By: Roberta Brandes Gratz
Via: The Atlantic Cities


Unproven theories abound as to how cities with a diminished population might “shrink” their footprint to ease the financial burden of maintaining an infrastructure created to serve a larger city. By moving the few remaining residents out of the most diminished neighborhoods and into under-utilized spaces in healthy areas, the theory goes, the now-smaller city saves money, strengthens neighborhoods worth saving and prepares for a better future.

‘Unproven’ is the operative word here. History makes plain that if you plan for shrinkage, a city will continue to shrink, not grow stronger.

American cities started losing population after World War II with the creation of suburbs. “Planned Shrinkage,” no different than today’s shrinkage strategies, was New York’s solution to a South Bronx that looked like Dresden after the war and other failing neighborhoods. Fire houses, police stations, schools closed, garbage ignored, streets unrepaired. But residents citywide fought back fiercely, refused to leave, took over vacant buildings, fixed them up on their own, stuck it out with minimum city services and with mottos like “improve don’t move” set about on a sweat equity path that was the catalyst for a slow, incremental citywide rebound. Developers followed the residents’ lead. That is why New York grew again, instead of shrank.

The same pattern of regeneration took hold in small doses slowly in Savannah, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, San Antonio and more. Now, similar pockets of re-growth can be found in Buffalo, Detroit, Syracuse, Muncie, South Bend and elsewhere.

Today, one community exemplifies both the consequences and costs of shrinkage and the regeneration path of incremental but veritable re-growth.

That singular place is the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, skeptics assumed the worst. Officially, the city did not turn its back on the working-class neighborhood of the Lower Ninth, but few dollars and little energy have been expended there. Residents will tell you that there was not much in the way of city services to shrink.

A recent New York Times Magazine article, “Jungleland,” offered an exaggerated look at what’s happened since to the acres of vacant land in the once heavily populated working class neighborhood. The impression is one of an almost primeval forest taking over. The author ignored blocks of rebuilt houses and clusters of homes scattered among the overgrown lots. But he did highlight the inevitable consequences of the removal of city services: piles of broken up concrete and construction debris, discarded sofas, bags of garbage, toilets, a burnt car and lots of tires are randomly dumped, costs that are inevitable in even a semi-shrunk area. Considerable acreage is reverting to unkempt nature.

But the Lower Ninth Ward is also growing again slowly. Residents have defied expectations and expert predictions and are re-staking their claim. Emptiness still dominates the landscape once filled with homes but clusters of rebuilt houses and new construction are not hard to find. The sound of the hammer or buzzsaw is ubiquitous.

Officials too often assume shrinkage is inevitable. But do they ever inquire of the diehard hold-outs why they stay? The answers are clues to regeneration instead of assumptions of continued loss.

Last year, I asked Josephine Short Butler, 89, if she wasn’t a little nervous returning to such an empty neighborhood when her Lower Ninth home was rebuilt soon after Katrina in one of the bleakest corners of the area. She was one of the first back and the landscape then defined desolate. “Honey,” she said to me leaning forward in her chair, “when we moved here in 1948, this was farmland, the streets were paths of oyster shells and it was a 45-minute walk to church.”

Mrs. Butler came back. Her best friend and neighbor followed next door. And so did her two granddaughters who live around the block. Others followed. That corner of the neighborhood now has dozens of rebuilt homes in a few square blocks. Residents will tell you that they never received more than a minimum of city services. Yet, this 65 percent homeowner neighborhood paid plenty in taxes.

Let’s call people like Mrs. Butler “magnet residents.” Magnet residents exist in every city’s derelict neighborhoods. Often they are owners of mortgage-free homes that can’t be replicated elsewhere, or else something equally compelling is keeping them in place. Magnet residents are easier to find now in the Lower Ninth Ward than the reported wildlife, although residents will tell you they always had snakes and abandoned houses.

The Lower Ninth is growing back, much more than expected. When New York was shrinking in the 1970s, planners predicted it would shrink further; thus the need to “plan” for shrinkage.

All shrinking cities exhibited similar patterns: departure of resident population for the suburbs starting in the ‘50s and ‘60s and departure of factories and corporations either for overseas or, in the case of New Orleans, for Houston. They all lost much of their local economy. Neither New York nor New Orleans is a special case; only the particulars are different.

Top image: Josephine Short Butler’s house in the Lower Ninth Ward.

