Due to an oh-so-delightful trip to the dentist (man, they sure have come up with some new tools since the George Herbert Walker Bush administration…) and other responsibilities, I didn’t manage to crank out a new Daily Journal. However, as convention-center boondoggles are in the news, again, I thought you mind enjoy this offering from 2005. Back tomorrow afresh, with post-New Hampshire musings.

RALEIGH – I’ve got an idea for rejuvenating urban communities across North Carolina: use tax dollars to offer cash grants to smiths to move their operations downtown.

No, I don’t mean The Smiths. They disbanded in 1987, a tragic event that made Morrissey a soloist and thus further eroded the basis of Western civilization. Nor am I referring to the universe of persons resembling Dr. Zachary Smith, the assemblage of which in a central location would almost certainly knock us way off course and get us lost. The pain, the pain – it would be too intense.

I’m talking about smiths. You know, blacksmiths. Bear with me. I think I’ve forged a pretty solid argument here.

As you know, blacksmiths may be small businesses but they are indispensable in healthy local economies. People go to them for all sorts of reasons: to get their farming and mining tools fixed; to fashion swords, shields, and other armaments; and to convert unneeded plowshares, goblets, and spare hunks of metal into quick cash.

Perhaps most importantly for our purposes, blacksmiths are a critical part of the local transportation economy. Without them, it is difficult to sustain any business that relies on long-distance travel, daily transport of manufactured goods, or large-scale farming or ranching. How else are our horses to be shod on short notice by well-trained, dependent experts?

Thinking more creatively, North Carolina’s future as a major center for recreation and leisure – travel and tourism form our second-largest industry, you may have heard – depends on a thriving horse industry. Hunters, trappers, explorers, and other “heritage tourists” typically prefer to rent local horses rather than having to bring their own. Again, the demand for well-fitted shoes and other riding implements can only be met by a strong local smithery sector, a sector that can best be nurtured by fostering downtown districts that give potential buyers – whether end-use consumers or B-to-B purchasers – a convenient and easily promoted place to go.

It’s a mistake to let our blacksmith shops sprawl across the countryside the way they do now. For one thing, there’s all that horse dung. It would be more efficiently collected and disposed of if smiths were congregated in districts with well-regulated drainage systems. Besides, many neighborhood groups are complaining about the constant, metallic ringing and pounding, plus the occasional fire that breaks out from a poorly tended forge. And considering the widespread reports of blacksmiths’ anvils perched precariously over cliffs, roofs, and even doorways, it would be daffy not to seek better control over these dangerously heavy objects – and wily to do something now before the problem worsens and bugs us still more.

A program of low-interest loans or perhaps just straight-out cash grants to build downtown smithery districts would more than pay for itself as related businesses locate nearby and drive up property values and sales-tax revenues. I’ve found an economist who swears that every dollar invested will return nine dollars . . .

What’s that? No, I’ve never heard of the internal-congestion engine. Oh, combustion engine. Hmm. All right, here’s another idea: let’s build a bunch of new downtown convention centers to help North Carolina capture more of that lucrative trade show and convention business I’ve been hearing so much about.

What’s that? No, I hadn’t heard that the convention business is in a steep decline and that it makes no sense to invest tax dollars in it. All right, here’s another idea . . .

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.