In a much better place

It was but a few short years ago that, for the first time in my adult life, I’d let creep in the idea of moving my family to the mainland. Such an idea was previously unthinkable to me. I was raised here. I love Saipan—I love the CNMI. As a parent my dream has always been to raise my kids in the beauty, generosity, and safety of this home that I was blessed to be raised in. Back in 2007/2008, because of the economic circumstances and to do what I thought was my part, I’d given up permanently a part of my salary and then had an additional 25 percent austerity cut on top of that. But worse than this…much worse…was the anxiety that weighed on me about where our Commonwealth was heading. Many had lost their jobs. Numbers of friends had relocated to the mainland during this period, people from here who’d lived and worked most of their lives here, and people that I had thought would never willingly leave. There were the stories every other day of all of the others who’d left. One by one, businesses were shutting down. Tourism numbers were falling. Once clean streets were looking haggard and unkempt. It was looking like the retirement fund we’d contributed to for decades was going to collapse and we would lose everything we’d put in, or worse the income our parents depended on wasn’t going to be there. Crime was on the rise. Doctors were leaving the hospital. We were struggling to figure out how we were going to get out of this growing economic hole. Not only did we not have any new investment coming in…investment was pulling out.

I describe my perception of this period, and I fared far better off than many, because it is important to consider just how serious the straits we were in. A few have seemed to have forgotten.

There is this line of suggestion by this few, often akin to a sales pitch in fact, that we are now in some horrible place. In order to accept this premise, one would have had to have slept through 2008 to 2013.

We are now in a place where we have a real public budget once again, where old businesses are reopening and new businesses have come into the community, investors are back, dilapidated hotels are being renovated, new hotels and resorts are being developed, jobs are once again available, consumer confidence is up, retirees are consistently getting their benefits, active employees were able to see returned what they put in plus interest, we’re talking about pay raises for our police officers and for the first time increases to our minimum wage that exceed the federal mandate, we see new airlines on the tarmac once again, and new jobs are available with more coming online, but most of all… we’re looking toward the future and planning for the future.

Whatever one’s position might be on the development of a resort-casino, they would be hard-pressed to deny the benefits that the revenue, exposure, and improved general business climate has had, and thus the economic benefits that have come along with all of this. One would also be hard-pressed to argue that the decisions made, at what was one of the most difficult economic times in the recent history of the Commonwealth, with regard to economic development and investment are not now paying off.

A community that we want to live in is one that can economically support its residents. We are in a significantly better position economically than we were only a few years ago. We’re talking about not having enough people to fill all of the jobs, rather than worrying about cutbacks and not enough jobs. We’re talking about seeing pay raised, rather than considering strategies to see austerity pay cuts. We’re talking about developing parks and cultural centers and visitor’s centers and new visitor sites, instead of seeing cutbacks that had us unable to keep grass cut. We’re seeing support for the drug court, revitalization of youth centers, canoe programs, and cultural programs, instead of wondering what programs will have to be sacrificed next year. We’re having a healthy debate about where we should invest our current and future revenue, instead of simply shelving everything to focus on just scraping out an existence.

Whatever one’s position was regarding the decisions that were made about particular investment or development, the fact is that the benefits we are seeing now and looking forward to are directly and indirectly related to these decisions and those in elected office who put themselves directly in the line of fire. For the sake of my kids, of our kids, and of opportunities for them… this parent is thankful that the decisions that were made, were made, and that we had leaders willing to take the political risk

Robert H. Hunter is a Kagman 2 resident and a concerned community member. (Robert H. Hunter/Special to the Saipan Tribune)