Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Quote of the Day: Mary Trigiani

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Mary Trigiani is a management consultant in Southwest Virginia. One of her interests is rethinking “economic development” in the region. I was struck by this morning’s lead-in to her daily newsletter.

Economic development is, for some, the game of redistributing taxpayer money and sustaining agencies for that purpose – without reporting ROI back to taxpayers or marking real progress. When it’s done right, however, economic development is an intricate process of modeling businesses, vetting partners, and building bridges – so that people can find jobs, prosper, and enjoy life. This shift in definition is a condition of today’s renaissance. And I believe Virginia’s Great Southwest will show the way.

— JAB

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9 responses to “Quote of the Day: Mary Trigiani”

  1. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    “Economic development is an intricate process . . ..” Right there is the problem. In this polarized world of simplistic slogans and petulant put-downs, there is no room for subtlety, or practicality. “Intricate” is too much bother, even boring.

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Good, effective, economic development is sometimes not a transaction or even a series of transactions. It often can be a longer dance that involves a lot of pieces and parts that are unique, sometimes to the applicant.

  3. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    When wealth transfers fail their adherents often try to play the complexity card. For decades we heard that schools in low income areas would become pillars of excellence if only more money. more money, more money was spent. The money came. The excellence did not. Now the answer is a convoluted Critical Race Theory excuse that transcends money.

    Rural economic development does not work. Virginia has poured hundreds of millions (billions?) into rural economic development. It hasn’t helped. The jobs aren’t coming and the rural areas continue to de-populate. Wise County. a beautiful place with a well organized government lost almost 10% of its population from 2010 to 2019.

    Please show me one systemic success in rural economic development. Not one project but one rural area lifted out of poverty by economic development. At least 100,000 people.

    Finally, if efforts like rural broadband are such sure-fire winners then why don’t rural areas borrow money, use the funds to build out broadband and then pay off the loans with the all-but-guaranteed economic benefits of broadband?

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I have to say, virtually All the robocalls I receive (and never answer) come from rural Virginia! 😉

      1. LesGabriel Avatar
        LesGabriel

        How do you know that? Certainly not from the area code, which long ago became fungible.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          well the phone announces the location of the incoming call. (maybe spoofed?)
          but more often than not , locations in rural Virginia… and Pennsylvania for some reason.

          1. LesGabriel Avatar
            LesGabriel

            Interesting. You obviously have a different phone service, because I have never gotten such an announcement. My spam calls come from anywhere and nowhere.

  4. LesGabriel Avatar
    LesGabriel

    Any County/City interested in bringing in businesses to their communities should look first to how much red tape/regulations are involved and work diligently to get rid of those that are cumbersome and unnecessary. Taking money from residents to lure companies does not always make economic sense for the community and certainly not for the inevitable losers when government decides who are the winners.

  5. kls Avatar
    kls

    As with most government operations.. there is no metric of success/failure; thus it merely creates bureaucracies to employ govt workers.

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