Recently in Economic Development Category

Online coupons are a great way to use the Internet to advertise downtown businesses. The Sun Prairie, WI (pop. 20,370), Chamber of Commerce posts coupons at its website at www.sunprairiechamber.com. Chamber members can submit a coupon for $10/quarter ($40/quarter for nonmembers). Coupons can be changed every quarter, and are advertised through the chamber newsletter and local newspaper. Such advertising can pay off. The chamber boasts over 1 million hits in the last three years.
Downtown Promotion Reporter
http://www.DowntownDevelopment.com/dpr.php

This study examines the feasibility associated with establishing and operating a community-based arts center in Jasper, Alabama, in the context of the greater Walker County area. The representatives of the Walker Area Community Foundation and the Arts Alliance have envisioned a community arts facility that fits within a certain range of criteria. While the vision is yet broad, there are areas of agreement that define the desired center and limit the scope of this feasibility study. They agree that such a center should be: intimate, local, versatile, unique, supportive, that it should preserve local history, and that it should attract tourists to the community.

The preponderance of arts participation in the East South Central region seems to focus on historical sites, art and craft fairs/festivals, and literature. Even so, participation is lower here than most other regions of the U.S. Focus on those areas where participation is already extant, with intensified effort in areas that will appeal to, and match the characteristics of, the local population are most likely to succeed in the Walker County setting. This study was produced for the Walker Area Community Foundation. (www.wacf.org). Download the full study here:
WACFFinal Report.pdf

Jessica LeVeen Farr, a senior regional community development manager in the Atlanta Fed's Nashville branch, points out that many, particularly small rural, communities are abandoning business recruitment, retention and expansion approaches to economic development in favor of "economic gardening," an approach designed to "grow your own" jobs through entrepreneurial activity within the community. Why? Because of mounting questions about traditional strategies, including the use of incentives and the "growing body of research that suggests small and local businesses are important drivers of economic growth in communities." For more information, go to http://www.frbatlanta.org/invoke.cfm?objectid=4AA2C253-5056-9F12-12D9273D84A914EB&method=display_body.
from Southern Compass