PROGRESS, YOUNG'INS, AND THE BEAUMONT RIVER MARKET

Forget the #beaulievers, forget gauging the success of cultural progress on the availability of fancy craft beer (although a perfectly reasonable indicator if you ask me) forget your friend's arguments saying that there are more artist and creativity than ever existed before, because they know "at least like, what, 50?" The rhetoric is that Beaumont is different somehow, better. And those that see it shout it from the rooftops, wearing away their voice for the sake of a few open minded individuals walking amongst apathetic ears.  Let's look at some statistical facts that indicate in numbers what they have only expressed to you in emotions  before I whip out the story that's going to blow your mind.Beaumont is ready for change and is taking steps toward it in very big and uncharacteristic ways.

 "Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable." -William Pollard

Fact one. 

The powers-that-be are open to change, more than ever before. And they have gone out of their way to lend an ear to those that have suggestions. One such group that the city of Beaumont has opened its doors and hearts to is Young Creatives for Downtown Revitalization. What a mouthful.  YCFDR was established in late 2012 by Larena Head and Grace Mathis of Cat5 notoriety. They serve as an independent advisory to Beaumont Mainstreet that keeps them aware of the needs of a growing age demographic, 25-39 year old tax payers. There has indeed been a spike in this important money-spending and market swaying group of young and very demanding consumers. Take a look at this great little chart I found at the southeast Texas regional planning commission.

 

In the course of 10 years, we see almost a doubled population of the technology generation.

Why is this? I thought Baby boomers were the biggest generation?
Well my friend. Think multiplication. If five people have two kids each, what do you get? A bigger number!!!! Beaumont city officials are acknowledging it. Our entertainment venues are acknowledging it. Beaumont Mainstreet is acknowledge it.

But what about money, the economy?
Glad you asked.

Fact two.

The economy is getting better too! The same study by the U.S. Census also references an improvement in the financial situation of our citizens. You can see a clear increase in annual income and can argue against progress by citing standard of living, changing tax laws, and inflation, but numbers like per capita income and the poverty line show clear improvements.

 

As you can see, Beaumont in particular has seen an incredible upswing in the financial situations of it's citizens. With households bringing in more money, and an admittedly steady hold in percentage of citizens living in poverty. 

Oh but we are still dirt poor, look at that, 22.1% are in poverty! 

Well my friend, open your eyes. The same study found your beloved Austin at a comparable 23.6%

 Fact three.

Beaumont is ready to put big bucks behind change. While browsing the web the other day for photos of riverfront park, I found the most amazing image by the Goodman Corporation. It was an illustration that they had provided within their portfolio showcasing their most successful projects which included contributions to Kemah Boardwalk planning, Much of Galveston Island's alternative transportation system, and many of Houston's most successful city development projects.You can see the project outline that was pitched to the city below.

The Goodman Corp. Consept Art and Project Summary 

5 million bucks is a lot of dough to drop.
Think it will never happen?  Think again.

City of Beaumont Approved Budget for 2014

Time will tell if the city which amenities and features the city has agreed upon. Talk of removing unused railroad tracks, building new roads into the river park, installing a fountain, and preparing land for retail and hotel stuctures are just a few of the items proposed. And with the new riverside market, a state-of-the-art playground, perpetually booked event center, skate park, museum district, and nighlife hub all located within a few city blocks, we could be seeing some incredible activity in that city zone as increased pedestrian traffic draws the attention of franchised food chains, retailers, and hotelers. 

A google search for matching images or the subject "Beaumont River Market" returned no results. To my knowledge, I am the first public citizen to have stumbled across this treasured information. I expect that the Beaumont citizens will be reading it in the news within coming weeks and reporters with access to public records and private interviews and allotted research time will be able to deliver a much more detailed and thorough story than I.

For now, I'm just the little birdy who told you. 

Dreams for the future,

Betty 

WHEELS OF CHANGE ARE TURNING

A question that seems to come up a lot lately is "What makes things so different now? When efforts to cultivate change have always failed before, what gives you this audacity to say you will succeed were we did not?" 

And my answer to you, oh non-believer, is very long but ultimately simple. I assert that change can and WILL finally come about for the simple reason that we as one generation in a hundred years, are the first to actually have the tools for it. Our human race is once again shifting its collective conscious from a paradigm of conservativism, to progressivism.

  

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." -Cecil Beaton

Conservative does not always mean how you vote. It can also mean how you wear your clothes, the types of food you eat, the way you organize your environment, who you associate with, even the kind of vehicle you drive. This is not to be confused with traditionalists, who will base decisions on routine despite lavishness--although it is traditional to be conservative in western culture. 

Then there is progressive. It's the practice of progress; moving forward. Politics borrows the term to describe a belief in the need for new policies and governmental overhaul in a more liberal direction. But progressive thinking can also reflect any other aspect of your life that you are moving forward in. It can describe your willingness to make new style choices, venturing into a new field of profession, trying a new food, opening a business that had never been imagined up before, making progress rather than standing in one place with tradition. 

I guess you could say it like this: you can conserve your energy, imagination, individuality, and emotions in a way that will insure comfort and acceptance and general success in your efforts; or you can move forward with everything you have in you in the name of progress, risking it all, thinking in scary new ways and imposing the unfamiliar on your peers in hopes that they will follow. 

We are ripe for a renaissance. American culture as a living generation lost it all when the economy went sour, a new war erupted in the middle east, and the baby boomer generation began to grow old, leaving us behind, alone and lost. Faith was shaken to the core as science and technology fed into itself tenfold it's historic ability as it birthed the internet and split-second worldwide communication and discovery. All this time we as as force of three generations were here, with nothing left to do but think and dream and plan and lament the way our western culture was holding us down telling us who we could and couldn't be. And then only a few years ago the tools we needed came. Internet in every home, smartphones in our hands, empty seats in our local non-profits as the earliest born baby boomers began to retire, and boarded up shops that went on sale during the recession dustily awaited their time to reopen their doors to happy patrons of the next decade.

And WE, with the hobbies our unemployment allowed us to master, with the knowledge we obtained from that world wide web of communication and information, and with absolutely nothing to lose. It just took us a few years to figure it all out. And when we did, BOOM.

Dreams for the future,

Betty