SCAG Toolbox Tuesday: Economic Development for Planners

Economic Development for Planners

The purpose of this session will be to expose city planners and economic redevelopment staff throughout the region to a more holistic approach to economic development. A panel of expert consultants will discuss how planners, can think strategically about the kind of community their city has the potential of becoming, rather than looking at piecemeal tactics for revitalizing under-used parcels. The session will examine tools that are available to planners to develop a complete picture of their local community’s job base.

In addition, Bill Fulton will join the panel and discuss his new book ROMANCING THE SMOKESTACK: HOW CITIES AND STATES PURSUE PROSPERITY, a collection of economic development articles that covers these questions – and reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly about how economic development is practiced in the United States. A broad range of questions will be addressed, amongst them: how did Federal Express decide to locate at the Memphis Airport? Why is China also losing manufacturing jobs? Do artists really help turn around a struggling neighborhood? What should you do with a declining auto mall – save it or let it die and start over again? What’s better – subsidizing a business or subsidizing the infrastructure such a business requires? These are the kinds of questions that cities and states deal with all the time in their economic development.