Shifting Economic Development Downtown
Not a day goes by when we don’t get bombarded with more talk of jobs, be it from politicians or the media. It seems that this is the single most important factor on which we must base all decisions. City, county, and state budgets are depleted, but we continue to allocate tax payer money to economic development strategies that have proved too costly and ineffective. Economic development has, for the most part, become a mechanism by which we redirect taxpayer money to out-of-town companies to relocate low-paying jobs. This is not development in any sense but a short-term political strategy that redistributes scarce community resources to those who need it the least. Revitalizing the nation’s urban centers and small town Main Streets is a strategy that can do much more to create strong, sustainable local economies at a fraction of the cost, while retaining and fostering local resources.