By: Maggie Comstock
Via: Sustainable Cities

Earlier this month, the World Bank hosted a Smart Cities for All workshop in Washington, DC which convened experts from the United Nations, academia, government agencies, non-profits and industry. The purpose of the workshop was to share insights and experiences of equipping cities with the tools for intelligent growth. Additionally, the forum established a public-private partnership for collaboration in pursuit of shared goals for global sustainability. But what does it mean to be a “smart city”? Is this distinction only reserved for cities starting from scratch? Can an established city boost its IQ?

First, we must take a step back to reflect upon what it means to be a “smart city.” While there is no official definition, many have contributed to this debate. Industry leaders, such as Seimens and IBM, believe that stronger use of technology and data will enable government leaders to make better informed decisions. Whereas others, including the Sustainable Cities Blog’s very own Dan Hoornweg, consider the social aspects as a component of what it means to be a smart city. In his blog, “Smart Cities for Dummies,” published last November, Dan contends: “At its core a smart city is a welcoming, inclusive city, an open city. By being forthright with citizens, with clear accountability, integrity, and fair and honest measures of progress, cities get smarter.” Though I agree with both the data-driven and socially-conscious approaches, I’d like to propose my own definition of a smart city.

At its most basic level, a city is comprised of a government (in some form), people, industry, infrastructure, education and social services. A smart city thoughtfully and sustainably pursues development with all of these components in mind with the additional foresight of the future needs of the city. This approach allows cities to provide for its citizens through services and infrastructure that address both the current needs of the population as well as for projected growth.


Source: Clearing the air in Atlanta: Transit and smart growth or conventional economics?, Alain Bertaud, 2002. http://alain-bertaud.com/

Many of today’s largest metropolises are an organizational and infrastructural nightmare. Take the city of Atlanta, for example. The greater metropolitan area of Atlanta supports a population of about 2.5 million people and spans 137 kilometers between its two furthest points. By 1990, this sprawl had established a density of six people per hectare. Now, compare Atlanta to a city with a similar level of population, Barcelona. The furthest distance of built up area in Barcelona is 97 kilometers with a density of 176 people per hectare (World Development Report 2009, 211). The contrast between the densities of Atlanta and Barcelona can be observed in the diagram left from Alain Bertaud, 2002. The respective densities of Atlanta and Barcelona greatly affect the cities’ ability to serve their citizens. For example, in order for Atlanta to accommodate as many people as Barcelona’s public transit system, Atlanta would need to build an additional 3,400 kilometers of track and about 2,800 new metro stations. Atlanta could then support 30% of trips through mass transit which Barcelona accomplishes with only 99 kilometers of tracks and 136 stations (World Development Report 2009, 211).

Of course hindsight is 20-20. It’s easy for us to tell the City of Atlanta should have predicted its population boom and planned for it appropriately. But it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Are well-established cities, like Atlanta, doomed to fail in the race to be a smart city? How can a city boost its IQ and make the decisions of a smart city moving forward? City governments should create policy incentives for developers to build high-density housing with a small building footprint. In the U.S. many local governments have a similar policy, awarding developers of LEED certified buildings a height or density bonus as an incentive to build sustainably. This is a positive first step but we need to go one step further in order to combat urban sprawl in our cities around the world. In order to plan for population trends in a city, data and technology play a critical role in understanding and predicting the needs of its citizens. Knowledge and data-sharing platforms, including the World Bank’s Urban Knowledge Platform, are empowering cities and citizens, alike, to change their consumption and development patterns in favor of smarter and more sustainable habits.

As for Atlanta, the USGBC Atlanta Branch of the Georgia Chapter has done a stellar job on this front, including facilitating the passage of a LEED green building policy for public sector buildings. The City of Atlanta has since signed up to be one of the three pilot cities for the President’s Better Buildings Challenge, which charges cities to make commercial buildings 20% more energy efficient by 2020 and to accelerate private sector investment in energy efficiency.

Of course it’s easier and more cost effective to “go green” and develop intelligently from the get-go. Emerging economies and developing countries have that advantage. However, it is not only doable for an established city to rise in the ranks of smart cities, but it’s already been done, and cities like Atlanta are paving the way.

By: Amy Liu and Richard Shearer
Via: The New Republic

It’s game day. Kentucky’s two largest metro areas face off tonight as the University of Louisville Cardinals and the University of Kentucky Wildcats, of Lexington, go head-to-head in New Orleans in the final showdown before Monday’s NCAA championship game.

