Articles

The boundaries of economic development are shifting.

The increasingly important role of young professionals in a regional economy represents a prime example. In the past, young professionals had almost no voice in a region's economic development strategy.

Now, however, young professionals are playing an increasingly important role in providing leadership as the economy shifts toward a new set of important economic drivers: networks, creativity, innovation.

Here is an example from Chattanooga. The nonprofit organization CreateHere is pushing out the frontiers of economic development in that city. Read more.

Here's a good overview article on the current situation in US broadband. Among the key points:

• The US ranks 15th of 30 developed countries in broadband penetration

• 55 percent of adult Americans now had broadband at home, up from 47 percent last year,
  
• Only 38 percent of rural Americans homes and 25 percent of low-income Americans had broadband.

• The US lacks a strategic approach to improving broadband access and stimulating private investment.

Reead more.

Elgin, Illinois is in the midst of implementing a comprehensive retail strategy. The key components of the strategy are laid out in an article here. 

One of the key components of retail strategy is to identify where the "leakage" is taking place in your economy. Retail leakage takes place when consumers shop outside your community or region. The stragey involves identifying these leaks and providfing retail alternatieves, so they will shop inside your economy.

Reducing retail leakage accelerates the velocity of money in your economy and increases, in the economists' term,  your "multiplier".  (You can download a policy paper that explains multipliers from Cooperative Extension at the University of Nevada here.)

There is another important principle at work here. By plugging the leaks you have an opportunity to enhance the local character of your economy. Local, independent retailers  build the personality of your economy and create the unique character that can serve as a magnet for outsiders.

Arguably, local retailers also have stronger ties to the local economy and enhance the multiplier effect. (This topic is controversial, beacuse it often touches on locating, recruiting and giving incentives to "big box" retailers. Here are a couple of websites that explore the issue: here and here.)

To learn more about plugging the "leaks" in your economy, check out this website from the UK.

One of the ways to build a critical mass of civic leaders needed to transform an economy is to take them on a field trip. These leadership visits serve a number of important purposes. First, they build relationships among your leadership team. Second, they are a fast way to learn. Finally, leadership visits open new possibilities.

That is exactly what's happened in a recent leadership visit in which a group from Jackson, Mississippi traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas to gain some insights into how to transform a downtown.  Read more.

Ohio has placed some big bets on tax incentives to keep corporations in Ohio. The local Public Radio station in Cleveland explored the issue in a good radio show. EDPro Ron Kitchens, chief executive officer of Southwest Michigan First, participated in the discussion.

You can listen to the show here. You can download papers by Professor Chirinko here and here.

When it comes to deploying rural broadband, wireless is often the best  (and sometimes only) option. In these cases, regions need to look at their vertical assets: a list of towers, tall buildings, silos, smokestacks and steeples that can provide sites for antennas.

That's exactly what's taking place in Central Virginia, where a study is underway to identify these vertical assets. You can learn more about what's going on here.

To me, Richard Florida's promise has never quite connected up with this practice. In other words, it's particularly difficult to apply his ideas. In addition, Florida seems to repackage a variety of ideas from people like Jane Jacobs, Peter Drucker, Charles Landry and others, without appropriate acknowledgement. (This risk is faced by any great popularizer; I once worked for Robert Reich, and Bob periodically faced criticism for borrowing ideas to liberally.)

Yet, in a complex world, Florida offers some relatively simple formulas, and that, I suppose, is the key to his popularity. Yet, if when I want some more practical quidance, I turn to organizations like Partners for Livable Communities and Charles Landry's books, The Creative City, The Art of City Making and The Intercultural City.

Here's a thoughtful critique out of Canada on Florida's work and his most recent book. Read more.

In Southern Illinois, Benton and West Frankfort are only 8 miles apart. Yet they do not collaborate on economic development. Until now. The possibility of a new fiber-optic network is expanding the opportunities to collaborate between these two small Illinois communities.

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And that's the point. When you're trying to build collaboration, focus on a handful of different opportunities. Push for some results as quickly as possible. Regional collaboration sounds great in theory, but it only works in practice.

If you're interested in learning more about broadband deployment in rural communities, you might want to check out the ConnectSI website here.

You can read more about the collaboration emerging in Southern Illinois from this article.

The head of Wisconsin's Technology Council offers some useful insights into how rural areas can shift their economic development strategies. Among his suggestions:

• Promote farmshoring (a concept developed by Virginia Tech. There's more background here, here and here);
• Encourage more collaboration among educational institutions on workforce development (always a good idea); and
  
• Improve broadband (another common sense strategy).
  

Missing from the list: Building stronger, networks to support entrepreneurs and fast growth "stage 2" companies...And stronger emphasis on education innovations in STEM education and project-based learning.(As we head into chronic skill shortages, companies will be looking for communities that innovate in education.)

I'd bag the tax incentives. They do not work all that well in most cases, and tax expenditures are extremely hard to measure for effectiveness.

Read more.

The University of Wisconsin -- Madison is launching a new urban research park. The facility will be located in an "edgy" part of town with connections to a fiber optic network.

This story highlights the growing role universities are playing in urban regenertion.The story also underscores the growing importnace of recent college graduates in building high growth companies. Two of the recent start-up businesses cited in the article have a total of thirty employees.

Read more.

Young professionals are helping to rebrand older industrial cities. Here's a New York Times article that explains the trend.

Read more.

One of my favorite examples of this movement is taking place in Youngstwon, OH, where young professionals are changing the economic development cliomate in the region.

"Thinkers and Drinkers" is one of the regular civic meetings they hold to discuss critical opportunities to revitalize Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

You can read more on three of the blogs that have emerged as the new voices of Youngstown:

Defend Youngstown

I Will Shout Youngstown

Youngstown Renaissance

Young, creative and innovative professionals are bringing back these cities.

Here's an interesting article on the impact of higher fuel prices on globalization.

Cheap oil, the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages...The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the United States has risen to $8,000, compared with $3,000 early in the decade, according to a recent study of transportation costs.

Read more.