Author Archives: James A. Bacon

IG Report Highlights MWAA Board Conflicts

Posted on May 15, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 14 Comments

James A. Bacon

It seems that “partisan Republicans” and “wild-eyed Tea Baggers” aren’t the only people who have problems with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) board of directors. The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the Obama administration expressed concerns in an interim report on its review of the board’s policies regarding travel, ethics, transparency and the awarding of contracts. Some highlights:

MWAA’s policies and practices are generally less rigorous than corresponding State and Federal rules. Notably, MWAA’s government-appointed Board members are not bound to the same State ethics and financial disclosure laws as the elected officials who appointed them.

Our ongoing review has revealed a culture that is largely unaccustomed to external audits and inquiries by the accountability community. While MWAA has freely cooperated in most areas of our review, Board and staff in some areas were reluctant to provide access to key documents and grant us private interviews with Board members. MWAA’s reluctance to provid[e] us full transparency may be attributable to the fact that it has experienced few independent audits since its creation 25 years ago.

On the positive side, the inspectors found that MWAA’s assumptions for Dulles Toll Road revenues appear reasonable. MWAA will rely heavily upon toll road revenues to finance Phase 2 of Rail-to-Dulles construction.

In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10, declared that he was “deeply troubled” by the findings, honing in on MWAA’s contracting practices, conflict-of-interest policies and recusal practices. Wrote Wolf:

Most egregious are the IG’s findings about MWAA’s contracting practices. … Particularly concerning are the number of sole source contracts issued. As you know, MWAA is required by law to fully compete any contract over $200,000, with limited exceptions. Yet the IG’s report states that “[d]uring the period of our review, MWAA awarded five sole source contracts that were over $200,000, but did not fall under any of MWAA’s categorical exemptions. These contract awards, which amount to $6 million, did not have Board approval.” Not only did MWAA abuse the exemptions permitted under federal law, they issued numerous contracts that failed to meet even these basic standards.

The report points out that while MWAA’s Contracting Manual says some exemptions are allowed, but “comprise only a small portion of MWAA’s contracts and their dollar value,” the IG found that the use of exemptions “has amounted to 40 percent of the Authority’s $589 million in contract awards during the period of our review.”

Wolf focused in particular upon the hiring of the Jenner & Block law firm to advise the board on how to avoid seating two new Virginia board members appointed by Governor Bob McDonnell:

The report details how “… one Board member’s recommendation led MWAA to initiate a $100,000 contract with a law firm despite the fact that an immediate family member worked for the firm.” The report goes on to say that “while this family relationship had been previously disclosed, the Board member did not refrain from participating in matters related to the firm when the issue arose (per MWAA policy), and MWAA awarded the contract to the recommended firm. ….

This particular contract was initiated to procure a legal opinion by the law firm Jenner & Block for the express purpose of advising the board on how it could avoid complying with a bipartisan law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama. Amazingly, the report shows that the contract was requested on November 18, 2011, the same day the president signed the bill into law. It also is worth noting that the report reveals that the law firm submitted its “completed legal opinion to MWAA before the noncompetitive contract [was] documented and officially signed.”

Interestingly enough, Chicago-based Jenner & Block, which maintains a Washington, D.C., office, has collected $78,000 in legal fees this year from the Democratic Party-Virginia Senate Caucus, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Senate Democrats made it a top priority to fight for state funding for the Rail-to-Dulles project and blocked Governor Bob McDonnell’s efforts to seat two newly appointed board members upon the board. The Dems also fought Republican efforts to tie state funding for Rail-to-Dulles to impartiality between union contractors and open shop contracts in the awarding of the Phase 2 contract. So far, MWAA has held fast in its policy to favor union Project Labor Agreements in evaluating bidders for the estimated $2.8 billion contract.

So, Jenner & Block collected more than $100,000 from MWAA plus $78,000 from the Senate Dems. That certainly creates the appearance that MWAA’s board was actively colluding with Democrats in the Senate to thwart the McDonnell administration’s efforts to hold the board accountable. There is no other way to describe MWAA but as a rogue entity.

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Posted in 2012, Governance reform, Transportation

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Chart of the Day: Virginia Economic Performance

Posted on May 15, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 1 Comment

Image credit: Joint Economic Committee (Click chart for clearer image.)

