It would be a full-time job trying to discover how many millions of taxpayer dollars have gone down a rat hole in Durham over the past 30 years. Durham officials have a bad habit of ignoring economic realities when approached by hands-out citizens claiming they want to “promote small-business development.”

In Durham, though, most of the small businesses that need developing are operated by somebody’s friend, neighbor or crony. Market forces seem rarely to enter into the equation. One needs only to peruse the sad record of the Rolling Hills disaster to see what happens when consideration for markets are thrown aside in a headlong rush to spend taxpayers’ money on a boondoggle that makes people feel good. On the other side of the coin, promising projects, entirely privately funded, have been squelched due to the racial grievance that still lingers over the destruction of much of the Hayti district during the urban renewal binge of the ’60s.

The city fathers seem not to have learned from past mistakes. From The Herald-Sun:

City Council members appear likely to approve a $175,000 business-incentives deal that would help finance the expansion of the Fayetteville Street building that houses the Know Book Store & Restaurant.

According to the paper, the city money would not go into the project until it’s complete. Then why is it needed? is an obvious question. The owner of the property is described as “a successful entrepreneur,” but if that’s the case, she should understand that any private project that can’t stand on its own without being propped up by public money is shaky from the start (see the aforementioned Rolling Hills).

Council members Eugene Brown and Diane Catotti are the only members to have expressed doubts about the expenditure, saying it’s too high-risk an endeavor. Of course. That’s why the owner wants city taxpayers to assume some of the risk. Councilman Mike Woodard says he supports the expenditure, even though he has what seem to be considerable misgivings, especially about the tradition of cronyism (emphasis added):

“[I]n the absence of some of the specific [policy] criteria that I’d like to see spelled out in more detail, sometimes these projects over the years have felt to me a little more haphazard, a little more subjective and maybe even a little more personal,” he said.

A little personal is exactly how this deal feels. Here’s Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden’s justification for the project:

The Know’s landlord and the grant’s would-be recipient, 92-year-old Mozella McLaughlin, is “a pillar of the black community” with a long track record, Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden said.

“It won’t fail, because Ms. Mac is leading the charge,” Cole-McFadden said. “It can’t fail because she has always been a successful entrepreneur.”

Maybe this project will defy the odds and actually succeed where many before it didn’t. Who knows? Maybe it would succeed without the public incentive, but we’ll never know that. When you boil it down, “entrepreneurs” who feel they can’t succeed without taxpayer financial help are like people who marry with a pre-nuptial agreement. They just don’t have much faith in a successful outcome.