We have all needed some good news lately.
And this week our community got a big dose of it.
Having the strongest population growth in Western Kentucky is something to celebrate. And there are many contributing factors that have created this success.
Our downtown placemaking initiative has created a sense of excitement well beyond our community’s borders. We are seeing project after project being announced. And we all see the excitement when our extended families or friends visit us from other places — our downtown is nearly always the first thing mentioned by visitors. It is a message to the world that Owensboro is moving forward.
A proliferation of entertainment-related small businesses have opened in the last two years. This is more than just encouraging. I believe it is a predictor of things to come.
The remarkable characteristic that most of these new businesses have in common? They have been dreamt of and launched by young people.
Young people have a knack of knowing what their generation wants or needs in a community. The result will be more young people staying here or moving here, creating a larger market capacity for more business activity.
While there are pathways for these four-year graduates to find careers here, we as a community need to focus efforts on this. Owensboro could net even more growth from people who are business leaders, teachers, accountants, etc.
Talent retention and recruitment have changed. Jobs follow people. And the last 18 months have demonstrated that many people can work from wherever they choose to live. That will continue to give us an edge as we move forward.
The high quality of life that we enjoy here is making us even more competitive than we were pre-pandemic. I hope we can come together to create more ways to tell our story. To show who we are to a world that is tired of long commutes, skyrocketing living expenses and uncertainty. We have a story. One that answers the question of “what is next?”
The lesson in this is to dream big. Two decades ago we were losing population. That trend was reversed because of bold leadership who believed in our community.
Momentum like this is not to be taken for granted. Each of us has a role to play. Let’s keep moving and get on to the next bold moves!