I’m in Washington, DC attending the National League of Cities’ Congressional City Conference.

Yesterday, I attended an outstanding seminar entitled “Local Economic Development: The Good, Bad, and Ugly.”  The instructor was Lloyd Blanchard, Professor, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.

Here’s the course description…

Officials lead with their vision of city renewal.  However, they often find themselves in a conundrum over whether the public benefits promoted are worth the long-term tax breaks that the private development partners demand. What’s a city official to do? Know how to address the technical problem by learning the tools to discern the good from bad proposals. Understand the economic dynamics in three urban markets –housing, labor, and education. Learn how these are inextricably linked, creating the ugly blighted conditions that are targeted by good economic development policy. 

Dr. Blanchard is a skeptic of some of the economic development tools used by local government. I’ve asked him to provide some additional information that I’ll be bringing back to Troy.