Posted on 08/23/2010 5:23:58 PM PDT by scrabblehack
It's 20+ years late and I realize my mistake. Back in the 1980's, Jack Kemp boosted "Enterprise Zones." They were supposed to revitalize America's cities.
Recently a friend has asked me for assistance in starting a small retail business. Of course the biggest obstacle is getting the startup capital. I was looking around and came across the HUD site.
I then started looking at possible sites. To make a long story short, the commercial properties inside the zone I could find seemed like high risk sites to say the least. One main drag in town had some commercial properties (no empty slots) but what commercial properties there were are attorneys' offices and nonprofits.
My conclusion is that they have set the program up so that a business will probably fail. It's great for the community organizers (and anyone looking to rent commercial property). The community organizers will say, "We tried to help, but we need more money."
yer not spos to look...your spos to praise them for how much they care. Pay your tithes to the gov-ment god. and bless the politicians for their great policies by voting for them again.
If you want to do “Enterprise Zones” then you need to do it like they do in Asia, specifically China. Set up a 200 square mile “Enterprise Zone” and go for it.
Something like Shanghai, or the Guangzhou and Fujian Provinces. THAT works, because it’s big enough that thousands of businesses of all size can set up, and have plenty of room to grow, and you can build infrastructure for it.
A square mile here, or square mile there simply isn’t enough area to build a growing, thriving area.
So you move your business into a different location and your taxes drop by 40% . Usually such businesses are either owned by local pols or by those who are well connected.
I have to agree with you there. I spent some time in China in a EZ, the EZ was huge 120+ sq km, and employed about a half million people.
THe closest I’ve seen in the USA is in NJ, .. taking a blurb from the NJ Urban EZ website:
Administered by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the UEZ Program supports nearly 150,000 full-time jobs and has attracted more than $24 billion in private investment.
There are almost 7,000 businesses of all sizes and types participating and benefiting from the advantages of the UEZ Program. These include a number of tax and other financial incentives. Since the program’s inception, over 26,000 businesses have enjoyed UEZ Program benefits.
The downside to the targeted “urban” EZ in NJ is the customer base arbitrage steals sales from corporations outside the UEZs.
Irony of ironies: HUD has demarcated the EZ with a red line.
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