As this legendary rivalry reaches its boiling point this weekend, you won’t see a punch fly between Mayor Fischer of Louisville and Mayor Gray of Lexington. Instead, behind their playful wager and exchange of good-luck bourbon and IPA, these two mayors and their metros are acting in stark contrast to their teams’ fierce on-court competition. Louisville and Lexington are collaborating to compete economically.

Fischer and Gray are two former-businessmen-turned-mayors who took office right at the tail of the recession. Both inherently understood that rising competition abroad required them to act boldly to innovate and grow jobs at home. It didn’t take long for these two entrepreneurial mayors to look across Interstate 64 and recognize the opportunity to bring their metro areas together in ways that will put their combined region – and assets – on the global map.

Last summer, these mayors, with their high-caliber private and public sector partners, launched the Bluegrass Economic Advancement Movement (BEAM), an effort to create a metro business plan for growth that will unify and leverage their common markets assets – such as manufacturing, university innovation, transportation/logistics – to boost the economic prospects of their two metros. To demonstrate their commitment to an historic alliance, the mayors jointly appointed Jim Host as chairman of BEAM, an influential statesman and Lexington businessman who chaired the Louisville Arena Authority.

Lexington, Louisville, and the surrounding counties represent a mega region of over 1.9 million people, roughly the size of Las Vegas, NV. Encompassing 22 counties, including the four southern Indiana counties in the Louisville metro, the BEAM region comprises roughly half of the commonwealth’s population, jobs, and economy. This makes the BEAM effort of vital importance not only to the economic prosperity of the two metros but the entire commonwealth.

To date, the region has been hard at work undertaking a rigorous market analysis of the strengths and opportunities facing their two metro areas and adjoining counties. The Bluegrass region boasts over 100,000 manufacturing jobs, anchored by global giants like GE, Ford, and Toyota. Both metro areas benefit from the UPS Air headquarters in Louisville, which provides an easy port of entry to the world for area firms and travelers. Both these assets may explain why both Louisville and Lexington are major exporters, besting the nation on their share of economic output generated by exports. And the presence of both University of Kentucky and University of Louisville helps the region attract talent, especially among skilled immigrants.

But the challenges are clear: Despite these assets, the Bluegrass region has been lagging the nation in economic output and productivity growth, and median household incomes have fallen faster than the national average. This is the right time for a forward-leaning vision and plan of action for making the Louisville-Lexington super region a true hub of manufacturing innovation and growth. Mayor Gray and Mayor Fisher, with their rare leadership and genuine friendship, are the right CEOs to drive this plan forward.

No matter the outcome of tonight’s game, Louisville and Lexington make a winning team.

Rex Nelson, a former presidential appointee who works for The Communications Group, Inc., is a nationally recognized writer and community development consultant. He recently posted a blog entry detailing the importance of revitalizing downtown Hot Springs as a key component to the community’s overall success. Mr. Nelson praises this new direction for the city and surrounding region, quoting extensively from the economic development plan that TIP Strategies, Inc. recently completed for the Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce/Garland County Economic Development Corporation.

I barely had finished writing a blog post last week on a walk I took in downtown Hot Springs when the announcement was made: The Superior Bathhouse will be transformed into a brewery. The Superior, which opened in 1916, is the smallest of the eight bathhouses on Bathhouse Row and is the closest bathhouse to the Arlington Hotel. The Superior has been empty since 1983. A brewer named Rose Schweikhart Cranson hopes to turn the Hot Springs mineral water into craft beers, spirits and nonalcoholic drinks such as root beer.

“That’s one of the big reasons I wanted to use the bathhouse, because I would have access to the water,” she said last week. Built by L.C. Young and Robert Proctor, the Superior has 11,000 square feet and cost $68,000 to construct. The National Park Service recently renovated the building, including a new ramp to make the entrance handicapped accessible. Schweikhart Cranson said she and her husband have been testing the waters since they moved to Hot Springs from Springfield, Ill., last year.

“We’ll choose beer styles that will work with the water with minimal tinkering,” she said. “It’s favorable for making beer.”