This chart from the Joint Economic Committee of Congress comes from a recent report, “Understanding the Economy: State-by-State Snapshots.” It shows how Virginia falls in the quadrant of lower-than-median unemployment and lower-than-median job loss since the beginning of the recession. A logical question to ask is how much credit the McDonnell administration deserves for the state’s superior economic performance as compared to, say, the proximity of Northern Virginia to the Washington, D.C., spending stream.

My sense is that McDonnell deserves some credit (I will provide a small example in the following post) but not as much as he’d like to claim. Too bad the Joint Economic Committee doesn’t provide a metro-by-metro breakdown. That would yield a much clearer picture. I expect that we’d find that Northern Virginia accounts for most of the improvement.

Regardless, Virginia’s stronger-than-average economy is finally benefiting the state Treasury. In a press release issued today, Governor Bob McDonnell announced that the state’s April revenue collections increased 10.6%, bringing the year-to-date performance to 5.6% (adjusted for the accelerated sales tax phase-out) compared to an economic base forecast of 4.7%.

The good news: Virginia is not one of the states descending into a downward economic growth/budgetary spiral. Note to General Assembly: Please don’t blow the surplus on new spending. Use it to bullet-proof the state budget. We can’t count on the federal government to propel Virginia’s economy for much longer.

– JAB

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Posted in 2012, Budget, Economy

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Assembly Balks at Reining in MWAA

Posted on May 15, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 10 Comments

Metrorail construction. Photo credit: Washington Examiner.

Among other hijinks yesterday, it appears that the General Assembly shot down Governor Bob McDonnell’s bid to withhold $150 million in state contributions to Phase 2 of the Rail-to-Dulles project if the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority refused to accept two additional Virginia appointees to its board. Steve Contorno has the story for the Washington Examiner. Reports Contorno:

“The House voted 74-22 to reject a budget amendment from McDonnell that would have allowed the state to withhold the funding, saying it was sloppily written and endangered other spending in the budget. Lawmakers also argued that the state could not dictate to a regional agency it did not control.

“MWAA is not a Virginia agency,” said Del. Mark Sickles, D-Franconia. “The best case for supporting this is the lawsuit can start six weeks earlier because the governor wants to seat members.” …

“The governor believed it is imperative to move forward as soon as possible in implementing MWAA reform legislation,” McDonnell spokeswoman Taylor Thornley said.

MWAA, which is administering the Rail-to-Dulles project, has refused to seat two Virginia appointees to the board (along with one from Maryland and one from Washington, D.C.) despite passage of federal enabling legislation. MWAA contended that Virginia and the District had to amend the interstate pact. Virginia’s law doesn’t go into effect until July 1.

– JAB

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Posted in 2012, Transportation

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Bail outs for Failed States? No Way!

Posted on May 15, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 21 Comments

The Blue State governance model

by James A. Bacon

As Greece stumbles towards default on its budget promises and the European Union continues its slow-motion meltdown, a growing number of people are wondering if default is in the cards within the Dollar Union, in other words, the good ol’ United States of America.

California’s projected budget gap has increased from $9 billion in January to $16 billion today, a gap that Gov. Jerry Brown proposes to close with a debilitating combination of tax hikes and spending cuts. Meanwhile, despite jacking up income taxes last year (or perhaps because of it), Illinois faces a $2.7 billion revenue shortfall. In desperation, Gov. Pat Quinn is pushing cuts to programs serving his core Democratic constituencies, Medicaid recipients and public sector employees.

The Blue State governance model is in free fall. Normally, states don’t incur budget crises until a recession devastates their revenues. Now, we’re experiencing budget crises three years into a business cycle. I would advance the argument that a number of Blue States — California and Illinois, most visibly — have entered into an irreversible downward spiral. If they don’t raise taxes and cut spending, they will default on their debts, with incalculable consequences. If they do raise taxes, they’ll chase businesses and the productive class out of the state. If they cut spending programs, they will betray their core constituencies. When the U.S. falls back into recession, as eventually it will, the Blue States are toast.

Now people are seriously pondering the possibility of bailouts for failing states. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Representative Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Senator Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, argue that it’s time to take that option off the table.

As big government-low growth states fall deeper into the fiscal hole, the question becomes whether Washington politicians will force taxpayers in more prudent states to bail them out. This cannot be allowed to happen. As the 2008 financial crisis proved, bailouts never solve anything. They only create more problems—moral outrage on one side, and moral hazard on the other.

