Outranked

Or how most cities would rate poorly, were there a ranking of cities open for business

The only thing that truly revitalizes cities is a thriving labor market.

Show me the money.

That’s where the wealth to build parks, replace street lights, pay for street art, clean water and good sidewalks comes from.

Struggling cities and towns struggle because they are not open for business.

They say they are, but then wonder why investors don’t come. They advertise the heck out of the two or three that do come, lured by gifts that locals have no access to.

There must be a way of knowing whether they are open or not. The World Bank used to publish a “Doing Business” guide that rated countries on several indicators such as number of permits, cost and time it took to open a business.

US cities need an Ease of Doing Business ranking.

Indicators can include restrictive Zoning, abusive permitting, long processes, licensing and other lnd use related issues.

A good indicator: the ratio of public assistance to private investment. Or, how many cents are spent on public assistance per $1 of private investment.

A very good one would be the success of social programs, looking at the amount invested in public assistance, how many cents per $1 go to operations and how many to actual assistance.

But this would require public assistance to have the actual goal of solving the problem at hand. If a city gives nonprofits billions and not only they don’t solve a problem but it grows, and still they require more money the following year, they either don’t want to solve it or suck at their job 🥴

The more likely result of an internal revision of regulations would be that local officials cannot pinpoint what is it that’s holding back their revitalization efforts.

A standardized index that rates cities in specific areas might help them open up for business.

The first outcome may be that they realize there is no need to beg and entice large corporations with tax and land gifts to give the illusion of development.

It’s individual citizens who invest that create jobs, demand good coffee shops and restaurants, and drive construction.

And they will come only if a place is truly open for business.

And, my dear friend, it’s very likely your city is not.

When I was in local government I created an office of “urban mechanics” to pop City Hall’s hood open and go in to see what is not letting the engine run.

Politicians usually don’t like the outcome of such investigations because it will inevitably make them look bad.

Good leaders in struggling towns don’t care if they “look bad” because they know doing what’s right will make them look good later.

Our struggling towns need an office of Urban Mechanics. In-house or external, but they need it fast. Recession is the time to build.

Build.