Borough growth stats offer promise

The latest borough news is not really news at all. The Mat-Su community is still growing.

Anyone who has lived here for more than a few months doesn't need a state report to know this. Still, the most recent Department of Labor and Workforce Development statistics, released last month, tell a tale that, while generally familiar, contains some interesting specific numbers.

Among them:

€ Ten of the top 12 fastest growing regions of the state are in the Mat-Su Borough;

€ The single fastest growing region statewide is Knik-Fairview, with a 7.3 percent rate of annual growth;

€ If Knik-Fairview were to incorporate as its own city, it would be the fifth largest city in the state;

€ The median age of borough residents is 35, compared with a median statewide age of 33;

€ Per capita income in the borough is $29,376, compared with $34,000 statewide;

€ Median household income in the borough is $51,220, well above the national average of $41,994;

€ If Mat-Su were its own state, it would have the sixth highest average household income in the country.

The full state report can be found online at http://almis.labor.state.ak.us/?PAGEID=67&SUBID=115. It makes for good reading about this place we call home and offers some clues as to what the recent rapid and unprecedented development in the area might mean for the future.

For the present, like the housing subdivisions that are being carved out of forests and commercial operations that are sprouting up along the busier thoroughfares, growing pains are evident. In policy battles over new schools, construction standards and land use, questions of how to manage growth are becoming both more frequent and more urgent.

Of equal importance is learning how to sustain the growth in a way that has the potential to benefit everyone. How do we interact with each other socially and economically? Do we support local businesses? What do each of us do, individually, to make the Valley a better place to live and work?

In some ways, the borough's growth is akin to the passage from awkward youth to responsible adult. In this context, each policy debate becomes a lesson. How, and what, we learn from each lesson will determine much about the future we are in the process of making for ourselves and our children.