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Economy Watch
Sunday, July 31, 2005 Here are the articles on the economy from last week: Revaluation will barely dent US trade with China U.S. economy kept growing solidly Economy grows at a strong pace Economy kept growing solidly in Q2 Business groups unite to command more attention for math, science Vital Signs for the Week of Aug. 1 Tracking Tech's Turned Tide Bush's high-tech report card Greenspan says further interest rate rises will keep economy on solid footing Two Steps Forward, One Back? posted by Ed | Incentive Watch Here are some of the articles on incentives from last week. The big news of the week came in North Carolina's deal for a Dole food processing plant. Read more. The Office Max headquareters decision is pitting Ohio against Illinois. Here's how two mayors in in Northeast Ohio see the challenge. Read more. Here's the view from Illinois. The Alabama legislature is moving to provide new incentives for Huntsville's biotech strategy. Read more. Officials in Luzerne County, Pennsyulvania are proud of the way they have reworked their local incentive programs. Read more. Pennsylvania has attracted a call center with a $5.5 million incentive package for 330 jobs ($16,700 per job). Read more. Mississippi officials aren't talking yet about incentives for a nuclear power plant. Read more. Missouri legislators are looking to tighten up their TIF program. Read more. Meanwhile,legislation in Texas to enable incentives to flow to retailers goes into effect September 1. Read more. posted by Ed | Huntington County, Indiana: entrepreneurship center Here's another example of how local colleges and universities are helping to build their local economies. Huntington University has created a new entrepreneurship center designed to accelerate business development in Huntington County, Indiana. Read more. posted by Ed | Cooperating in land use Reducing brain drain the represents one of the major challenges for communities on a low growth path. Regional economies with low or declining population growth face difficult challenges in building their economies. It's not unlike riding a bicycle. As a bicycle slows down, keeping your balance becomes harder. One strategy that makes sense is to improve the physical development of the slow-growing economies. Creating quality, connected places represents an important step that many communities can take to make their regional economy attractive. Meeting this challenge often requires an unprecedented level of local cooperation. Physical development patterns quickly cross local political jurisdictions. Zoning often becomes one of the first challenges the region's face in building stronger collaboration. Here's an example of how local leaders are confronting this challenge in Terre Haute, Indiana. Read more. posted by Ed | Building new options for ex-prisoners Economic development professionals in urban areas often face a serious challenge of finding new employment for people coming out of prison. In recent years, our prison population has exploded with the widespread adoption of mandatory sentencing. This incarceration policy creates an economic development problem on the other end of the pipeline. Here's a good example of what Oakland, California is trying to do to reintegrate its former prisoners into the local economy. Read more. posted by Ed | Nanotechnology in eastern Tennessee Eastern Tennessee understands the challenges of competing in the global economy. Civic leaders in eastern Tennessee have been moving the regional economy toward innovation. Here's an example of what is happening in nanotechnology. Read more. posted by Ed | Creating prosperity with local foods The development of local foods represents another trend that is emerging in economic development. Here's a good example from Pennsylvania. Read more. In Huntington, West Virginia, economic developers are focusing on a new kitchen incubator. Read more. posted by Ed | Economic prosperity and environmental sustainability The older industrial mindset of economic development focused exclusively on costs. Not surprisingly, this way of thinking placed environmental concerns in opposition to economic growth. Now, however, a new paradigm is emerging that sees environmental sustainability as one important dimension of competitive businesses. A new report by the Environment and Business Roundtable, a group based in South Carolina, outlines how local economies benefit when manufacturers efficiently manage energy use. Read more. This new perspective underscores the new last week's announcement by Purdue of a new center on the environment. The focal point of the new center is to connect environmental science with people interested in business development. Read more. posted by Ed | Regional cooperation: Arkansas and Missouri Regional cooperation is starting to emerge along the border of Arkansas and Southwest Missouri. Civic leaders are moving forward with an agenda to identify the issues that drive economic prosperity across state lines. Here's an update of their progress. Read more. posted by Ed | The coming challenge: Weak workforce skills Weak workforce skills represents the riptide that will pull down a number of regional economies in the coming years. With the retirement of the baby boom generation, we are facing growing shortages of work skills. Here's a good commentary that explores the issue. Read more. posted by Ed | New metro? Connecting Lincoln and Omaha Civic leaders in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska are coming to him realization that cooperation 80s. Civic leaders are