Duggins tells Redevelopment that Toyota got away.

Unintentionally (could it be otherwise?), Duggins may have stumbled upon the best economic development strategy yet: Allocate our scarce resources in New Albany to the encouragement of businesses that are fundamentally different from those seemingly predestined to fill River Ridge space, which enjoys numerous advantages and subsidies designed to please the oligarch class.

We have Iu Southeast and the Purdue Center. Tie them to incubators and entrepreneurs; adjust infrastructure to Speck proportions so as to attract potential workers; spread the investment (and the risk) among the many; and run with it.

The point is not being shovel ready. The point is to be idea ready. But in order for this shift to occur, the ruling class must be receptive to ideas, and not dependent on kickbacks from the shovels.

River Ridge may gain Toyota instead of New Albany, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

 ... While the talk updated New Albany Redevelopment Commission members on some potential improvements to the city, it also unveiled that Toyota won’t be constructing two 62,000 square-foot distribution facilities in Grant Line Industrial Park West.

Instead, Toyota may be headed to River Ridge Commerce Center in Clark County.

... David Duggins, director of economic development and redevelopment for New Albany, said Toyota has declined the Grant Line West site. During the redevelopment meeting, a city official referenced that Toyota would instead be opening a facility in River Ridge.

Following the meeting late Tuesday afternoon, Duggins declined to comment on whether Toyota is moving to River Ridge, but he did infer the company would be locating in the area.

“The most important thing is keeping those jobs in the region,” he said ...

 ... Duggins said the city continues to seek industries to occupy the industrial park, and will look to expand the site.

“It’s important for us to continue to the development there, and also to be shovel ready,” he said.

From industrial park coddling to New Economy Week.

According to the 'Bune and 'Bamagator newspaper, "Grant Line Industrial Park West is 'substantially complete' and the city is in the process of forming a marketing plan to attract businesses to the 40-acre site."

What follows is a lengthy explanation by the city's economic development director as to the eternal importance of fluffing the city-owned industrial parks through the usual abatements, inducements, enticements and smoky back room negotiations. This is good to know. If nothing else, it shows that the city concedes the usefulness of improving infrastructure when it comes to the sort of "good jobs" companies forming the basis of many decades of the same ol' economic development strategy.

By the way, has anyone seen a commensurate, detailed economic development plan to assist a revitalizing downtown? The sort embracing infrastructure improvements (i.e., the city-owned street grid) as a means of supporting the downtown revival?

No?

In my world, this constitutes a major problem.

What about yours?

On Facebook, Bluegill pointed this way:

"Luckily, more and more people are taking it upon themselves to shift the paradigm and the 'leaders', their antiquated party system, and the old rearguard, anachronistic squad on the whole are slowly becoming less relevant. They're not dying pretty and no one expected them to."

Here's his link:

Nobel Prize? Meet the Economic Movement That Really Deserves Praise

This week, the Nobel Prize for economics may have gone to three academics, but the real work of fixing our local economies was happening on the ground—as part of New Economy Week.

by Laura Flanders in YES! Magazine (linked at Common Dreams)

The winners of the so-called Nobel Prize for economics were announced this week, and what a peculiar pick: The three who will share the award this year sit on two diametrically opposed sides of their field’s most critical debate ...

 ... The same week that the pseudo-Nobels were announced, we saw a nationwide celebration of regular people diving into economics. This week was New Economy Week.