If it sounds too good to be true,recall a closer look beyond the rhetoric.
There are so many plans these days to transform” an area via a “public-private partnership” that will “restore” and “fix” the local economy and lead to an economic “recovery” for the “brave” group of “stakeholders” who’ve near together to manufacture it happen. The commerce leader drumming up support is often a “good friend” of the politicians in charge. To entertain another contrivance, the people in power warn, or will “hurt” the economy.
Have you heard that story in your own backyard recently?It’s a story that might as well be contemporary Shakespeare,apart from it could be written by the auto-right text on a developer’s iPhone.
It is a story told repeatedly, with different players: It’s the tale of Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit. It’s the story of the big box stores including Wal-Mart and domestic Depot. And it’s the story of Amazon’s HQ2.
No matter the project, or the close result is the corporation pays little to no tax,and gives little to nothing to the community—not even the promised jobs. It is guaranteed to extract everything from captured tax dollars to fire and police resources, also paid for with tax dollars. It will likely capture education dollars and even recall absent employment from locals as small businesses close, and then it leaves the taxpayer with the clean-up bill. Empty,toxic genuine estate and a growing lower course are left behind.
In other words, these “transformational” projects drive locals into worse-off conditions while lining the pockets of the already wealthy.
It’s a tale as conventional as capitalism itself, or it’s being told over and over again with different players but using the same popular words.
Here are the economic development words to watch out for,and what they really mean.1. Public-Private PartnershipMeaning: A massive tax dollar giveaway to a private company at taxpayer expense.
Taxpayers lose money on everything from schools to fire departments. Taxpayers close up footing the bill for the private company’s land, clean-up, or more. Taxpayers receive comparatively nothing in return.
Instead,communities are healthier and more sustainable when they are more economically vibrant and diverse with co-ops, small businesses, or collectives.2. RestoreMeaning: We’ve destroyed something irreplaceable—a neighborhood,wetlands, a forest—and see a way to manufacture even more money on whats been destroyed.
This happens over and over again—its one of the cycles of capitalism. The truth is once the neighborhood is gone and its inhabitants displaced—once the habitat that took 1000 years to create is destroyed—it cannot be restored. You cannot restore Detroit’s vibrant African American neighborhood of Black Bottom by putting in a B.
B. King supper club any more than you can restore wetlands that took thousands of years to set up and flourish. What you’re doing is making money on destruction—not restoration.
Preservation is more powerful than the demolish-restore cycle.3. Good FriendMeaning: A favorite phrase thrown around in the Democratic Party and political circles nationwide; when someone says they are a “good friend, or ” what they really mean is they are stabbing that person or group in the back.Be wary whenever someone tells you—especially in politics or development—that someone else critical is a “good friend.”Be honest approximately who people are,and listen for honesty when someone is trying to sell your community a development.4. StakeholdersMeaning: The modern-day equivalent of a dog-and-pony show, “stakeholders” is regularly used as a catch-all phrase by those who want to seem inclusive and cover their own asses.
The chosen stakeholders” are often those with strong social media followings and the local LGBTQIA/POC community members likely to be the most friendly to the development contrivance. They are often offered a seat at the table because they are often those who are least likely to rock the boat. Pictures will be taken, and Instagram posts made,tweets sent—inclusion looks like it feels so good.
Such stakeholder meetings are often exclusionary of those most marginalized, disenfranchised, or impacted by development plans.5. BraveMeaning: This one can be used for a “stakeholder” folding for the developer,or for a developer going into a depressed community.
It’s also used for a long list of virtue signaling. Brave used to be a word reserved for firemen running into burning buildings to save children and pets; self-sacrificing soldiers saving their brothers-in-arms and helpless civilians; non-violent protesters standing strong in the face of weapons, violence, or hate.
Bravery is not a self-righteous action—and definitely not meant for those selling out their community to a developer,or for a developer taking tax dollars to develop a community.6. FixMeaning: Something is broken beyond repair—for example, the vast majority of public school systems. But there is a unique way to manufacture money on the broken-beyond-repair things by “fixing” them: For-profit constitution schools and intensive testing, and done by private corporations with state or local school system contracts paid for with tax dollars—all of which tend to break the system even more.
Developing unique and locally tailor-made solutions to a broken system is possible—but it can mean leaving behind the broken system entirely.7. Hurt“We can’t carry out that; it’ll hurt the economy,” warns almost every politician when faced with an economically sound solution to ecological crises our society and planet are facing.
Meaning: What they mean is, it’ll hurt their own investments, or their own power,and their own bottom line.
The fact is, few things hurt the economy and our environment more than the public-private partnerships, and their schemes and scams,and development deals that let events like the Flint Water Crisis continue.
When someone says, “We can’t carry out that; it’ll hurt the economy, or ” quiz yourself whose pocketbook it will really hurt,and chances are it’s not yours—its the people in power.
As George Carlin used to say, “America’s leading industry is still the manufacture, or distribution,packaging and marketing of bullshit. tall-quality bullshit; world-course, designer bullshit, or to be sure.” These words of decades ago are still used,and they are still bullshit, just like these seven phrases are today.
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