Prognosticators of all stripes are busy writing articles and books intent on telling us what a post-Covid world will look like. This is a lot of effort aimed at the wrong goal. It assumes a post-Covid world will somehow materialize and that we will be forced to adapt to its rules and structures.

The question we should be asking ourselves is what do we want a post-Covid world to look like in Cape May County and what do we need to do to bring about that desired end?

Within a few weeks the summer season that drives the county’s economy will begin its decline into an ebbing shoulder season. Soon after it will enter the ghost months of winter when even a number of the permanent population of the county will head for other climes.

This year will be different in many ways. We didn’t have a normal summer season. The virus remains with us, giving us no idea when a post-virus world might begin. Our seasonal economy has taken a massive hit. Recovery will take time.

The economy of the county has seen some diversification in the last few years. Statistics show a modest growth in non-leisure and hospitality jobs year to year. Yet the economy is still largely a one-trick pony, a seasonal tourist-driven economy reliant on the number of summer shore season weeks for the revenues that must fuel the county for the year.

It is an economy largely reliant on small businesses that have been badly damaged by the pandemic. Some have closed their doors for good.

It is likely that the economic damage done by the pandemic will challenge us for a long time. As we rebuild, are we seeking to restore or renovate?

Cape May County is a wonderful place to live. Much of it deserves to be restored as we come out from under the shadow of the pandemic. Yet it is also time to think about the changes we might want to make.

Before the virus made an appearance in the county, report after report showed year by year growth in the seasonal tourist economy. It was easy to become complacent and satisfied.

In the process the county aged and now sports the highest median age of any county in the state. Our population continues to shrink as we lose a number of our working families with children.

Second home sales increased leaving many of the island communities with less than one in five of their living units occupied by a permanent resident. A mismatch developed between the type of employment available to many working class families and the cost of housing.

School enrollment declined and so did the state funding for school districts. 13% of the county’s children live below the federal poverty line.

State unemployment statistics show the county at 20% unemployment at the end of June, a time of year when the rate is usually 5%.

 Forces we cannot control will surely impact how the county emerges from the pandemic. But we need not be passive players in the restoration process.

  We must remain deeply uncertain of what the pandemic will leave in its wake. Yet this is the time to consider the changes we might wish to see as part of the process of restoration.

Should sustainability and the battle against rising seas continue to one largely fought by individual municipalities? Should we seek a closer marriage between public education and workforce development? Do we need to more urgently address the question of affordable housing for the kinds of workers our economy demands? Should the taxes necessary to support the county’s needs be more broadly distributed? Does it continue to make sense to support 16 operating school districts and 11 municipal police departments? What investments should be made in the county’s economic future?

In short what’s the plan? It cannot be for taxing entities to raise taxes on an already beleaguered citizenry, in order to address their problems.

This county needs a planning process with broad public participation. It is a process that requires access to current data rather than the outdated reports and statistics available now on the county planning website.

We will have no choice but to rebuild our economy. A lot of the energy for that will come from individuals in the marketplace. Some of it must be driven by a shared community vision.

Source; capemaycountyherald