Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412190011
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: G5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DEBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's oft-heard because every community that's serious about economic development touts its quality of life in trying to attract industry.
It's difficult to define because, as James Madison University business professor Jackson Ramsey says, "it tends to mean different things to everyone involved."
That makes it difficult to sell as a separate industrial development tool. Instead, quality of life tends to be one of many factors in site-selection decisions and usually not the most important.
"If you get 10 people in a room you might get 12 opinions on what constitutes good quality of life," said Ross Boyle, an economic development consultant based in Colorado.
The problem isn't that there's no definition: It's that there are so many.
Bill Watkins, an economic development official in Columbia, Mo., lost an industrial prospect because the head of the company wanted to live where he could see Broadway-quality shows every night.
That was how the CEO defined quality of life, said Watkins, who is executive director of Regional Economic Development Inc. in Columbia (Pop. 70,000). Someone else would define it differently.
Another person might willingly trade Manhattan for Columbia because he or she believes Columbia offers a better chance of getting home alive if he or she goes out at night. Or because New York, despite Broadway and all the other cultural attractions, is just too expensive to live in.
Writing in Site Selection magazine, relocation specialists Adlore Chaudier and Julie Pearman of Runzheimer International say "employees and their families are increasingly weighing quality of life against cost. ... In general, the quality of life in a new location must be perceived as reasonably commensurate with the costs to live in and enjoy the new community."
Quality of life is often mentioned as a virtue of the Roanoke-New River Valley region. It's touted by government and economic development officials, who mention its outdoor recreation resources, health care facilities, clean air and water, relative freedom from traffic congestion, low crime rate and comparatively low cost of living.
Respondents in the 1993 Roanoke Valley Poll, asked what constitutes "the good life," cited jobs that were "interesting," "high-paying" and "altruistic" among other things.
In a change from the 1992 poll, when a majority of respondents opposed population growth, the majority of those polled in 1993 said "moderate" population growth would be acceptable and would have a positive effect on the quality of life.
Still, about half of respondents said population growth would raise living costs and "general congestion."
"Quality of life is in the eye of the beholder," Boyle said.
And it's definitely relative, said Jeff Finkle, executive director of the Council for Urban Economic Development in Washington.
"If you move from New York City to Richmond, you go 'ho-hum' about Richmond's murder rate," he said. "But if you're moving to Richmond from Winchester, you're aghast."
The weather, an oft-cited quality-of-life indicator, is equally subjective.
"Does a picturesque Massachusetts county have good quality of life?" Finkle asks. "Yeah, but it snows like hell."
Snow's fine if you're a ski buff, but not so fine if you're more comfortable in moderate temperatures.
Fine if you work at home, but not so fine if you're running a factory and slippery roads keep your employees from getting to work.
Does that mean warmer climates have a leg up in quality of life? Not necessarily.
"If everybody liked it the warmer the better, they'd all locate on the equator," JMU's Ramsey said. He pointed out that some manufacturing processes are sensitive to heat and its frequent companion, humidity.
There is broad agreement on certain qualities of life:
Clean air and water are frequently mentioned. People like to be healthy. Companies are wary of communities that have neglected the environment because the companies can get hit with a severe tax bite when cleanup time arrives.
A moderate cost of living. Chaudier and Pearman write in Site Selection magazine that "a central feature of an acceptable quality of life is a cost of living that enriches the life-styles of employees and their families."
A manageable crime rate. People like to be safe.
Sound schools. They're good for the kids. They can also be an indicator of work-force quality and trainability.
A nonextreme climate.
Recreational facilities and other amenities, such as museums and symphony orchestras, colleges and universities.
The problem isn't naming the qualities. The problem comes when you try to measure them.
"We know the variables," Virginia Tech economist Tom Johnson said, "but the weightings are subjective."
For that reason, he said, there is no standard quality-of-life index that can be applied to every community. When a company is looking for a home, it has to base its decision on its specific needs.
"It's a nebulous factor," said Larry Moretti, a principal with PHH Fantus Consulting, a Chicago-based firm that helps job-hungry localities and footloose industries find each other all over the globe.
His firm studies pertinent data when assessing potential locations, Moretti said, but also relies heavily on "empirical observation."
"The numbers don't tell the whole story," he said. "It's sort of a feel."
Perhaps Jeff Finkle comes closest to a generic definition of quality of life:
"You know it when you see it," he said.
by CNB