01-19-2010, 09:32 AM
quote:Indeed, and that's why in my last job whenever citizens raised issues of 'economic development’ I had them narrow down the definition in their minds. Is it jobs? Is it tax revenue? Is it commerce? Is it development? What?
Originally posted by mdd7000
BobOrts, Many people decry Wal-Mart as evil, but surrounding every one of their stores are dozens of other, smaller stores that also employ people, provide needed goods and services and provide tax revenue.
One of the greatest challenges was trying to educate the public that when they talk about opening and closing doors for whatever reason, they need to fully understand that when a door opens, what comes in may not be what they wanted, and when they close doors, what is kept out may be what they wanted to come in.
Of course we can’t forget that people often don’t know what they really want or don’t want. Here on the mainland, in 2001 a community was opposed to a private company coming in. They had meetings and rallies against them when they heard the community was in consideration for a location to operate. "It would destroy the flavor of the community". The community was told, at that time, that this was a benign operation that wouldn’t really impact anything. But, they couldn’t see anything but their own fabricated misunderstanding.
Today, they are begging the company to come and operate. Now the community wants the jobs and tax revenue of that project. But, some other community is about to enjoy the fruits of their welcome wagon with 450+ jobs and over $51,000,000 of positive economic impact to the community.