To Rebuild or Not to Rebuild?
Kansas SpotlightI wanted to submit todays post as a question rather than an opinion. There has been a growing sentiment over the last week that is...while not a cause for concern...maybe "out of character". Several people, including a KSU professor quoted in USA Today have started talking about NOT rebuilding Greensburg.
Populations in rural Kansas have been on the decline for decades. The majority of the people who live in Greensburg are elderly and no longer contributing to the economic development of the town. Most, if not all, of the businesses were destroyed leaving many people without the means to a stable income AND leaving many people without a job.
I've actually spoken with a few of the Air National Guardsmen who've been out there helping with the clean up and (by the sounds of it) most of the people they talk with have nothing left, had no savings, have no car, have no job because their job or business is completely gone. Many of those people were just going to get on a bus and head to the nearest city to start over.
So really, that begs the question, does Greenburg need to be rebuilt? SHOULD we rebuild Greensburg if it means syphoning a LOT of insurance and state money into a community that has little hope of fully recovering?
From Wikipedia:
In the city the population was spread out with 21.5% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 20.5% from 25 to 44, 25.2% from 45 to 64, and 26.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females there were 91.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.1 males.
The population of the town from just 2000 was down almost 10% in 2007 (from 1572 to 1452) BEFORE the tornado.
~Dubya
From a purely cold economic perspective, Greensburg was already on its way to shrinking into eventual oblivion. The population statistics you provide show this. Demographically, the town, like many in the Western part of the state, was aging. There does not appear to be an influx of younger residents. Greensburg's location is such that there is no nearby large metro area to provide jobs for those choosing to live in a bedroom community.
Again, from a cold, nonemotional perspective, there should not be schools rebuilt in Greensburg. I don't know the precise enrollment numbers, but there were but 25 graduating Seniors according to news reports. I would think that the school system was on the verge of becoming, if it wasn't already, the principal economic engine of the town. Rational allocation of state education aid would dictate that the Greensburg district should consolidate with Macksville, which I believe is ten miles East, creating larger and more efficient schools.
As a person who grew up right outside a very small town in Kansas (Whitewater), I'm most aware of the economic challenges facing these communities. Whitewater has benefited from its location, in that it's close to Wichita and Newton (although Newton seems to be having its troubles, too, given the television ads encouraging folks to move there). I don't know, but suspect, that many of the good folks living in or around Whitewater who are not farming are employed in Wichita or Newton. Hearkening back to the early 1960s, Whitewater's school district was forced to consolidate with Potwin's, creating the Remington High School located at Brainerd, when the first "school funding crisis" arose. Simply stated, this was when the local school districts could no longer finance their schools, in large part, from the property tax revenues locally available, and there was state aid requested to keep the schools open. Forced consolidation, together with the State BOE, were some of the results of this.
Back to Greensburg. The oil and gas industry service providers that were located in Greensburg could locate elsewhere, with no real appreciable difference in their ability to provide services to the wells, etc., in the area. The primary impetus for rebuilding Greensburg would be its designation as the county seat of Kiowa County. The county courthouse, while damaged heavily, still stands. I don't think this, in and of itself, is enough a reason to rebuild.
I need to look at Udall, the closest analogy to Greensburg as to total storm devastation, and what happened there after the 1955 tornado. My speculation is that Udall, while rebuilding, has not returned to where it was prior to its destruction. As mentioned on another thread, I am aware that every summer, its schools advertise for students, signaling Udall's aging. If Greensburg is rebuilt, I expect similar from its schools in the not too distant future.
In my opinion, the people who are talking about rebuilding (or may be in the process of rebuilding) are making a very large mistake. I don't want to come across as a nay-sayer, but as you pointed out, the population of the whole of Western Kansas has been dwindling for decades. What fiscal, logical, or moral sense does it make to have the rest of the state pay to rebuild an town on the verge of collapse?
And yes, the Udall story is similar, but not really applicable to Greensburg. Udall is just what, 20 minutes south of Derby/Wichita? Not the 2.5 - 3 hours for Greensburg.
I'm not sure how well Udall really survived or was "rebuilt", either. The census data on Udall suggests they've fallen 4% in population since 2000, and that the population today is lower than in 1955 when the twister hit. Not to mention, THAT tornado actually wiped out most, if not all, of the historic buildings in the town. Driving through Udall today is similar to driving through the Belle Plain Service Center on the Turnpike...
~Dubya
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