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Boone EDC Weekly
Greetings from the Boone EDC,
Welcome to Boone EDC Weekly.
As an organization, the Boone EDC is constantly researching and benchmarking to learn what our competing communities are doing to attract and retain business. Boone EDC Weekly is a compilation of noteworthy National and Indiana news about economic development trends. We will also post information about upcoming conferences, events and webinars that you may find interesting.
Boone EDC Weekly is another tool that you can refer to as a community leader to help Boone County continue to move forward in a positive manner.
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The First Steps to Meaningful Community Engagement
Next American City - Neeraj Mehta
The question of how to meaningfully and authentically engage community members in planning and development efforts is both difficult and important. Achieving equitable neighborhood revitalization takes fusing the hopes, dreams, wisdom and creative problem-solving of community members with the expertise, resources and knowledge of planners, community developers, artists, public officials, the private sector and others working to strengthen our communities.
Creating more sustainable solutions that effectively address tough local challenges will take new ways of community engagement while simultaneously building on the power of communities to create, as Bill Traynor puts it, "homegrown, locally owned, action-oriented solutions to a neighborhood's problems."
Much of the challenge, as I see it, is based in reflection of what we actually believe about the public and about the role and value of engagement more broadly. There is a distinct difference between assessing people's opinions or attitudes and actually sharing planning and decision-making responsibilities. There's a difference between real partnerships and simply asking people to rubber-stamp decisions we've already made.
Click here to learn more.
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Fort Wayne to Develop River Plan
Journal Gazette - Dan Stockman
The first withdrawal from the city's $75 million Legacy Fund could come within weeks and would pay for a comprehensive study of how to develop Fort Wayne's downtown rivers.
Mayor Tom Henry made his long-awaited proposal to use the community trust to the City Council on Tuesday.
The proposal follows nearly two years of developing recommendations for the money, sifting through more than 1,000 ideas from the community and creating the broad goals for how to use it.
The Legacy Fund is money from the lease and sale of the city's old electric utility, City Power & Light. The city has about $47 million on hand in the fund; another $28 million will come in over the next 12 years.
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Redesigning State Economic Development Agencies
National Governors Association - Erin Sparks & Lucas Pappas
Policies to boost innovation, competitiveness and job creation are top priorities for the nation's governors. State economic development agencies play a large role in making and implementing those policies and, accordingly, how states will rebound from the recession that ended in 2009. State leaders seeking to lay the foundation for renewed economic prosperity should try to ensure that such agencies function as effectively and efficiently as possible, so that the economic recovery brings with it strong growth and high-paying jobs.
The fact that states are now facing daunting economic challenges makes it easier to muster broad support for transforming their economic development agencies. Governors have a unique opportunity to review the economic landscape and to propose critical changes that would not have been feasible in the past. Within the past two years, at least 12 states have created new entities focused on economic development or have consolidated existing agencies to streamline their approach to economic development.
Click here to learn more.
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Colorado Governor Praises Local Development
The Business Times - Phil Castle Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper considers economic development efforts in Mesa County a model for what can be accomplished statewide. Promoting innovation in the energy industry, marketing a stronger community brand and, above all, helping existing businesses grow constitute important steps in strengthening economic recovery, Hickenlooper said. State government can play a role in the process in a number of ways, he said, whether its adding more natural gas-fueled vehicles to its fleet, hiring a chief marketing officer or cutting regulations. Hickenlooper praised local efforts and detailed state efforts in his keynote address at the annual meeting of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership. "You guys really are one of the models in the state," Hickenlooper said. Hickenlooper launched what he described as a bottom-up economic development initiative early in 2011. Economic development plans were drafted in each of the 64 counties in the state and subsequently incorporated into regional plans and finally a statewide plan called the Colorado Blueprint. Mesa County was among the first counties in the state to draft an economic development plan based on a series of public hearings to set goals and devise ways to achieve those goals. The local plan includes three major goals: establish Mesa County as an epicenter for energy research, develop and promote a community brand and support the growth of existing businesses. |
Do Millennials Want to Call Your City 'Home'?
Governing - William Fulton You know the story: Kids move to where they want to live and then look for a job, not the other way around. They're drawn to a small number of hip metro areas (D.C., San Francisco, Seattle) and smaller cities (Boulder, Colo.; Missoula, Mont.; Palo Alto, Calif.) around the country and hip employers follow them. The result is an upward cycle of talent and jobs and business growth in the fashionable places, and a downward cycle everywhere else.
It's not unusual to hear people complain about this problem in Middle America, or in second-tier cities without a big university, or in populous but aging suburban locations such as Long Island, N.Y. But it's not a common thing to hear about in a place like Boston, which has the greatest concentration of universities in the country, lots of cool neighborhoods and a big chunk of the innovation economy.
Here are the facts most people know: For the foreseeable future, the so-called millennials (currently ages 18-30) will drive both the housing market and the fast-growing innovation economy. It's a huge cohort of about 70 million people. And as I mentioned above, they are gravitating toward a select group of metros and small cities.
Click here to learn more. |
Entrepreneur's Cafe
The Agurban
The Entrepreneurs' Café in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is a program that provides micro-funding awards and business services to entrepreneurs that reside in the Eastern Panhandle of the state. The goal of the Entrepreneur's Café is "to encourage the development of an entrepreneurial class by creating a forum where they can build a sense of community; hone their sales skills; access resources; obtain ideas and guidance from others; and receive reinforcement for their ideas."
During the event, local entrepreneurs are invited to "pitch" their idea or project for funding. Attendees pay $10 for a meal, have the opportunity to hear small business development ideas and vote on their favorite project. The winning entrepreneur receives the proceeds from the purchase of meals and a special cash award provided by a different partner each month.
The Entrepreneurs' Café program is part of a long-term plan to develop the entrepreneurial climate in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
Click here to learn more.
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Video Blog
 | | Dr. Lacy Boggs Optometry |
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Meeting Dates
Boone County Commissioners: - November 5 @ 9 a.m. Boone County Council: - November 13 @ 8:30 a.m. Boone County APC: - November 7 @ 7 p.m. Boone County RDC: - November 16 @ 2 p.m. Advance Town Council: - November 12 @ 7 p.m. Jamestown Town Council: - November 6 @ 7 p.m. Lebanon City Council: - November 12 @ 7 p.m. Thorntown Town Council: - November 19 @ 7 p.m. Whitestown Town Council: - November 13 @ 6:30 p.m. Zionsville Town Council: - November 5 @ 7 p.m. Boone EDC Board of Directors: - November 15 @ 4 p.m. Boone EDC Executive Committee:
- November 8 @ 7:30 a.m.
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