It is becoming clear that the only way to force recalcitrant states to put fiscal reform on the table is for Congress to take state bailouts off of it. Recent experience on Wall Street and in Athens suggests that if decision makers in Illinois, New York, California or anywhere else believe Washington will bail them out of their fiscal mismanagement, we cannot expect any self-directed reform from them. … Congress must—in word and if necessary in law—make plain that the taxpayers will not protect these states from the consequences of their policies.

I whole-heartedly concur. Virginia is among the fiscally responsible states that have worked diligently on a bipartisan basis to balance budgets, issue debt with restraint and maintain an attractive business climate. We haven’t done everything right by a long shot — as I frequently remind readers. Over and above engaging in dubious budget tricks, we have pusillanimously avoided fundamental reform of basic institutions from education and health care to transportation and land use. But, hard as it is to believe, we’ve screwed things up less royally than many others. Virginians should not be asked to pay for the glaring failures of others.

Virginia’s Congressmen need to join Brady and DeMint to make it crystal clear that they will oppose any bid to bail out failed states… a bid that is surely coming, whether next  year or next decade. It won’t be hard for Republican representatives, who have no sympathy whatsoever for the travails of the Blue States, to say no. But Democrats could find themselves conflicted.

Republican candidates for Jim Webb’s U.S. Senate seat should press the inevitable Democratic nominee, Tim Kaine, on whether he would vote to bail out the blue states. Get him on the record. If he waffles, make it a campaign issue.

For that matter, it wouldn’t hurt to put heat on Sen. Mark Warner. While Warner has been vocal about the dangers of the impending federal budget apocalypse, he voted for the Obama stimulus and for Obamacare. Virginia voters cannot take it for granted that he would oppose a budget-busting bail out of failed Blue States. Let’s get him on the record.

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Posted in 2012, Budget

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How Robots in Parking Garages Can Advance New Urbanism

Posted on May 14, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 2 Comments


Robotics and information technology are migrating off the factory floor and appearing in the most remarkable places. Boomerang Systems, an exhibitor at the Congress for the New Urbanism conference last week, outfits garages with automated parking systems. In projects where construction costs are high or land is valuable, it can make economic sense for property owners to invest in the company’s RoboticValet service.

RoboticValet works like this: A passenger drives his car onto a foot-high palette. A robot the shape of a giant gift box slips under the palette and provides the locomotion. Following electronic guides embedded in the cement floor, the robot steers the car to its parking space. The system conserves space in several ways: (1) there is no need for a ramp, only a car elevator, (2) robots can move the palettes sideways and can spin in place to change directions, (3) cars can be parked two or three deep and need no space for opening doors, and (4) there is no need to provide for passenger entry and exit.

RoboticValet isn’t cheap — the robotic system costs between $12,000 and $15,000 per parking space, says Rich Cline, Boomerang’s VP of business development. But, depending upon the circumstances, the system can cut the space requirements of parking decks in half. With structured parking costing between $10,000 to $30,000 per space, and twice as much if underground excavation is required, building owners can save a lot in construction costs or free up valuable space for lease to tenants. Other advantages: the robotic equipment can be depreciated more rapidly than buildings, money is saved on lighting and ventilation systems, and car owners aren’t at risk of dings and scrapes from maneuvering in tight places.

Boomerang Systems, which started as an automated self-storage enterprise, got into the business after developers and architects asked for a more space-efficient way to park cars, says Cline. The first system was installed October in Crystal Springs, N.J., another is going into a condominium project in Miami, Fla., and the company has 10 projects under contract to deliver 3,000 parking spaces over the next 18-24 months.

Bacon’s bottom line: It will be interesting to see how this business progresses. The technology is expensive but in the right projects it can bring down the cost of structured parking and it can free architects to be more creative with how they utilize space. By itself RoboticValet won’t significantly alter land use patterns, even if it proves commercially viable, but it is one more tool that can help make density work.

– JAB

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Posted in 2012, Land use & development, Science & Technology, Transportation

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McDonnell Still Plugging Port Development Subsidies

Posted on May 14, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 2 Comments

Governor Bob McDonnell is campaigning hard for an amendment to the 2013-2014 budget that would provide grants to companies locating in the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone. A press release from the Governor’s Office lists more than 30 local governments, Chambers of Commerce and other groups, from the Virginia Manufacturers Association to the International Longshoreman’s Association, that support the measure.