lobbying the federal government to create a new metropolitan region by combining the two cities. Read more. posted by Ed | Shifting global cost dynamics: The Maquila industry Twenty years ago I got into the economic development business after serving as a consultant to large multinational companies, like General Electric, Ford and Volvo. During my time as they corporate strategy consultants, I spent a lot of effort understanding how global manufacturing has been evolving. A number of these projects led me to recommend the closure of manufacturing facilities in United States and moving these facilities to lower-cost countries like Mexico. (I moved into economic development when I realized that commmunity leaders did not understand these trends.) These cost dynamics are still in play. Here's a good article on how global cost pressures are shaping the prospects or manufacturing facilities located along the US worker with Mexico. Read more. posted by Ed | Maryland's evolving innovation economy Maryland represents another state that is moving its colleges and universities toward the center of economic development strategy. The Maryland Industrial Partnership initiative accelerates the development of connections between research intensive businesses and university faculty. The program is structured in such a way that leverages private investment. About 65% of the investment in the program is coming from the private companies. Read more. Maryland has been turing to incubators as another stregy to link research to business dervelopment. Read more. In another direction, the University of Maryland is running a summer camp to train high school entrepreneurs. Read more. posted by Ed | Pittsburgh's efforts to reinvent itself With the exception of Chicago, major industrial cities in the Midwest are facing serious economic challenges. Older industrial cities, like Detroit, Toledo, Youngstown, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh are all trying to find pathways to new prosperity. Among the cities, Pittsburgh stands out as a place that is experimenting with a variety of new economic development arrangements. In particular, civic leaders in the region have long understood the importance of research universities to their new economic development strategy. Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh are collaborating for variety of different ways. Here's a good example of what Carnegie Mellon is doing to accelerate the move toward a more knowledge-based businesses. Read more. The state is accelerating its development by encouraging the formation of Innovation Zones around colleges and universities. Read more. (Here is an example of what is happening around the Penn State campus. Read more.) Innovation Works is another example of a new economic development initiative designed to build these knowledge-based businesses. Read more. posted by Ed | Resource: Check the popularity of your governor This site provides recent data on approval ratings for governors. I came across this site while I was doing some background research on the Third Frontier initiative in Ohio. I learned that our governor has a 17% approval rating. This is perhaps the lowest rating I've ever seen in 20 years of looking at tracking polls. The weak political position of Governor Taft in Ohio will likely hamper his effort convince Ohio voters to pass the Third Frontier program. Governor Taft has been trying to get this issue on the ballot in November, but he faces significant opposition from Democratic legislators, as well as political leaders within his own party. As of yesterday, though, legislative leaders struck a deal to put the project on the November ballot. Read more. The next step is for Ohio political and business leaders to step forward to try to pass this initiative (without putting Governor Taft on television). posted by Ed | 2Q VC investing For those of you want to keep track of venture capital investing, the most recent quarterly MoneyTree survey was released last week. The survey showed, among other things, that the New England states have slipped to third place in venture investing. Read more. posted by Ed | New roles for colleges and universities We are moving rapidly toward an economy in which knowledge and innovation drive prosperity. As a consequence, colleges and universities are playing a new role in economic development. Some colleges and universities have moved aggressively to reshape the connections with surrounding communities. At the same time, civic leaders are looking to colleges and universities to become a major players in economic development strategy. Here's a good article the reviews these trends. Read more. posted by Ed | Finding common ground in Mobile County Last week, Jay Garner, a loyal reader of this weblog, delivered a sobering assessment to executives in Mobile County, Alabama. The study itself is not without controversy. While I'm not sure that this is what is happening in Mobile County, the symptoms appear ominous. Until the county leaders can learn to collaborate, solutions will be hard to come by. Read more. posted by Ed | Los Angeles mayor outlines development strategy The new mayor of Los Angeles has set out an ambitious economic development agenda to attract new investment to his city. The most interesting aspect of the plan comes in the tactic to identify key projects and provide a fast track to their completion. The plan points to a danger we often confront and economic development, however. It raises expectation about the success. Unfortunately, development projects in Los Angeles face numerous obstacles, from financing to the "Not in My Back Yard" opposition of residents. It will be interesting to see if the mayor can the fulfill the promise of his new direction. Read more. posted by Ed | Innovating in Indiana agriculture Innovation in agriculture and food production represents another strategy to build prosperity, especially in rural areas. Earlier this year, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture issued a strategic plan calling for the state to become a global center for food and agricultural innovation and commercialization. An impressive dimension of the plan comes in the report's call for strategies at the county level to increase income levels. Here's a good article that provides an overview of what Indiana is doing. Read more. posted by Ed | CAFTA passes on a narrow vote Thursday, July 28, 2005 The House of Representatives early today passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), after President Bush took the unusual step of going to Capitol Hill to round up votes. Read the press coverage: Narrow approval for trade pact: San Jose Mercury News CAFTA wins vote in House: Chicago Tribune House approves Central American trade pact: New York Times Latin trade pact wins US backing: BBC House passes CAFTA to give Bush big win: Miami Herald Trade pact passes by 2 votes: Associated Press US House passes Central American trade pact:Reuters Two votes endorse US free trade agreement: The Age: Australia posted by Ed | Economy Watch Monday, July 25, 2005 Here are the articles that will help you keep up with the ecoomy. Greenspan Era's Few Downturns Fuel Spending Spree, Less Saving Oil, earnings and GDP may trip stocks Layoff news may signal trouble ahead Fed Minutes Suggest Policy Makers Had `Lively Debate' on Rates Jobless Claims Post Biggest Dip in 2 1/2 Years Greenspan warns good times won't last forever posted by Ed | Resource: Links from the SBA The Small Business Administration issued a press release last week that provides some useful links for small business assistance. You can read bout them here. posted by Ed | Finding the creative class in the Rocky Mountain West In an interesting article, Patrick Holmes, program coordinator for the State of the Rockies Project at Colorado College, highlights the limits of popular theory about "creatives". The creative class tends not to be concentrated in the metro areas of the Rocky Mountain West. Instead, creatives are clusterring in smaller locations outside the urban core. Read more. posted by Ed | Retirees in rural economies Here's an interesting commentary on the role of retirees in rural economies. Read more. posted by Ed | Summer travels Summer is the time for international travel. Here's what some governors have been up to. Perdue to lead trade mission to Israel Indiana trade mission sets Asia goals Richardson to travel to Japan Granholm set to leave for investment mission to Japan Blanco to visit China and Taiwan on economic trip Fletcher encourages Ky. firms to join Chile trade mission Maryland partners with Israel for research funding posted by Ed | Don't try this at home First of all, if you are a mayor, don't hire your son to do the town's web site. Next, if you hire your son, make sure he keeps his cool when the heat turns up. Learn more: Mayor’s son apologizes, returns village’s Web site. Read the son's apology here. posted by Ed | Webcasts about foreign markets Kentucky has an interesting approach to introducing new international markets to its business community: A webcast. Here is one about doing business with Chile. Learn more. posted by Ed | Job training and economic development A Washignton conference on the Tennessee Valley Corridor (which touches parts of Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and Virginia) concluded that job training is a central issue for economic development in the region. An interesting quote came from Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the nonpartisan private Council on Competitiveness. She cited estimates that the country is spending $20 billion on work-force training for jobs that will never exist or are disappearing. "Most of the country is totally disconnected" on training for long-term, real jobs. Read more. posted by Ed | Nanotech in Knoxville-Oak Ridge The Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley is gaining steam as a center for nanoscale research. Nanotechnology represents an important emerging area with strong growth prospects. If you would liek to learn more about nanotech, read The Next Big Thing is Really Small. You can also visit the Small Times web site. Learn more about what is happening in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge region. posted by Ed | Don't try this at home Corruption and economic development do not mix. Last week, newspapers in Cleveland revealed a federal probe into the city's activities under the former mayor. The administration of former Mayor Mike White allegedly engaged in a widespread extortion scheme. Read more. After an effective turnaround starting in the early 1980's under Mayor Voinovich, the city began to stall in the 1990's under Mayor White. Now we can see why. Bureaucratic corruption undercuts economic growth. This issues has been explored in far more detail in international economic development. See, for example, a recent commentary on the impact of corruption on sub-Saharan Africa. Read more. Transparaency International represents one organization focused on addressing issues of corruption. Corruption is generally understood by civic leaders operating in a regional economy infected by these practices. People know what is going on. While the facts