would be a fraction of what rent would cost them in a big city. That's one of our biggest trump cards, and we have been palming it instead of slapping it down on the table," she said.
Allen Booker, of the city's Weed and Seed program, also sees the need to reach out to NU students.
"Once they see what Niagara Falls truly has to offer, I think they'll be much more apt to stay here once they graduate. This city is primed for their generation to step up and take it over sooner rather than later," he said.
The tour will depart from the NU campus at 10 a.m. and will end up with the students having lunch with the mayors of Niagara Falls and Lewiston at the Rapids Theater in the early afternoon.
Businesses and individuals looking to donate services or time can call 201-2611 for more information. Local pizzerias are being actively courted to donate a few trays for the luncheon.
The NU class of 2014 will soon arrive in town. For the first time in decades they will be properly welcomed, and if all goes as planned many more of them will call Niagara Falls home beyond their years at the university.
If successful, the city may once again soar just like the eagles up on Monteagle Ridge.=
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | September 7, 2010 |