No poverty...just focus and viewpoint.

[David Gregg]

  Anyone who thinks they know what is wrong with Flagstaff or thinks they can fix things, really don't know the town.

  One must be creative to live and thrive here. You cannot just roll in, sigh at the Peaks and quip that you are going to drop everything from your origin, move here, then complain about how Flag has,"nothing for me!" That is a crock!

I should know, I have loved and lived in Flag for 31-years. One cannot look around and conclude, we need more better paying job, we need more affordable housing, we need everything I had where I come from?

What we need are newcomers with a better focus and understanding that this town was not built for this type of utopia-seeking, human deluge! It was not built for anything, really! The town grew around the railroad, the forest, then the University. It's all about supply and demand. As part of what I refer to as the "Aberration of the West" is, folks moving here to get-away from city toil and because it is beautiful! What we all want is More and Less. More of the desirable attributes and less of the things we moved away from in the first place. Now, as a result, what we have is more people. More folks who have lived here for twenty-minutes with great plans and sniveling complaints!

I say, if it is better quality in Things that are Economic in value...Shut-up and INVEST!  Or, just look to within yourself to be creative and fruitful...NO-More Complaining about "poverty with a view." I do not share with you your sense of the Incredulous!

 When I first came here in 76, there was no mall, no grand city hall, no expansive bridges, no Home Depot and Target, no modern anything!?  We had Babbitt's as our only department store, Denny's and McDonalds as our few representative chain-restaurants, a small city hall, a small jail. Now we are inundated with arrogant, moaning newcomers that want to transplant all the "things-physical", that they had where they used to live. Yes, we are growing. but do not blame the town for what it does Not Have.

Be grateful... this is not where it is where you came from!

 

David Wilson Gregg