may not rise to the level of a newspaper report, suspicions about shady business practices circulate just below the surface. That is certainly true in Cleveland, where rumors concerning Mayor White's administration have been circulating for years. In my experience, corruption generally appears when the civic leadership of the business community is weak, apathetic or compromised. Unethical political leaders can then operate their schemes with little regard for the long term consequences. posted by Ed | Measuring public opinion on regionalism Here's an interesting question: Do public opinion polls matter and economic development? Both Tallahassee, Florida and Northeast Ohio have recently conducted public opinion polls on regionalism. Aside from giving civic leaders a little courage to pursue regional initaitives, I'm not clear on the value of these efforts. Regional initiatives start with civic leadership. Sometimes a poll can help clarify a sense of direction, but they rarely provide insights into what to do and how to do it. Here's what they found in Tallahassee. Read more. Here's what they found in Northeast Ohio. Read more. posted by Ed | Developing economies with local food The local food movement is growing. This strategy represents an effort by entrepreneurs to focus on the locally grown products. The strategy encourages rural entrepreneurs to focus on the value-added agriculture to improve their local economies. Read more. posted by Ed | The competition between Savanna and Charleston For a number of years, Savanna and Charleston have been engaged in a heated rivalry over warehouse development. This competition is tied to the operation of the ports at Savanna and Charleston. Read more about what has been happening. posted by Ed | Funding for AdvanceSC Last year, Duke Power launched AdvanceSC, an initiative to accelerate economic development in South Carolina. Last week, Duke Power announced that AdvanceSC will commit $2.7 million to its initiatives. Among the four programs operating under the AdvanceSC umbrella, the Manufacturing Competitiveness Fund encourages companies to continue to make manufacturing investments in the state. Read more. posted by Ed | Columbus, OH considers new ED group Business leaders in Columbus, Ohio are launching a new entity to improve that region's economic development effort. This fall, they will announce CompeteColumbus, a joint venture of the Columbus Partnership and the Columbus Chamber. The establishment of a new group raises significant questions about the ongoing active economic development effort of the chamber and the Columbus Partnership. Read more. posted by Ed | Managing sprawl in the Atlanta metro Sprawl is a major problem a the outlying counties of Atlanta. In a recent series of articles, a newspaper in Gwinnett County explores the possibility of using Fairfax County in Virginia and Montgomery County in Maryland as models for managing growth. The articles include the following: High density antidote for sprawl in D.C. ’burbs Washington-area counties pursue mix of roads, rail Road and transit plans now will pay off in future posted by Ed | Building a hydrogen fuel cluster in Columbia, SC The mayor of Columbia, South Carolina has set a target of $1 million a year to attract companies involved in hydrogen fuel research. This initiative is closely associated with the University of South Carolina and its new research campus in downtown Columbia. According to the mayor, a "new mindset" is needed if the city, the university, and its partners are to implement a successful hydrogen fuel cell technology initiative. Read more. The hydrogen fuel economy is no slam dunk. There are plenty of sceptics. Read more posted by Ed | Big semiconductor partnership in New York In a major coalition, for the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers are joining with New York State to invest over $600 million in an initiative to design the next generation microchips. This collaboration marks a major milestone in the transition of upper New York State's economy. Research work will take place at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany. Overall, the new project will involve over 500 researchers, engineers, and other technical workers. Read more. posted by Ed | Controlling eminent domain The recent decision by the US Supreme Court to expand the power of eminent domain has triggered a reaction in a number of states. State politicians have introduced initiatives to curb the power of local governments to condemn land. Read more. posted by Ed | The continuing transition in Pittsburgh Pittsburgh is one region that has made a concerted effort to move away from its aging industrial base. The transition has not been easy. Despite some innovative real estate development, office vacancy rates continue to be stubbornly low. Here is a good review of what has been happening in physical development. Read more. At the same time, Pittsburgh has been making important strides in developing a technology-based economic development strategy. In a recent statement, the director of the National Science Foundation points out: "In almost all of the emerging technologies -- biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology -- Pittsburgh is near the top of the list." Reaad more. posted by Ed | Help define the future of EDPro Weblog Monday, July 18, 2005 Please spend about five minutes and give me some insights into how I can improve EDPro Weblog. It's a small price to pay for what you get each week. Start now. Thank you to all those who have helped us out! posted by Ed | Economy Watch Here are some good articles on the