Josie Fernandez, the Hot Springs National Park superintendent, said she hopes to have negotiations completed by the end of the year. At the same time, it was announced that a nonprofit organization known as the Muses Creative Artistry Project wants to move forward with using the back and the upstairs of the Hale Bathhouse. The Muses began operating a cafe and bookstore in the Hale lobby last year. Built in 1892, the Hale has 12,000 square feet on two main floors. In 1917, one of the hot springs was captured in a tiled enclosure in the hotel’s basement. That feature is still in place. The building was renovated in 1939 in the Mission Revival style, and the red brick was covered in stucco. Named for early bathhouse owner John Hale, it was at least the fourth bathhouse to use the Hale name. The Hale, which closed on Halloween Day 1978, is the oldest visible structure on Bathhouse Row. The National Park Service has spent more than $1.5 million in recent years to preserve the building, including updating the heating and air conditioning system.

The Muses — which describes itself as being “dedicated to preserving classical art and music through performance, education, wellness and music therapy” — was founded five years ago by Deleen Davidson. The organization wants to include in the Hale two performing arts spaces; studios for the study of music, art and dance; meeting spaces; an artist-in-residence apartment; and a wellness room for guests to experience the baths. If plans for the Superior and the Hale move forward, the Maurice will be the only one of the eight bathhouses that’s empty. That represents tremendous progress in downtown Hot Springs. I agree with the world-class Little Rock architect Reese Rowland, who has described Bathhouse Row as one of the great stretches of urban street in America. But, as noted in last week’s post, there’s so much more that needs to be done to return downtown Hot Springs to its rightful place as one of the region’s top attractions — the Saratoga of the South, if you will.

Thanks to longtime friend Kay Brockwell, the director of business retention and recruitment for the Garland County Economic Development Corp., for forwarding the city’s strategic plan for economic development, which was completed last September. That effort was led by TIP Strategies out of Austin, Texas. When I was with the Delta Regional Authority, I worked closely with Jon Roberts of TIP in developing a strategic plan for the Delta. I can assure you that Roberts does first-class work. I was delighted to see that he made downtown redevelopment the major part of his strategy for the Hot Springs area. He notes the many advantages Hot Springs possessess — a national park, the lakes, Oaklawn Park, the convention center and Summit Arena.

“These advantages, however, have bred a certain complacency,” Roberts writes. “The risk is increasingly one in which ‘good is good enough.’ This viewpoint threatens to compromise the city and the region. It would perhaps be defensible if the region really were doing well.

“In fact, there are dire warning signals. Population growth has become stagnant. The tax base is fragile. Bold initiatives, from education to redevelopment, have received only tepid support. Further, many of the greatest assets of the community are increasingly in danger of decline. These extend from the business base to hotels and even retail trade.

“It is clear that a concerted effort is called for, not only because there are opportunities but because inaction carries serious consequences. It would be an overstatement to say that this is a time of crisis. But it is not overreaching to suggest that Hot Springs cannot afford to squander many more opportunities.”

The strategic plan describes the redevelopment and revitalization of downtown Hot Springs as the “greatest opportunity for enhancing economic vitality in Garland County.”

Roberts writes: “Across the country, cities both small and large have rediscovered the importance of their downtowns, and examples of revitalized city centers are abundant. America’s renewed interest in downtowns was rooted in the historic preservation movement of the 1970s.

“Economic developers eventually learned to value vibrancy in the urban core for a more practical reason: a healthy downtown makes a city more competitive in the pursuit of new businesses. This is because prospects often see the state of a downtown as a reflection of whether a community values investment and excellence. Moreover, companies realize that in the competition for talent, a community that offers a higher quality of life and stronger sense of place finds it easier to recruit and retain the workers it needs to remain successful.”

Roberts has reached the crux of the issue: Revitalizing downtown Hot Springs is about more than attracting tourists. It’s also about attracting young, highly educated, creative people to live in the city.

Now, the bad news.

Roberts continues: “Unfortunately, few recent efforts toward downtown revitalization and redevelopment in Hot Springs are apparent.”

He’s right. Rather than focusing on the welcome leases at the bathhouses and the presence of art galleries downtown, too many visitors have their memories of Hot Springs sullied by dated, musty hotel rooms and huge buildings such as the Majestic and Medical Arts that stand empty.

“Through most of its history, downtown was a major destination for tourism and economic activity within Hot Springs,” the strategic plan states. “Its proximity to Hot Springs National Park and the presence of Bathhouse Row drew visitors to the region for more than a century.

“But downtown Hot Springs has lost much of its luster. Historic structures are in need of investment, ground-floor retail space is underutilized and the upper stories of most buildings remain vacant. The lack of new investment should be a great concern to Hot Springs’ leaders and citizens. One serious risk is that these buildings could fall into disrepair and no longer be salvageable. If this were to occur, Hot Springs would undoubtedly see its competitive position as a tourism destination erode. It is extremely important that the community no longer allow the status quo to continue. Supporting revitalization of downtown Hot Springs — as both a tourism destination and a catalyst for economic activity — will require a committed, sustained and bold approach.”

