This is a great article by Dan O'Brien on some of the problems with promoting economic development in the Rust Belt. I would push the reporter and others looking at this topic to go further: what DOES work? https://twitter.com/charlesornstein/status/1259810787864055809

Youngstown of special interest as it was one of 2 areas profiled in Sean Safford's book, "Why the Garden Club Couldn't Save Youngstown", which compared Ytown w/ Lehigh Valley -- & found that LV did much better than Ytown in responding to steel collapse. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002FQK3QI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

So, what did reporter find (1) Ytown made big bet on this can firm & others using property tax breaks and water funds, incl clearing land; (2) many deals have not worked out -- some of problem seems to be firm-specific issues, some the land seems not to have been "shovel-ready".

(3) financing has created problems for schools and for water system; (4) some corruption in some cases has been alleged; (5) where deals have worked out, city residents have not necessarily gotten the jobs; (6) city has been reluctant to use clawbacks when deals have not worked

(7) reporter refers to an area business incubator, & to an Obama-era financed Advanced Manuf Ctr, but we don't hear much about whether they have worked or show promise. I am very curious about this.

There's a lot to unpack here. First: Ytown, the city itself, is not a local labor market. We would not necessarily expect city residents to get jobs at city employers. What we need is metro-wide economic dev effort, which includes workforce programs and transit to help unemployed

throughout region access jobs. & I doubt whether city has leverage to force firms to hire city residents. Not really a feasible option in Ytown case. Probably need metrowide econ dev strategy w/ more of workforce carrot approach to push local hiring.

Second, it's ridiculous that we expect a distressed city to on its own finance most of its own redevelopment. Why are we surprised this doesn't very often work very well? If feds or state wants to help Ytown, let's finance an economic development strategy rather than....

forcing a tradeoff between paying for economic development or schools or water/sewer. All are needed. & make no mistake: economic development strategies will cost money, even if we avoid most costly programs.

Third, I think these long-term prop tax breaks are a bad idea -- I understand that from Ytown's point of view, it was the only game in town, but not a great option. My suggestion: emulate Virginia, which (1) pays out 20K/job; (2) delays payment 4 years to see whether jobs last.

Why LT prop tax breaks bad: the prop tax break 5 or 10 years later really is mostly cost, doesn't drive decisions. More upfront payment a la Va is better -- but 4-yr delay avoids clawback problem. Much higher bang for buck.

Fourth, I don't think redeveloping older land for industrial use is crazy -- in fact, in Safford's book, industrial parks one of key Lehigh Valley success stories. Land truly ready for development is valuable local asset. It sounds like in Ytown, the land really wasn't ready.

Fifth, in general, making a big bet on one company obviously is risky use of scarce resources. Very politically tempting! But things like business incubator & promoting manuf productivity are more diverse strategies.

Now, it sounds like Ytown, or someone in the area at least, is actually pursuing these more diverse strategies. Are they working? We need to know. It's more exciting to readers to show one big failure, but policymakers need to know about less showy small successes.

So, in sum, Ytown story illustrates: (1) Distressed areas need metro-wide strategies, ideally with state/fed help at large scale; (2) these strategies should include diverse portfolio of projects, not just one bet, and provide services such as incubator; (3) job-creation....

should be coupled w/ workforce development & other policies to link new jobs with area residents who need jobs; (4) land development is part of strategy, but need to do it in high-quality way; (5) when incentives used, limit their size & term, and lag payment after jobs created