The General Assembly had rejected an earlier proposal that offered tax credits on the grounds that tax credits are harder to track than grants. Grants would range between $1,000 per new job for companies that create 25 or more new jobs to $3,000 per job for companies that create 100 or more jobs. Companies involved in distribution, manufacturing, warehousing, wholesaling and the maritime sector would qualify. Total grants would not exceed $5 million in any year.

McDonnell offered this rationale: “Businesses, local governments, and citizens all across the Commonwealth recognize the tremendous importance of the Port of Virginia and its role in spurring economic development and job creation. As we look forward over the rest of this decade, this impact is project to grow tremendously. To realize this growth potential, however, we have to level the playing field with our competitors and incentive the distribution, manufacturing, multi-modal, warehousing and other types of facilities necessary to support a major international port to come to Virginia. Without these types of incentives, the economic development and job creation opportunities surrounding our port will go elsewhere and our competitors will continue to grow.”

Focus on the words “support a major international port to come to Virginia.”

What is this? Is an international corporation considering building a new port in Virginia? If so, who is this entity? Where would they build? Is this entity playing Virginia off against other states? Can we get a clearer explanation of why subsidies are needed over and above the Governor’s Opportunity Fund? Can we have a little more transparency, please?

Update: The General Assembly approved this amendment to the budget May 14.

– JAB

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Posted in 2012, Economic development, Transportation

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Cville Bypass Bids Come in Under $244 Million Estimate… Or Maybe Not

Posted on May 14, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 1 Comment

Photo credit: The Hook

The low bid for the Charlottesville Bypass, submitted by Virginia Beach Skanska- Branch/JMT, came in below cost estimates, says the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), as reported by Charlottesville Tomorrow Friday. “Based on the apparent low bids all project costs are within the allocated amount in the Six-Year Improvement Program,” said Lou Hatter, spokesman for VDOT’s Culpeper District.

But foes of the controversial bypass say the cost will exceed official estimates. “The Virginia Department of Transportation opened the bids from contractors to build the Charlottesville Western Bypass–which ranged between $18 million and $96 million higher than VDOT’s estimated construction costs as best as we can determine based upon the very limited information we have received from the agency at this time,” said Jeff Werner, Albemarle and Charlottesville land use officer for the Piedmont Environmental Council in a press release.

Moreover, said Werner, the public still doesn’t know what it’s getting for its money. The bids are based on preliminary designs that haven’t been made public yet. The designs submitted by bidders under the design-build project may vary significantly from the sketches displayed by VDOT during public hearings.

Last year, the Commonwealth Transportation Board voted to allocate an additional $197.4 million to the bypass, a sum that would cover construction, design and additional right-of-way acquisition. The CTB approved the sum unaware of controversy inside VDOT over how much the project would cost. The McDonnell administration later acknowledged that the original design might have to be modified but contended that there was ample cushion thanks to efficiencies resulting from the design-build process and a track record of construction bids coming in below estimate in recent years.

The total cost of the project, including money spent on engineering and right-of-way, is estimated to be $244.5 million. Of that amount, reports Sean Tubbs for Charlottesville Tomorrow, VDOT had set aside $125.6 million for additional engineering and construction. Skanska’s bid was $136 million, or seemingly $10 million higher. (The highest bidder submitted a bid of $214 million.)

It was not clear from Tubb’s story how VDOT could claim that the Skanska bid came in below estimate. Nor was it clear from its press release how the PEC calculated an $18 million cost overrun. The issue is of more than academic importance. If the project cost exceeds the amount allocated by the CTB, the McDonnell administration might have to go back before the board and request additional funds. Getting approval might not be so easy second time around, given all the events that have transpired in the past 10 months.

Werner said the bids did not include several important elements, including landscaping, noise mitigation for neighborhoods and schools, and other adjustments as may be required by an environmental assessment that is not yet complete.

If I can sort out the issues, I’ll follow up with another blog post.

– JAB

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Americans Need to Drive Less, Walk More

Posted on May 13, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 14 Comments

by James A. Bacon

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.–Something is very wrong with America’s health, Dr. Richard Jackson, professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California-Los Angeles, told the Congress for the New Urbanism today. Rates of depression, obesity and diabetes are soaring. “We’re looking at the first generation in American history that will have a shorter life span than their parents.”