Does the leadership of Hot Springs have the stomach for such a committed, sustained and bold approach?

That’s a question I can’t answer. With the economy on the mend, can the city now attract outside investors to sink capital into projects downtown? The risks are there, but given Hot Springs’ long history as a magnet for visitors, I think the upside is tremendous for those willing to invest in hotels, condominiums, apartments and upscale retail establishments. Heritage tourism is hot, and Hot Springs is positioned to attract well-heeled visitors if the model is Saratoga rather than Branson. One thing Roberts calls for is improving the now tacky Central Avenue corridor from Oaklawn to downtown.

“While much of Hot Springs’ history and image is inextricably linked to Bathhouse Row, other destinations appear to have surpassed the urban core as tourism draws,” he writes. “For example, Oaklawn now brings approximately 1.6 million tourists to Hot Springs annually, and Lake Hamilton and Lake Ouachita are also major attractions.

“Few benefits of tourism spending, however, can be seen in downtown Hot Springs. At the same time, few amenities (such as retail, restaurants and hotels) that serve visitors are apparent within the area surrounding Oaklawn. This strategy proposes linking the area’s various attractions to create a mutually supportive network and complete visitor experience. … This corridor should be viewed as the primary linkage between Hot Springs’ two premier urban attractions: Bathhouse Row and Oaklawn. It should serve as the focal point for robust economic activity, creating a dynamic environment for small businesses and visitors alike.”

At least part of the business leadership now realizes that downtown is the key to moving Hot Springs forward. I consider this a statewide economic development priority, not just a Hot Springs priority.

I’ll be back there Saturday, thinking about what once was and dreaming about what someday might be.

U.S. 19 construction may bring change for area businesses

By: Trevor Pettiford , Reporter
Via: Bay News 9


As work on the 6.2 mile stretch of U.S. 19 in Clearwater hits the midpoint of construction, developers are looking for feedback from business owners and residents along the busy strip.


CLEARWATER – U.S. Highway 19 in Clearwater has been even busier of late with construction taking place along the roadway.

As work on the 6.2 mile stretch of the roadway in Clearwater from Belleair Road north to Curlew Road hits the midpoint of construction, developers are looking for feedback from business owners and residents along the busy strip.

Today, meetings are being held where residents, drivers and business owners can offer opinions and options.

Developers have said many of the businesses may have to relocate somewhere else on 19 where retailers could be grouped together.

Recommendations will address the future of property fronting directly on US 19 and property with long-term development potential within a half-mile of the corridor. The study will also consider the future of sites located in the area defined by U.S. 19, Gulf to Bay Boulevard, Drew Street, and North McMullen Booth Road.

“I would hope that they’d put…like a billboard, stuff like that, that people would still be able to see the business when they drive on 19,” said Nancy Pisaie, who owns the A&N Italian Deli located on the roadway. “Because otherwise, there would be a wall from 19 into the shopping centers and they wouldn’t be able to even see us anymore.”

The heavily traveled road is transitioning into more of a highway with less access to businesses along the corridor. Planning and Development Director Michael Delk said businesses will have to transition as well.

“Due to the changes in the roadway, some properties may not be sustainable anymore in terms of the kind of retail focus that they’ve had in the past,” Delk said. “And so what we’re trying to do through the study in this work is to provide options and opportunities for those property owners.”

The changes could mean shops like Nancy’s may have to move to a new location along 19 where retailers may be congregated. That idea, along with others, will be a part of today’s discussion.

U.S. 19 Highway construction TIMELINE

Focus groups will be held to discuss the plan. Each will be geared toward specific participant groups, although the public is welcome to attend any of the following:

Auto Dealerships: March 13 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., Grimaldis Pizzeria, 27001 US Hwy. 19 N
Retailers & Offices: March 13 2 to 3 p.m., Celebration Station, 24546 US Hwy. 19 N.
Neighborhood Association Leaders and Multi-Family Property Managers: March 13 5:30 to 7 p.m., Countryside Recreation Center, 2640 Sabal Springs Dr.
Realtors, Developers and Architects: March 14 8 to 9:30 a.m., UBS Financial Services, 18167 US. Hwy. 19 N #200
Entertainment & Lodging: March 14 2 to 3 p.m., Celebration Station, 24546 US Hwy. 19 N.