economy from last week. Inflationary Pressures Building in U.S. Economy, Survey Says Greenspan Speaks, Home Construction Gains: U.S. Economy Preview THE ECONOMY: Highly educated in the U.S. smaller part of world pie? Vital Signs for the Week of July 18 U.S. Economy Continues To Expand--For Now posted by Ed | Incentive Watch Here are the articles I came across last week on incentives. Tallahassee is putting a bunch of doughin the pot in an effort to attract a Montreal, Canada-based company to move its headquarters. Read more. A Georgia think tank says the state should invest in infrastructure and education, not tax incentives. Read more. Nebraska is rolling out more training support. Read more. Luzerne County, PA (around Wilkes Barre) has put together a new incentive package. Read more. posted by Ed | Building wi-fi in Michigan Sunday, July 17, 2005 Increasingly, wireless networks are becoming a critical part of an economic development strategy. In Michigan, local governments, especially in depressed areas, are moving to implement their own wireless networks. here are two articles taht give you an overview of what is happening in Michigan. Cities hope Wi-Fi will spur economy Battle brews over Wi-Fi posted by Ed | Invest in infrastructure and education, not incentives A new report from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute indicates that the state would be better off investing in education and infrastructure, rather than providing tax breaks to businesses. Read more. The report summarizes other work in the field. The report is not yet available on the Institute's web site. posted by Ed | Balancing growth in a high growth county Union County, North Carolina is located to the southeast of Charlotte within the metropolitan region. The county is growing extremely fast. The estimated population in 2004 was 154,000 people. That's an increase of 24% from the 2000 census. Here's a good article on the challenges of balancing residential and business development within the county. Read more. posted by Ed | Helping inventors Here's an interesting article from a small paper in Missouri. Increasingly, economic developers will be confronting the challenge of helping local entrepreneurs and inventors get their ideas to market. This article provides a good background that you can share with others. It illustrates how a small idea can be translated into a significant business opportunity. Read more. posted by Ed | An energy overlay zone Here's an example of how a zoning ordinance can be used to stimulate economic development. In a rural county in Washington state, county officials have established an energy overlay zone. The zone is designed to expedite the development of renewable energy, particularly wind power. According to wind power developers, this ordinance represents the first such overlay district in the country. Read more. posted by Ed | Value added agriculture Agriculture is shifting. Increasingly, we are seeing the development of value added farm production in rural counties. Here is a good example from Kansas. Read more. Here's another example from Oregon. Read more. posted by Ed | Recruiting retirees More and more communities are understanding that attracting retirees provides the same economic impact as factory jobs. According to recent research, the average retiree household brings with them $370,000 in assets and $41,000 in annual income. They focus their spending locally. Unlike unlike young families, retirees pay more in taxes than they receive in services. Additional research has indicated that 2.75 jobs are created within with each new retiree household. The economic impact of a retiree household is the same as 3.7 factory jobs. Read more. posted by Ed | Building downtowns in Louisiana In Louisiana, a number of downtown districts are improving their competitive position. Many of these city centers have suffered from the migration of businesses to the suburbs. Read more about what is happening in Louisiana. Here's a good story of the difficulties of rebuilding downtown Houma. Read more posted by Ed | Maryland's focus on incubators For the past several years, Maryland has been focusing its economic development strategy on translating research into commercial businesses. So, EDPros in the state are focusing on incubtaors. In Montgomery County, for example, the county executive released a report earlier this year indicating indicating that the county could increase annual job growth by more than 40% by 2020 through a strategy of establishing substantially more business incubators. Read more. Here's some background on the incubator report. Read more. posted by Ed | Investing in brainpower Missouri has launched a promising $4 million dollar pilot program to provide low income students with some limited loan forgiveness for their higher education expenses. In the coming years, we will see more states recognizing that improvements in higher education financing will be important economic development investments. Read more. posted by Ed | Creating a vision and a direction in a small county Economic development professionals in smaller communities may be interested in in an effort to develop a long-term strategy for Cowley County, Kansas. The key to these type of efforts is to translate ideas into action. So, the challenge will be identifying specific initiatives that the county's residents can implement. Read more. posted by Ed | Selling CAFTA in North Carolina The Central American Free Trade Agreement is pending before Congress. President Bush spent some time in the past week trying to promote the new trade agreement in a North