There is no single villain behind the deterioration in public health. But from a big-picture perspective, the problem is easy to explain. Americans are eating more than they did 30 years ago, and they’re getting less exercise. And a major reason they’re getting less exercise can be traced to changes in the built environment. “The environment is rigged against the child and rigged against the doctor,” he said. “We have medicalized what is an environmental health challenge.”

Jackson was preaching to the converted. New Urbanists have long fought the auto-centric design of the American suburbs and preached the virtues of compact, walkable, mixed use communities. Originally, walkable communities were seen mainly as an antidote to traffic congestion, the high cost of automobile ownership and the erosion of community. But in recent years, New Urbanists have been touting the health advantages of urban design that make it practicable for people to walk and ride bicycles.

Jackson blasted the contribution of automobiles to mortality and illness at many levels. Automobile crashes are the number one cause of death for Americans between the ages of three and 33, he said. Air pollution from cars and trucks causes an ever larger number of deaths. Children living in communities with high levels of pollution have 3.3 times the risk of asthma than children living in communities with low levels. But the greatest health threat of all is the lack of physical exercise. Children enjoy little mobility in suburban communities. They cannot walk to school, visit their friends or engage in scheduled activities unless driven by an adult.

Children are out of shape, and obesity rates are surging, Jackson said. Only 37% of California kids can meet a fitness standard of running/walking a mile in 12 minutes. Two out of seven volunteers get rejected by the military because they don’t meet minimal fitness standards. By 2030, obesity rates for adults are projected to reach 42%.

Physicians have found they can’t treat obesity with medication, and counseling doesn’t seem to work. The environmental factors reinforcing over-eating and under-exercising are too strong. It may be possible to reduce caloric intake by such measures as taxing soft drinks, Jackson said, but Americans need to re-build their communities to get them out of cars and onto sidewalks and bicycles. The nation needs to “make physical activity a routine and integral part of life.”

Bacon’s bottom line: I don’t agree with all of Jackson’s prescriptions (like raising taxes on sugar), but there’s no denying that he’s diagnosed the problem. For what it’s worth, obesity seems to be a particular problem in Virginia. Hampton Roads is the 4th fattest region in the country, according to a recent Newsweek tally, and Richmond is the 2nd fattest! Holy moly! No wonder the Bon Secours Virginia Health System sponsored Jackson’s presentation.

As Jackson said, this is a “code blue” emergency. Obesity and the health complications arising from it, particularly hypertension and diabetes, will cost the health care system hundreds of billions of dollars that will cost even the healthy among us. Time to get cracking!

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Posted in 2012, Health care, Land use & development

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Krier Decries Kitsch, Inhuman Scale of Modernist Architecture

Posted on May 12, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 5 Comments

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA–Leon Krier, one of the world’s leading neo-traditional architects and urban planners, finds a lot to be unhappy about what planners, architects and developers are building these days. He dislikes high-rises and skyscrapers, which he views as affronts to human scale. He detests modernist architecture, which, by sacrificing traditional forms and proportions, fills the landscape with kitsch. He loathes the use of synthetic materials, which replace natural materials rooted in local environments and cultural traditions. Vast swaths of the built environment are not only ugly and inhuman but they are built upon a foundation of the fossil-fuel economy that will collapse sooner or later.

“We have created problems for which there is no human resolution,” said Krier this morning in a keynote address to the Congress for the New Urbanism. “There is a love story and religious respect for hyper-scale. … These things are unstoppable and unreformable.”

Krier provided a pessimistic note in an otherwise forward-looking and up-beat conference. Many of his comments presupposed the audience’s familiarity with ongoing debates and schisms in the architecture/planning field and, for rustics such as myself, called out for more context. Much of his address was unbloggable.

However, one theme did emerge that I find worth illuminating. It is Krier dogma that buildings should be built to a human scale. “If I were dictator,” he said, “I would dictate that no building be more than three floors high.” Invariably, people would figure out how to get around the dictator’s rules and maybe build to four or five stories, which would be fine.

He views skyscrapers and high-rises as “vertical cul de sacs,” as egregious as the horizontal dead ends of suburbia. Skyscrapers isolate people in their buildings and limit human interaction. People arrive in cars, park in underground parking lots and ride elevators to their offices. Then they leave the same way. The streets at ground level are often empty of people.

