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A tug of war in Heppner in 2009.

(Bruce Ely/Staff)

By Bryan Dean Wright

This month's good news on unemployment -- the lowest rate since the 1970s -- hides the bad: Oregon's a great place to live, but only if you can afford it.

While wages are up 4.6 percent from this time last year, they're not even close to keeping pace with the cost of living. Home prices are a jaw-dropping 11 percent higher in the Portland area as compared to last year, with rents up nearly 14 percent. As more people move to our great state, they're perversely making it harder to make a decent living. And get through traffic.

As a local city planner lamented, "This is capitalism. How do you fight it?"

The answer? You don't. Instead, you encourage the development of new markets like rural Oregon.

In aging counties like mine, we need young people and their businesses. And while we share The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board's frustration over Salem's lack of attention and resources, we believe that other creative solutions can be found.

Where? I think South Dakota.

Faced with a dwindling rural population, political leaders in Pierre turned to a savvy recruiting tool -- DakotaRoots.com -- and related marketing campaign to recruit young workers. Their efforts paid off: More than 4,000 young people who had previously left the state came back.

Oregon may have different challenges but we need the same result: more people -- especially younger workers -- living in more affordable areas like our rural communities.

I propose that we create our own recruiting tool, leveraging our unique place in American history and pop culture. Let's call it "Oregon's Trail Home."

Here's how it would work: Oregonians -- or those that want to move to the Beaver State -- would be directed to a web tool that mirrors the spirit of the popular video game, "Oregon Trail." For those unaware, the vintage game sold over 65 million copies in the U.S., encouraging generations of children (now in their 20s and 30s) to assume the role of a wagon leader and to cross the vast plains of the Midwest to their final destination: Oregon City.

In this version, however, users would interact with a series of questions designed to sort and rank Oregon's cities to match their interests. For instance, users could be asked, "Your wagon breaks down and the oxen have vanished. You have to homestead on the spot. You pray that you're a) near the ocean; b) in the mountains, or c) in the parking lot of an artisanal cheese shop with locally sourced products."

At the end of the survey, users would be shown a personalized "Top 10" list of matching Oregon cities. For rural counties like mine, that might give us an opportunity to connect with people that would have otherwise never considered us. We could enlist our business owners and government leaders to engage in an aggressive lobbying effort to bring that young talent into our small towns.

As a former CIA officer, I propose this with a sober acknowledgement: Pendleton will never be Portland. But as Gov. Kate Brown highlighted recently, economic progress in Oregon is far too uneven; we simply can't leave our rural communities behind.

Perhaps it's fitting, then, that this old video game might serve as a bridge between the needs of a struggling rural Oregon and the young urban dwellers seeking cheaper alternatives. I fear that if we don't do something creative -- and quickly -- market forces will push this generation of talent beyond our reach, and that of an overpriced Oregon.

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Bryan Dean Wright lives in Heppner.