Things were taking a hard turn for consulting firms by the time
I went to work in 1971. As part of the grant era, a devastating event occurred.
The state, through much grant funding, had established planning agencies, economic
agencies, and metro-planning agencies throughout the state. These were to
provide planning services for free or for reduced fees for cities and counties.
They would receive preferential treatment for planning grants under what was
known then simply as the “701 Program.”
The result? The day I went to work there were six planning
consulting firms in the Little Rock/North Little Rock metro area. By the end of
1971, there would be two. Those two would have to strive mightily for planning work
in the future.
As a result of this, the owners of our firm made two fateful
decisions. The first was to bring a professional engineer into the firm as a
full partner. The second was to pursue the original dream of pursuing land development.
It all sounded good on paper.
I wasn’t concerned. At worst, I was learning a trade. As the
year progressed, I spent most of my time working on two of the last urban
renewal projects scheduled for the state. One would be funded, the other only
partially and only after a massive reduction in scope.
These were gigantic undertakings requiring a grant application
nearly two inches of legal-sized paper thick. They handed me an old application
that had been funded and told me to modify and replicate one like it for a firm
in southwest Arkansas, a place called Hope.
I spent my days number crunching, studying census reports,
and directing the mapping required. Nights, I went to planning commission meetings
when one happened to be scheduled. Other nights I would read, or sometimes wander
down to some house on Riverside Drive where there might be music.
Weekends might find me going home to Pine Bluff or driving
up to Fayetteville to party with friends. I didn’t have a care in the world.
This all beat the hell out of the Navy, though I sometimes
missed its structured life where the future was fairly easy to predict and thoroughly
controlled by higher powers.
The new engineering partner took a little getting used to,
and that’s all I want to say on that subject.
We still had plenty of work, despite the cut in potential
created by the planning and development districts. Further, it was about this
time that I started being involved in one of the most heartbreaking phenomena
known in the design services industry.
This involved writing and presenting proposals for jobs, not grants, but jobs. Oh
my.
In the old days, cities and other public agencies simply
hired who they wanted to do such work as planning, engineering, or architecture. This, of course, suited the old-time firms well.
By the time I came along, some of the younger firms had raised enough
hell that the selection process became more formalized. It seemed like a good
idea and it sought to even the playing field. Additionally, though, it seemed
to bring out the worst in some people.
More about that tomorrow.
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| A lesson to be learned. |
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