Economic turmoil is a reality which towns in America’s ‘Rust Belt’ have been struggling with for years. The decline of the steel industry crippled places like Youngstown, Ohio, and left it searching for new businesses to fill the void. Now they are getting a lift from a somewhat unlikely place.

Click on the image to watch the video and learn more about Youngstown’s efforts to attract high-tech talent through a new business incubator.

via BBC News

An economic-development study prepared for the city of Richmond calls for enhancing the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park and redeveloping the former Armstrong High School on North 31st Street into a training and education center.

In addition, the study recommends a redevelopment initiative in which the city would identify and assemble up to 200 acres for a new technology or industrial park or corridor.

“The best opportunities for such a redevelopment initiative lie south of the James River, especially in the Manchester area and along Commerce Road,” a team of consultants concluded in the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy study.

The 134-page report, which has been approved by the federal Economic Development Administration and is a prerequisite for federal funding, cites the area’s access and proximity to rail, Interstate 95, the Port of Richmond and land that could be made available for development.

While directed largely toward federal initiatives, the study emphasizes projects that support the development of work-force skills, as well as jobs in “knowledge-based industries, such as the life sciences and biotechnology sector.”

To that end, the study suggests that the city join with state and local partners to seek federal grant funding to support the proposed Virginia Life Sciences Commercialization Center at the BioTechnology Research Park downtown.

As envisioned, the center would include wet and dry lab facilities, offices and space for light assembly. In addition, the city could seek federal assistance to start a revolving loan fund focused on small- and medium-size businesses in the life-sciences sector.

Further, the study calls for redeveloping the former Armstrong High School into a modern training center.

Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ administration said the center would mesh with revitalization efforts for the Nine Mile Road and 25th Street corridor, as well as support institutions such as J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, Bon Secours Richmond Health System and VCU Medical Center.

The high school was closed in 2004, when Armstrong merged with John F. Kennedy High School. The merged school, on Cool Lane, retained the Armstrong name.

The study was prepared by TIP Strategies of Austin, Texas, with help from the Hill-Christian Consulting Group of Richmond, through a yearlong process that included input from business and civic leaders.

The Hill-Christian Consulting Group is led by Sheila Hill-Christian, who worked as Richmond’s chief administrative officer under then-Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, as well as a volunteer leader of Jones’ transition. She also worked briefly as a paid consultant to the Jones administration and now represents the city on the GRTC Transit System’s board of directors.

The Jones administration said it pushed to complete the $164,250 study after the city was on the verge of losing $105,000 in federal grant funds received from 2005 to 2007 to help cover the study’s costs. The remaining costs were covered by the city.

In a rushed vote, the city council agreed last month to submit the study to the federal Economic Development Administration. At the time, council members said the Jones administration had not provided enough time to review the document.

Council members also have expressed frustration that the Jones administration has not had a dedicated, full-time director of economic development for the past 15 months. Peter H. Chapman, deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development, has been serving as interim director while the position has been advertised.

In a statement, the Jones administration said Chapman’s department has restored the city’s credibility among economic-development stakeholders, including the Economic Development Administration.

“We are truly excited that another important avenue of funding will be opened up to Richmond as a result of completing this strategy,” the Jones administration said.

Richmond Times-Dispatch by Will Jones, wjones@timesdispatch.com

Good enough is not good enough anymore.


That was the message that about 200 residents of the Jefferson City area heard Wednesday night at the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce’s roll-out event for the Economic Development Strategic Plan on the Miller Performing Arts Center.


See Jon’s full presentation:



Jefferson City News Tribune, Jan 20, 2011

InMaricopa.com by Steven M. Thomas

City officials, members of MEDA’s board of directors and a representative of TIP Strategies met with the public last night at Global Water headquarters to ask for guidance about the future economic development of Maricopa.

MEDA, short for Maricopa Economic Development Alliance, is a private, nonprofit group that works with the city to attract new businesses to Maricopa and assist the growth and success of businesses already here. TIP, which stands for Theory Into Practice, is an Austin, Tex.-based strategic planning firm hired by MEDA to create a 5-year economic development plan for the city of Maricopa.

“We picked TIP to lead this process because they have done the same thing successfully for other cities similar to Maricopa in size and issues faced,” said Jim Rives, president and CEO of MEDA.

The meeting on Thursday night was an opportunity for citizens to discuss economic development options with the experts and offer opinions about which options should be pursued.

