Last week, the House passed a huge ($284 billion, six-year) "transportation" bill. I put in those quote markers because this bill is about more than transportation (and we can certainly so longer call it a "Highway" bill). While most of the money still goes to hard transportation projects (roads, bridges, etc.) there are a number of research, technology, education and information-related programs.
What strikes me most, however, is looking through the list of congressionally earmarked projects. I'm not going to get into whether earmarks are good or bad - but the certainly are an indicator of local priorities. And in this bill, while the vast majority of the projects again are hard transportation projects, there are a number of earmarks for museums, visitor centers, historic houses, recreational areas, recreational (bike, snowmobile, horse) trails, etc. Also I found it interesting that one of the leading anti-earmark organizations -- Taxpayers for Common Sense -- chose to highlight many of these non-transportation projects in their analysis of the bill.
These programs are geared not to moving people from place to place (transportation), but to getting people to come to a certain location. It is amenities-led economic development - which is a growing trend in this intangible economy.
At the end of last year, a similar project - $100,000 grant to the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center - was singled out of the massive Federal spending bill as the example of pork. As I said at the time, layoff the groundhog!
Since economic activity is no longer merely a process of combining capital, energy, materials and labor, local economic requires identifying and utilizing that there intangible assets. One of the major economic intangibles that a community possesses is its unique cultural and historic resources. It is important not just as part of the multi-billion dollar tourism industries. It is also important for creating the environment for attracting high-talent, high creative workers to populate those creative industries. These assets are an important foundation upon which communities can build their local economy. In New York City, it's Broadway; in Punxsutawney, it's Phil.
Leave a comment