The numbers ought to halt your coffee cup's rise in midair: The coming drawdown at Grand Forks Air Force Base could end 650 to 950 to 1,000 indirect jobs, plus 800 to 1,200 jobs lost on the base itself. That adds up to a regional loss of $38 million to $56 million a year, a base realignment impact panel last week declared.

But go ahead and keep sipping your brew, because all is not lost. For one thing, Grand Forks and the region can act in the short term to keep growing the economy; one such action item is below.

For another thing, this isn't your father's Grand Forks, where grounding of an Air Force missile wing in the 1990s hit the economy like a fragmentation warhead. Today, the regional economy has diversified and is positioned for more growth.

As a new report on the rural Midwest's economy says, “In many ways, the American Heartland today boasts better prospects than at any time since the early 20th century...”

The report is by Joel Kotkin, a nationally known, California-based writer and consultant on social trends and economic growth, and Delore Zimmerman, president of CEO Praxis, Inc., in Grand Forks. CEO Praxis is a consulting firm that specializes in stimulating tech-based economic growth.

You can read the report at www.ceopraxis.com, and it's well worth doing so. The report weaves demographic and other trends into a tapestry depicting a thriving and prosperous upper Midwest. The trends include America's energy needs; the growing appeal of college towns and other small cities; the farsighted leadership of people such as Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., whose Red River Valley Research Corridor is pulling in millions of dollars in federal grants; the region's good schools, safe streets and competent work force, and technology's role in linking workplaces around the globe.

The portrait that emerges shows a region enjoying steady, healthy growth - the opposite of a gloomy Buffalo Commons prognosis.

Which future would you prefer? If you answered Kotkin and Zimmerman's, then let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.

For the complete article, please visit the Grand Forks Herald website.