Morton Marcus
In my kitchen are figs from Turkey, coffee and bananas from Columbia, grapes from Chile, apples from Washington state, and Greek yogurt from Canada.
We know California wines and Michigan blueberries, Georgia peaches and Idaho potatoes. Wisconsin cheese and Milwaukee beer.
What is Indiana known for? Generic commodities like steel, corn, soybeans, and auto parts. Even breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches and sugar crème pies are not unique to Indiana
Our annual Indianapolis 500 auto race has lost much of its legitimacy as a technological event. Now it survives degraded to a competition among personalities. It remains a draw for those who have never seen it or are extreme sentimentalists.
We’ve got the Mentone Egg which doesn’t match the appeal of The World’s Largest Toilet (Columbus). We’re not in the contest for the world’s largest ball of twine, but we do offer the world’s largest ball of paint (Alexandria).
However, Indiana will catch up now that our General Assembly has allocated some of its surplus millions for the Indiana Destination Development Corporation (IDDC).
To make Indiana a destination, the business sector must cooperate. Kentucky has its bourbon tour. We have an extraordinarily informative cow and pig tour (Fair Oaks).
How about an automotive tour package of stamping plants, parts factories, and assembly lines. As we enter the EV era, let’s see what’s different from the gasoline century.
Do our visually exciting steel mills offer regular tours for regular people? How about the housing industries from the commercial forest to the sawmills, the veneer plants, the home builders, the electric, electronic, plumbing, carpenters and other trades that give us our homes.
We’re known for RVs and manufactured homes. Elkhart County could have wonderful tours of those many and diverse facilities. Do these ubiquitous products carry a badge that proudly proclaims “Made in Indiana?“
The main streets of each town seeking new residents and enterprises must be among the best paved streets in the nation. IDDC should chip in money for paving streets everywhere with the wealthiest homes. Why not? If the rich cannot live well in a town, who else can?
Making more bicycle and walking paths is nice for slugs like me. But the longest, true hiking trail in the Midwest has been obstructed by Brown county officials and a few obdurate farmers.
Indiana once had a road map with the reverse side featuring our cities. Now they sell that space to commercial interests. True, we have our GPS to take us where we want to go. But what if we don’t know where we want to go?
We’re investing in interstate rest areas. Will our welcome centers compete with those of Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Kansas? Will we have attended information desks, staffed by knowledgeable, efficient people. Friendliness is cheap, competence is not.
Local Hoosier signage is missing or deplorable. That’s why we had a 1980s campaign suggesting “Wander Indiana,” because you’re bound to get lost.
If Indiana is going to compete for tourism and investment, we need to change our image by changing our reality. It’s time to erase the unwritten state slogan, “If you don’t know where you are, you don’t belong here!”
Mr. Marcus is an economist. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow him and John Guy on Who Gets What? wherever podcasts are available or at mortonjohn.libsyn.com.