The city wants feedback from those who live, work, and travel along the US 19 corridor to help identify problems, offer improvement ideas, and suggest possible solutions.

An online discussion board is available at myUS19plan.com.

Vision emerges for U.S. 19

By: Steve Nichols
via: My Fox Tampa Bay
CLEARWATER – The city of Clearwater wants to take a long, hard look at U.S. 19. Kevin Schauer, general manager of Lenny’s, looks at it every day out the restaurant’s front window.

“We went through three years [of construction] here and we were down probably 25 or 30%,” Schauer said. “A lot of other businesses are suffering or they just go out. No one’s going to get to their place,” he continued.

Over the past several years, Pinellas County’s major north-south spine has been largely transformed into an elevated, limited access expressway.

LINK: U.S. 19 plan

At least another three years of construction remains. But when it is completed, the commercial landscape will be forever changed.

Clearwater officials envision turning 6.2 miles of U.S. 19 into a regional employment center.

That will probably involve changing the rules of what can be built and where.

Retail is only one option. “It will be a range of office [buildings], some technology companies, residential, so it could be a mix of uses and hopefully in some cases a mix of all three,” planning director Michael Delk explained.

Noting there are a lot of parcels now sitting vacant, Delk added, “What we want to do is plan for and give those [land owners] an opportunity to successfully redevelop that property to a higher and better use.”

The city has hired a consultant to help write the plan, in part with public input gathered through a new website. Myus19plan.com has a map showing the study area [Belleair Road to Tampa Road], a brief statement of the goal, a series of questions and a place to make comments.

Delk expects to have a U.S. 19 plan in six months. However, it will take many more months to make any changes in Clearwater’s land development regulations, and years more to find out whether they work as hoped.

Via: Ocala.com

There is more to successful economic development than aggressive recruitment, doling out incentives and putting down new utility lines and roads. A lot more.

That was the message this week from consultants for Ocala/Marion County business leaders who are orchestrating the merger of the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corp. To be competitive, said Jon Roberts of TIP Strategies of Austin, Texas, requires a “holistic view” that creates a unified strategy for both “short-term fixes and long-term transformational initiatives.”

That holistic view, Roberts told a gathering of Chamber and EDC board members on Wednesday, should incorporate quality-of-life issues in our community. He said his organization had interviewed some 45-plus “stakeholders” in the Chamber-EDC merger and came away with “projects and ideas” they believe will make Ocala/Marion County a better, more appealing, more competitive community. Absent from the list, he noted, were jobs, industry or sites.

Instead, the consensus of those interviewed was that Ocala/Marion County needs to focus on the following, and jobs will follow:

- The innovation corridor in downtown Ocala.

- Tourism, especially eco-tourism, and that includes Silver Springs, as well as outdoor events and recreational opportunities to attract visitors.

- Tapping the wealth of knowledge and expertise that our large retiree population offers.

- Completing and marketing our commerce parks.

- Downtown revitalization.

- Improving our public schools.

What is increasingly important in business location decisions is that a community is a place people want to live with plenty of things to do. They have to be fun places to live that are aesthetically appealing with good cultural amenities and quality public services, not the least being good schools.

“Talent, that is, educated and skilled workers, are picky about where they want to live,” Roberts said.

Beyond that, Roberts talked about other communities where mergers such as the Chamber-EDCs have occurred — places like Asheville, N.C., Nashville, Austin, Texas, and Oklahoma City. Those communities became more competitive in attracting new and better jobs because their mergers gave them a unified voice that established a leader on both quality-of-life issues as well as economic-development ones. In each case, the resulting organization was private sector-led with public partners.

There is much more to economic development than jobs, jobs, jobs. Ocala/Marion County has a leg up on other communities because it offers wonderful location and already is a good place to live. It also knows what it is to be a great place to live; it was an All-American City selection in 1996. That needs to be the goal again.

Maybe more important right now is establishing a definitive leader, a go-to organization on economic development. Today, no one, not prospective businesses or our own business community, knows with certainty who is in charge of economic development here — the EDC, the Chamber, the city or the county. They all are doing some economic development, sometimes together, sometimes not.

There is still work to do on the Chamber-EDC merger that is being led by EDC board Chairman Doug Cone and Chamber board Chairman Brian O’Connor, but the direction the effort is heading is highly encouraging. We are eager to see the final result. It should make us a better place to live and competitive in the economic-development game.