Two groups agree

After introductory remarks by Rives and TIP project leader Alan Cox, attendees broke into two groups to consider four questions:

1. Which types of businesses should Maricopa focus on attracting?
2. Where should new businesses be located?
3. Should MEDA and the city put up speculative commercial buildings to attract new businesses?
4. Should MEDA focus more of its efforts on attracting new employers to town, helping small home-based businesses or assisting entrepreneurs looking to grow larger businesses here?

The two groups, one led by Rives, the other by city Economic Development Director Danielle Casey, reached similar conclusions.

Both groups chose healthcare as the type of business that would be most beneficial to bring to Maricopa, followed by manufacturing/warehouse businesses and call centers.

The interest in healthcare employers had a dual focus: residents said they thought a facility such as a hospital would provide good jobs; at the same time it would be a benefit to people living here and help attract new residents. One group thought new healthcare employers should be located along the John Wayne corridor. The other group thought the best place for a hospital would be the new city center area around the intersection of Bowlin Road and White and Parker Road. This is the area where the new city hall and Central Arizona College campus will be built. If Maricopa is built out as planned, the area will be the geographic center of the city.

Both groups thought manufacturing and warehouse facilities should be located in a proposed industrial park on Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway where the Union Pacific railroad corridor could be leveraged for economic advantage.

Both groups also felt that the city and MEDA should consider building commercial and industrial shells to make moving to Maricopa more attractive and feasible for new businesses, but that great care should be taken not to over invest in unoccupied structures or get too far ahead of the development curve.

On the final question, Rives’ group came down strongly for the option of focusing efforts on attracting new businesses to town, while Casey’s group thought the focus should be more on helping small businesses and entrepreneur already in Maricopa.

Both Rives and TIP’s Cox made the point emphatically that citizen input is highly important to the planning process and will be a significant factor in the decisions that are made and the directions pursued.

Good mix, low turnout

After the meeting, Mayor Anthony Smith commended those who attended and commented on the diversity of those who showed up in terms of age, occupation and length of time in the city.

City Councilmember and MEDA board member Marvin Brown expressed disappointment that, considering the nature of the opportunity, more people did not come out for the meeting.

“People have to take ownership of their city,” Brown said, after noting the size of the group, which totaled about 25, including MEDA board members.

Those who would like to have their opinions about economic development considered can go to MEDA’s website and fill out an online survey that asks questions similar to those considered at last night’s meeting. That survey is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XH898Y2

Plan due in March

Cox said TIP staff members will compile citizen input along with other statistical and strategic information to present a preliminary set of economic development goals to the city in March.

“We will come up with four or five broad goals and each goal will be supported by three or four strategies,” Cox said. “Under each strategy there will be a number of actions and tasks with responsible parties listed” so that the way toward the goal is clear.

Cox said one such goal might be insuring that there are adequate, attractive, properly prepared sites in Maricopa where new businesses can launch or relocate.

via PlanetMoney

We’ve looked at unemployment rates by gender, education, and age. We’ve shown jobs lost and gained in different industries over the past decade. Now, the WSJ has a table showing unemployment rates by occupation.

There is, of course, a massive range — from less than 1 percent unemployment for some jobs, to more than 30 percent for others. The trends at both ends of the spectrum mirror some of the big shifts we’ve seen in the economy.

Of the 10 occupations with the lowest unemployment rate, five are in healthcare, which has been the big jobs winner in recent years. And of the 10 occupations with the highest rate, seven are in construction, which has been hit hard by the recession.

Occupations with the lowest unemployment rates:

Appraisers and assessors of real estate: 0.4%
Therapists, all other: 0.4%
First-line managers of police and detectives: 0.4%
Locomotive engineers and operators: 0.4%
Directors, religious activities and education: 0.8%
Dentists: 0.8%
Speech-language pathologists: 0.8%
Detectives and criminal investigators: 0.8%
Physicians and surgeons: 0.9%
Occupational therapists: 1.0%
(Note: “Therapists, all other” refers to therapists that don’t fall into any of several categories of therapists tracked by the government.)

Occupations with the highest unemployment rates:

Helpers, construction trades: 36.0%
Telemarketers: 34.8%
Structural iron and steel workers: 28.4%
Roofers: 27.1%
Millwrights: 25.5%
Cement masons, concrete finishers, and terrazzo workers: 25.3%
Brickmasons, blockmasons, and stonemasons: 25.1%
Construction laborers: 25.0%
Drywall installers, ceiling tile installers, and tapers: 23.9%
Interviewers, except eligibility and loan: 23.4%