There is no group of citizens in less need of government support than the leisure class.
But those are the people our local government takes care of.
TopGolf? The ballpark? That arena?
Lemme get this straight. Those are the elements that are going to make El Paso great again? Entrepreneurs, and the elusive young professionals, are supposed to be lured to El Paso by upscale retail?
Brutus reminded me that all this fruitless activity got started when Richard Florida gave a speech at the Abe back in 2012. Our political class thought they could judo his message to suit their needs, but they don’t invoke the name Richard Florida much anymore. Maybe because his message doesn’t jibe with their agenda.
Here’s what Wikipedia ascribes to Mr. Florida:
Florida’s theory asserts that metropolitan regions with high concentrations of technology workers, artists, musicians, lesbians and gay men, and a group he describes as “high bohemians”, exhibit a higher level of economic development. Florida refers to these groups collectively as the “creative class.” He posits that the creative class fosters an open, dynamic, personal and professional urban environment. This environment, in turn, attracts more creative people, as well as businesses and capital. He suggests that attracting and retaining high-quality talent versus a singular focus on projects such as sports stadiums, iconic buildings, and shopping centers, would be a better primary use of a city’s regeneration of resources for long-term prosperity.
Our “leaders” don’t really offer a cogent argument for the presumed benefit of their policies. I guess they can’t say that they’re trying to redistribute income from the poorer El Pasoans to wealthier El Pasoans.
That’s trickle up.
I remember the high fives and gushing enthusiasm among the city manager and the city council members. The idea that catering to the needs of a sophisticated class of people is a motor of economic development is fiction. Sustainable growth is organic. This means that to the extent the population prospers systemically, demand grows for amenities. Once the demand is there to support the ‘vanity’ projects, the private sector is only too happy to provide them. The leadership in El Paso is deluded and attempts to delude people into thinking that if the amenities are provided by taxpayers, the demand is created. ‘Build it and they will come’. Nonsense then, and 2 Billion dollars of debt later, nonsense now.
And indeed, the bovine excrement (per Jim Hightower) trickles down.
We have to remember that a large part of the supposed demand that got this “arena” in the bond project was fraudulent forms…