A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the ugly strip along McGalliard: the litter, signage and unappealing concrete. It's about time the city of Muncie begins to turn IN-332 into a welcoming, appealing, pedestrian-friendly center of commerce. More specifically, the city should rework the median to include greenspace and trees, regulate of the out-of-control signs, repave the strip and rework the curbs to include roadside parking and easy traffic. Moreover, the city should also get some public transportation running down McGalliard from end to end.
This represents a significant investment into the city's infrastructure; if the work can be given to local companies and employees, the money will return to the local economy and help boost it. This line of thought suggests that if, especially during times of economic contraction, local governments invest in cities and counties, the investment will result not only in long-term improvement of infrastructure but also in short-term economic growth.
Muncie's unemployment last September was 5.2 percent according to city-data.com. Unemployment doesn't give anywhere near a complete picture, though; the city's median household income in 2005, according to city-data.com, was $28,212, well below the Indiana median of $43,993 and the national median of $46,326 (city-data.com and the U.S. Census through the White House, respectively).
It seems that the majority of Muncie's jobs are not gainful. Could the city begin to remedy this by investing in long-term infrastructure improvement projects? That depends. Does Muncie have anywhere near enough money? No. The police and fire departments are taking cuts over the next few years to save on the budget. If such essential services are being cut because of lack of money, there's no way the city itself could afford to majorly invest in the city.
This leaves three options: major deficit spending, federal money and state money. Deficit spending makes me cringe, but, if it works out, the government can levy higher taxes during the resulting growth and recoup its losses. State money is probably out of the question. Federal money is more likely, although perhaps one should out of principle object to what could be pork.
Setting aside funding issues for a moment, let's assume a hypothetical "Muncie Development Corporation" has enough cash to take on any project it would like. What sort of infrastructure expansions would it take on? Well, every project needs to be geared toward preparing Muncie for the future and taking advantage of what economic strengths it has because of its placement. In particular, Muncie needs to begin to prepare for extremely high and increasing gas prices; it can do this by improving pedestrian infrastructure and investing in public transportation and light interurban and interurban rail.
Muncie is located centrally west of the Appalachians and east of the Mississippi; perhaps the city could attract rail business, especially if the city can become a grain distribution hub, taking advantage of the farms around the city. The White River could also be harnessed for traffic and electricity. All of this sort of work could be conducted by relatively unskilled labor, requiring very little training; this is perfect for making dents in the ungainful employment in the city, if enough projects could be found across the town.
Any infrastructure improvement must be accompanied by aggressive recruitment, especially to prepare Muncie to be competitive in a world where gasoline is incredibly expensive. Bring in copper wire rollers, train manufacturers, power companies and the like: these are the businesses of the costly future as the economy will begin to adjust to gasoline cost and shortages.
Write to Neal at necoleman@bsu.edu
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