Friday, January 09, 2015

On Pillsbury: "Fine-grained" isn't just about bread any more.

As we contemplate the likelihood of Pillsbury closing its venerable plant on the North Side, the human element obviously is most important: These have been good union jobs for a long time, and now they may be going away. If so, it's going to hurt lots of families.

As Greater New Albany points out, there isn't a great deal we can do about this when the corporate decision-making process is not designed to take local needs into consideration. Employees and community alike have been cogs in a much larger and far less responsive machine.

“Everyone with a heart for the welfare of our citizens needs to educate themselves on what governments can and should do to create a sustainable business environment,” says Smith. “Sustainability through local ownership can help us avoid the worst effects of closures like the one at Pillsbury.”

What happens next, both short-term, and in the future?

The harsh reality is that we as a city typically offer subsidies, abatements and incentives to "create" industrial park jobs at the now customary non-union pay scales. In this sense, Pillsbury is an old-school anomaly, and because most of us understand this even if we don't speak of it aloud given the acceptance of an anti-union climate in Indiana, the Pillsbury closing strikes us as the end of an era.

What can we learn from it, in the sense of economic development? There's far too much to capture at a sitting, but in 2015, perhaps we can expand the dialogue and consider what we mean when we toss out phrases like "economic development."

When I asked him yesterday, JeffG recommended this article at Strong Towns as a good starting point. It is titled "Fine Grained."

Great cities are incubators of capitalism - where everyone has a fair chance to move up the economic ladder, not just the ones that started out at the top. How easy it for someone that likes cutting hair to open their own barber shop or salon? What does it take to start selling groceries in your area? What about some light manufacturing (such as making dolls or bird houses?)

Cities are the physical manifestation of the economy. A fine grained city represents a fine grained economy. Early American towns and cities have a lot of buildings and streets that are very fine grained - in that each building itself is narrow and small - and I can imagine that a century ago the average person within their lifetime could afford to buy a plot of land about 20 feet wide and open a shop or lease out the bottom while they lived upstairs ...

... There's a complex system of lenders, zoning and land use regulations, and cultural attitudes at play here, but we need to focus on becoming more fine grained. Creating a fine grained economy and fine grained urbanism run hand in hand with lowering the cost of entry - be it for starting a business or for developing property. By doing so, we will create an environment that better spreads the wealth that is created, will allow us all to become more prosperous, and gives everyone a fair chance at achieving the American Dream, not just those already born into it.

Jeff added these thoughts of his own.

The beginning gist: Spread the risk, spread the reward.

Though we tend to make a big deal of the big players, most jobs in the country come from very small businesses. If you spend money on infrastructure/education/etc. that positively impacts 100 businesses with two to four jobs each, that's 200 to 400 jobs. If half of them fail, you still have 100 to 200 jobs and spaces/places/skills that other locals and small investors can afford to take advantage off-- more realistic, constant, and sustainable regeneration. Lots of small biz can use a vacant 2,000 sq.ft. building on a street with lots of people traffic. What are they gonna do with 20,0000 sq.ft. in comparative isolation on the outskirts of town?

... Busy, dense places generate more personal and public revenue per square foot than do big, industrial park build outs.

What our current mayor might begin doing, and what future occupants must, is reformat the very nature of economic development.

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