Carolina. Workers, understandably, are skeptical that this trade agreement will boost their economy. The trade agreement passed the Senate with the support of North Carolina's two senators. In the coming weeks the House will consider the measure. Read more. posted by Ed | Resource: Job prospects in IT Offshore sourcing of information technology workers has dominated the headlines of the business press. Now, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, indicates that many regions of US have a bright future in offering information technology jobs, particularly for low wage workers entering the field. According to the report's author, "The major finding is that you can get into the IT to work, you're going to have incredible wage gains -- up to a 50% increase in wages or just three years. I think it's the key to upward mobility". Read more. You can download a copy of the report from this page. posted by Ed | Michigan reorganizes MEDC Michigan has reorganized its economic development agency. Done Jakeway has stepped aside and will assume a new position within the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Read more. posted by Ed | Illinois confronting nursing shortages Nursing shortages are cropping up in regions all over the country. Within the past month, Illinois has taken steps to expand the nursing training programs. The Governor's Critical Skills Shortage Initiative represents a grassroots effort to strengthen local health-care businesses by building a bigger pipeline of trained nurses. Read more. posted by Ed | Lafayette's manufacturing rtraining progrqam In Lafayette, Indiana this city has launched a new manufacturing training program. The 2005 Manufacturing Fast Track program will provide free manufacturing training to residents who live in a particular downtown area of the city. Read more. posted by Ed | Michigan, Ontario and autos The recent decision by Toyota to expand operations in Ontario has triggered a set of articles outlining how Ontario is now surpassed has now surpassed Michigan as an auto manufacturing center. Here are some of the articles that appeared recently: Michigan faces challenge in vehicle output Ontario vs. Michigan at a glance Michigan grasping for every auto job in increasingly global race posted by Ed | Matching occupations and clusters In the Roanoke region of Virginia, economic developers are meeting with educators and workforce development professionals to match industry clusters with occupations. With the availability of more information over the Internet, this type of matching strategy will likely increase in the years ahead. Read more. posted by Ed | Entrepreneurial hotspots in smaller places Wednesday, July 13, 2005 Busienss Week has a special report on new locations for entrepreneurship...the emerging advantage of smaller places. Technology and connections are opening new options to smaller cities and towns. This factor is only one of the drivers that is changing the landscape of economic development. Read more. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Monday, July 11, 2005 Here are the news articles on the economy from last week: Vital Signs for the Week of July 11 U.S. 2-Year Treasuries May Fall as Fed Fights Housing `Froth' Housing markets pricing out middle class Changes loom for patent process in US, EU Consumer, Producer Prices Rose in June: U.S. Economy Preview U.S. Economy: June Jobless Rate Falls, Payrolls Rise posted by Ed | Indiana University defines its economic development role Sunday, July 10, 2005 Indiana University has issued a new report that recommends refocusing its campuses across the state. The report recommends that the university's campuses in Bloomington and Indianapolis focus on research. Meanwhile, the regional campuses around the state should serve as engines of economic development within their regions. Read more. You can download the report here. posted by Ed | Memphis faces serious work skills challenges A new report outlines the difficult challenges facing the Memphis Regional Chamber. According to the report, workers in the region lack the skills, education and motivation necessary to attract the type of companies that will increase relative incomes across the region. Read more posted by Ed | Speeding up permitting in Denver Denver's mayor has pledged to improve the permitting process for development projects within his city. According to a report released last week, slow permitting adds between 3% and 5% to the cost of a project. The report outlines how city government is fragmented with no one agency of government responsible for overall approval of projects. In addition, the City has no performance standards for establishing the time the issue permits. To deliver on this recommendations, the mayor established a 12 member development advisory board. Denver's approach may provide a good model for other cities to follow. Read more. posted by Ed | The airport proposal that won't die Some weeks ago, I wrote that the proposal for an air cargo airport in Louisiana appeared dead. I spoke too fast. After 13 years and millions of dollars spent investigating the proposal, the state is moving forward with yet another study. Read more. posted by Ed | Rural entrepreneurs The University of Nebraska has conducted a survey of rural residents in that state. The report outlines some interesting findings. It highlights how rural residents are interested in entrepreneurship and lifelong learning. In sum, the report underscores that rural areas in Nebraska have entrepreneurial assets on which to build. Read more. Meanwhile, in Missouri, rural towns are turning to entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy. Read more. posted by Ed | A vision for the Piedmont Triad The Piedmont Triad Partnership has released its final report on its economic development strategy. The report sets out a series of initiatives that the Partnership will pursue over the next four years. Read more. Download the report. posted by Ed | Two Research Triangle organizations merge Two organizations in the Research Triangle are merging. Triangle Tomorrow will become part of the Research Triangle Regional Partnership. The two organizations are focused on improving the quality of life in the region. Read more. posted by Ed | Senate passes CAFTA The U.S. Senate has passed to the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement now goes to the House. Read more. posted by Ed | Broadband fights spread to Congress The United States has relatively slow broadband deployment. Increasingly, municipal governments are getting involved in building a broadband networks. These moves create a friction with the larger telecommunications companies. Now, the fight appears to be moving toward Congress. Two senators have introduced legislation to stop states from prohibiting local governments in building broadband networks. Read more. posted by Ed | Eminent domain fallout Pressure is building in Congress to modify the Supreme Court's recent decision on eminent domain. Read more. Meanwhile, in Texas the governor wants the state legislature to also take steps to limit the use of eminent domain. Read more. There is increasing speculation that the Supreme Court's decision creates a broader avenue to development for "big box" retailers. Read more. posted by Ed | Michigan proposal to create investment fund for ED In Michigan, Republican leaders in the state legislature want to use future tobacco suit settlement proceeds to fund scholarships and invest in economic development. They propose to create securities from the flow of money coming from tobacco suit settlements. The proposal would generate a lump sum payment of $3 billion that would be used to invest in a variety of economic development programs. Read more about the plan. posted by Ed | Move over Dollywood Thursday, July 07, 2005 In an effort to create an entertainment destination, leaders in Roanoke Rapids have announced their plans for the entertainment district. "I get a lump in the bottom of my throat just thinking about it," said the mayor. Read more. posted by Ed | Tucson consolidates The Greater Tucson Economic Council has combined with the economic development effforts of the city and county to form a new entity, Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc. (TREO). The web site of the new organization is here. You can get some addditional information from this article. posted by Ed | Toyota Watch: New plant in Canada For those EDpros interested in Toyota's expansion plans in North America, you'll be interested in this announcemtn of a new assembly plant in Ontario. Read more. Toyota plans to build 100,000 cars a year. Here's an interesting article on how Ontario landed the deal. Read more. posted by Ed | Wind power on Cape Cod Oil prices hit over $61 a barrel this week, and that makes renewable energy projects look even better. Here's a good stroy of wind power on Cape Cod. Read more. posted by Ed | Ohio State's commercialization venture Here's another example of a research university moving to build its portfolio of technology-based economic development investments. Ohio State University is launchig a new venture, UMC Partners, to finance business ventures that would apply science and research from the university's medical center. Read more. UMC Partners is design to work along side OSU's Office of Technology Licensing. posted by Ed | Building a biotech cluster around Scripps In Florida's palm Beach County, civic leaders aro going ahead with their plans to build a "biotech hub" around the new Scripps facility. Two weeks ago, 300 people attended a conference on building a biotech cluster. Read more. posted by Ed | More on Cleveland in transition Joe Frolick, an editorial writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, wrote an appreciative column on my tenure at Case. Here's the link. posted by Ed | Building a regional brand Wednesday, July 06, 2005 When people start thinking about regional approaches to economic development, marketing is one of the first places they turn. It's ironic, because regional marketing is one of the toughest areas to pull off. First, there is a question of establishing "the brand". In many situation, regional branding efforts have been pulled apart by "logo wars". Organizations and communities have built "brand equity" that they often find difficult to give up. Second, once potential investors arrive in a region, they can only land in one place. Unless regional partners build remarkable trust, regional marketing efforts can fall on issues of "equity": how much each party puts in and how much each party gets back. Here are two regions that are starting out on the journey: eastern Tennessee and southeastern Wisconsin posted by Ed | The strategic importance of research universities Colleges and universities are playing an increasingly important role in building knowledge-based clusters. Michigan has focused its policy on building Smart Zones around the state's campuses. (Pennsylvania has a similar program, called Keystone Innovation Zones and New Jersey's legislature is considering similar legislation. Read more.) Here's a good update on what is happening in Michigan. Read more. posted by Ed | |
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