Critical Thinking

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Critical Thinking

• Why do cities in the United States have to be
  concerned about economic development?
• Jobs
• Tax base
• Quality of Life

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Urban Economic Development

• The City as Growth Machine

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Spatial Inequality

• Although the United States is a wealthy country,
  not all places within the US are equally wealthy
• Some places, especially some cities in the
  Northeast and Midwest, become islands of poverty
  in a sea of disparity

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Why?

• Deindustrialization
• Manufacturing jobs leaving for other locations
• US South
• Overseas
• Flight of the middle class
• Suburbanization
• Cities left with poor

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Also

• Federalism
• US does not have a central economic development
  policy
• States/localities left to their own devices
• US government does have impact, though
• Trade policy
• Defense spending

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Thus

• Cities have to take responsibility for attracting
  investment
• Cities cant create wealth, they have to attract
  it

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Growth v. Development

• Growth
• Numeric/quantitative
• Who cares as long as its more!
• Development
• Qualitative
• Concerned with distribution of wealth

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City as Growth Machine

• Harvey Molotch (1976)
• City elites concerned with growth over
  development
• Other needs are sacrificed to growth
• Growth good for elites, but not necessarily for
  everyone
• Land values rise
• Newcomers displace natives

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Growth Coalition

• Landowners
• Statesmen
• Newspapers
• Politicians
• Local businesses

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Development

• Slow growth
• Limits on rate of growth
• Smart growth
• Targeted sectors
• Sustainability
• Quality of life

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Challenges

• Actively attracting new business puts places in
  competition with each other
• Each city tries to outdo the others
• Benefits can be lost to oversubsidization