Focus on Being a Great Town and Everybody Wins
Reader Comments
| June 20, 2008 |  View for printing |
I have been doing a series of columns on approaches I have seen communities similar to Steamboat Springs take toward economic development. I did this series because I was growing weary of the fear based rhetoric from both sides with strong opinions surrounding the retention and/or expansion of Triple Crown Sports.
Decisions made in an atmosphere of fear typically turn out to be poor ones. Call me naive but I believe that knowledge and experience are the beginnings of wisdom. Wisdom is sorely needed in this situation to make sure as a community that we do not make decisions based in fear of what might happen and find out later those decisions had long-range unintended consequences.
There are essentially three approaches I have seen communities take when developing an economic development strategy. Each has different goals.
By Scott Ford
Full Story: http://www.thesteamboatlocal.net/article.php?id=606
Economic Gardening: http://littletongov.org/bia/economic ... econdev.asp
Reader Comments:
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Let's not forget that economic development is important, but is not the only strategy to improve quality of life in small, rural communities. There are now seventy local community foundations in Montana and most of them are in rural towns. Even though most are still under ten years old, they are creating, through grassroots fundraising, permanent endowments that provide local funding every year, in perpetuity, for quality of life issues likes arts and culture activities, programs for children and seniors, improvements to parks, beautification projects and so much more. Most counties in Montana are now served by a local community foundation. The volunteers building these charitable institutions deserve recognition for the permanent benefit they are creating across Montana. |
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