Death by study and development.
We have a lot of committees, we have a lot of plans. We have a lot of people doing economic development, but don’t seem to be developing economically.
What to do?
The County spent good money on a bad idea. Had they asked the community first, they would have heard that we don’t want to spend millions to add to sprawl, but they spent it anyway- $150K down the drain:
Montgomery County paid $150,000 to Threesixty Architecture of Columbus for a feasibility study of a proposed 6,900 seat hockey arena and events center at the I-75 interchange that will be built this year at Austin Pike on the county’s southern border.
The Dayton Business Journal had two tables of how much and who we spend money on economic development annually as a region in their Feb 12 09 issue:
The top 12 area economic development departments have operating budgets of $8.53 mill, employ 40 people making decent money.
The top12 Economic development groups (non-municipality attached) have operating budgets of $19.5 mill and employ another 70.
Just imagine if that $28.03 million was spent on providing public amenities to all- from ice rinks to velodromes to BMX facilities to libraries, livable and walkable communities, and high-speed fiber based Internet instead- luring business with a great, affordable quality of life?
That’s economic development.
Repeat after me.
“Makes too much sense.”
That’s somewhat sickening.
I so so agree with you about developmental studies. And studies. And studies to study the studies. It effectively hog ties progress. And I understand the need for responsible spending, and we don’t want to blindly jump into something without documentation that it’s worthwhile, but it’s 2009. Let’s find more efficient ways to do this, already.
Anoother term:
Analyses Paralyses
“Just imagine if that $28.03 million was spent on providing public amenities to all- from ice rinks to velodromes to BMX facilities to libraries, livable and walkable communities, and high-speed fiber based Internet instead- luring business with a great, affordable quality of life? That’s economic development.”
Just curious… who would be responsible for creating these projects, implementing these projects, and ensuring good results? Hint: The elected officials are not the ones drafting contracts, doing the paperwork, and measuring the outcomes.
Call it whatever you want, but if you cut all the employees there’s nobody left to do the real work. That’s “economic development” too.
To quote Obama:
“In each case, government didn’t supplant private enterprise; it catalyzed private enterprise. It created the conditions for thousands of entrepreneurs and new businesses to adapt and to thrive.”
@civilservant- Unfortunately, both our economic development types and the current administration both do more capitalizing of private enterprise instead of catalyzing it.
That’s what needs to stop.
I’m not saying that we cut civil servants- I’m just suggesting that we task them with tangible, real projects instead of as baiters of business with tax dollars.