Thanks to TF for this link:
D'Aprix Blog: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM NEEDS REPAIR
Note one of his keys to sustainable economic development:
Make sure the housing stock is in good shape. Re-allocate money for "luring" business to help folks fix up their homes. Economic Development people overlook this or see it as someone else's problem. Big mistake.
Anyone heard whether One Southern Indiana might be willing to commit funding to the revitalization of housing stock ... or should we develop a few more green fields, instead?
Daprix notes there are many different definitions of local economic development. I especially appreciate his emphasis on education and encouraging entrepreneuers.
ReplyDeleteSqueezing the property tax base to give tax breaks to the local businesses that are already succeeding (retention and expansion credits); bonding to support sprawl; etc; looks bizarre when your economic development office is sitting in the middle of an abandoned historic city core where anti-social uneducated morons roam the streets from crack-house to dive bar to slumlord rental. There must be something wrong with this picture?