When centralizing control of local economies doesn’t work, it must needs be the planners need broader powers, right?
Ben Teague, executive director of the Economic Development Coalition for Asheville-Buncombe County, shared with the local daily strategies for “transforming” the local economy. The plan does not call for invigorating the productive sector with reduced taxes and regulation. It calls not for privatizing government overreach. Instead of encouraging production and innovation, the program seeks, through centralized management, of course, to transfer businesses, say from South Carolina or Tennessee, to the area.
While the rest of us must buy locally to keep dollars in the regional economy, Great Wall-style; the EDC contracted with an Austin firm for a $100,000 job creation plan. The plan indicated, “new jobs often result from the interplay of abstract activities, such as ‘relationship-building’ and concrete actions based on data.” Asked for an example, the consultant said more settlers come from New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC than leave to those areas. So, in terms of modern economics, we have a trade deficit. They’re dumping on us! If we want prosperity, we need to export more people to those places or impose tariffs on the transplants. Actually, the consultant recommended targeted recruiting in the dumping territories.
Another proposed strategy was to recruit more tourists to the area. In addition to generating more hated hotels paying sub-living wage, tourists might fall in love with the area and wind up relocating. Austin’s SxSW festival was held up as an example of a geek magnet Asheville may want to replicate. Well, the city had its chance. Business genius Mike Adams was trying to grow Moogfest into that and wound up probably the city’s only rejected applicant for economic development incentives.
Analysts applauded the plan for focusing stimulus on local, small businesses. They however criticized it for having neither an affordable housing component nor succession planning for mom and pop shops. Strategies in the EDC’s Soviet-inspired five-year-plan include creating coalitions, hyping up climate change and outdoor sports, hosting a summit, “nurturing and leveraging Asheville’s status as a premier location for breweries,” growing Mission Hospital, and creating a mixed-use corridor between the hospital and downtown.
