Lodestone Project
Tell us what you think

Sustain or self destruct

Lightning strikes.

It’s natural

It happens.

When it does, something new is left in its wake. A plain, ordinary piece of stone is transformed into an object that has almost magical properties. No one can really explain it, but they know the result; a plain rock becomes a magnet. An ordinary thing becomes more than ordinary.

The Lodestone Project appreciates the power of a natural magnet. It's the idea that an ordinary place can be more than ordinary in the right confluence of events and circumstances.

Fargo Moorhead is an ordinary place... that has the potential to be extraordinary.

What would it take to make lightning strike?

So why should I care?

Sustainability is the most reliable means to achieve a desired end. A Sustainable Fargo-Moorhead is a strong, growing community where resources are used efficiently and people have ample opportunities to thrive.

  • Just because Fargo-Moorhead is already a successful community doesn't mean the job is done. If we don't act, our community could be left behind.
  • Future population growth is not a foregone conclusion for Fargo-Moorhead. Demographic changes, loss and gain, will make our ability to be a "people magnet" of paramount importance. In other words, we have to be a place that people naturally want and choose to live.
  • You already do. You make sustainable decisions every day without even realizing it. Call it visioning, call it planning for retirement, call it what you want; it's sustainability.
  • Because it forces us to think about how we move forward and stay competitive.
  • Because it makes economic sense. Using your financial resources efficiently and getting the most value for you dollar is important to us personally and as a community.
  • Because you care about the world you are passing on to future generations. What kind of world do you want to leave for your kids or grandkids?

 

Why do we need population growth to survive?

The "Proof"

There is no community without an economy (or at least an economic host).

There is no economy without the necessary workforce.

You cannot have the necessary workforce without population growth.

  • population moving in = decline
  • Eventually, zero net in-migration and negative natural increase means the community will not exist.
  • population moving in = survive
    Community can survive with zero population growth…but will not do much more than that.
  • population moving in = thrive
    New people bring new skills and new ideas, helping make the community adaptable, find its place in a changing world, stay competitive and move forward.

Everybody is talking about it without talking about it. A framework of sustainability begins to weave together ideas coming from:

  • economic development
  • higher education
  • conservationists
  • healthcare/business professionals
  • non-profits
  • local government
  • people who live in this community