The genius of the development style in traditional European cities — he didn’t say this, but I’m extrapolating here and drawing upon Richard Florida (see previous post) — is that they achieved a density and design that optimized human interaction. Humans are social creatures and they crave interaction, so Krier’s optimal density satisfies basic human needs. Also, the often-random encounters that occur on city streets spark new ideas that lead to innovation. Finally (borrowing from urbanist Jane Jacobs) Krier’s optimal density puts more “eyes on the street,” which reduces crime and other anti-social behavior.

Thus, if I am reading Krier correctly based on his remarks, there is an optimal level of density somewhere between what we see in American suburbs and what we find in Manhattan. To maximize peoples’ satisfaction with their surroundings and spur creativity and innovation, we should strive to build communities that achieve that optimal level of density.

– JAB

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The Creative Class Meets New Urbanism

Posted on May 12, 2012 by James A. Bacon| 18 Comments

by James A. Bacon

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA–Richard Florida, the author of the “Rise of the Creative Class,” has long remarked upon the creative class’ penchant for living in certain cities rather than others. He has devoted much of his energy over the past 10 years to illuminating the importance of a community’s tolerance for cultural diversity and its openness to newcomers as a trait valued by the creative class. But there has always been as sub-theme in his writing. Creatives also are drawn to cities with a vibrant urban fabric.

In my own Virginia-centric writing about economic development in knowledge economy, I have drawn upon Florida’s insights about the creative class to argue that one of the  challenges facing Virginia’s metro regions is creating an environment where creatives want to live. And I have turned to the work of the New Urbanists for insight into how to create more livable and sustainable communities.

Thus, it was a source of great delight to hear Florida address the 2012 Congress for New Urbanism this afternoon here in West Palm Beach. Florida and various New Urbanism luminaries had crossed paths before, but this was the first time he ever participated in a CNU event. Most  of his remarks were vintage Florida, familiar to anyone who has read his books. But he threw out fresh meat to creative class junkies like myself by sharing the results from some of his recent research.

Florida’s original insight was that corporations are not the key drivers of economic growth and development. Members of what he calls the “creative class” — those artists, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, professionals and solvers of complex problems who comprise roughly 30% of the workforce and account for the vast majority of innovation in our society and economy — drive economic development. Corporations follow the talent. They do business where they can gain access to people with the skills they are seeking. Additionally, when creative people  mix, mingle and combine ideas, they ferment entrepreneurial opportunities, generating new enterprises from the ground up.

The moral of the story: Rather than recruit corporations and corporate investment directly, regions should focus on creating an ambiance that attracts and retains the creative class. For the most part, creatives aren’t looking for the traditional cultural status symbols like stadiums, convention centers, symphonies and ballets. They are looking for cool neighborhoods with vibrant street culture and “authenticity,” an urban fabric rooted in the city’s unique history and culture, as opposed to the sterile mall culture of chain stores and restaurants.

Florida identifies three primary things that give people purpose, meaning and happiness in life. First is family, friends and social relationships. Second is the ability to perform creative work. And third is the place where they live. Sure, everyone wants low crime, good schools, a clean environment and the presence of arts and culture. But two traits drive strong emotional attachment to a region. According to Florida’s recent research, the second most important factor is tolerance — openness to diversity regardless of race, religion, ethnicity and sexual preference. The most important is the community’s aesthetics, beauty — what he calls the “quality of place.”

The quality of place is something that the New Urbanists think about day and night, and their influence upon Florida’s thinking is clear. In Florida’s mind, quality of place is influenced by a number of factors: (1) the degree to which a city (or region) has valued and preserved its history and heritage; (2) the extent to which neighborhoods are walkable, have mixed uses and offer transportation alternatives, (3) the depth of community investment in arts and culture, including popular art and music, not just the high-brow stuff, and (4) the integration of the natural and built environment in a way that’s accessible to the population. Thus, things like parks, rivers and tree canopy assume far more importance than traditional economic developers would ever imagine.

As I consider my home town of Richmond, these things all ring true to me. That’s why I’ve been blogging recently about building murals, indie bands and art districts as a sign of Richmond’s cultural renaissance and eventual entrepreneurial rebound. There will always be a role for recruiting corporate headquarters, back offices and manufacturing facilities. But, as Richmond has discovered the hard way, corporations come and go. Traditional economic development must be accompanied by community development — creating the “great places” that attract and retain society’s wealth creators. Richmonders are making that transition in thinking, but they are not fully there yet. I’ll do what I can to nudge them in the right direction.

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Posted in 2012, Economic development

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