My read is that the resume is good...but more things have to happen than her just doing a really good job.
Will she be empowered to do her job?
Despite the best possible circumstances, will people make the investment to take a risk on an operation in Granite City?
The other wild card is the PEOPLE.
So I do wish her the best and wish the city the very best....
Remember, wanting a Steak N Shake, or a Golden Corral is the tip of the iceberg. Wishing for more branches of out-of-town corporate operations that pay low wages may make for a busier corridor somewhere......but that's just the tip...it's the top soil...and people want more flowers and manicured grass...
But it's time to go to the figurative bedrock...and re-work the whole landscape upon which everything else is situated upon it.
Granite City has a tough go... because the American Bottoms surround Granite City with poverty and historically GC is an outgrowth of St. Louis. Imagine, they came to ILLINOIS to AVOID taxation once uponce a time. Musial Bridge, McKinley Bridge, Chain of Rocks .... all bridges to more poverty. There are not people with large amounts of disposable income to support a dynamite development in Granite City.
No one is coming down from the bluffs, and the bluffs further isolate Granite City and its neighboring poor towns.
So Granite City has to make it happen on their own and create their own opportunities...
It's a hard proposition...but it's not going to be solved with White Castle...any more than it was solved with Wal Mart or other operations who benefit from poverty wages while depending on the government to take care of their employees.
Retail does nothing but give someone a place to shop...which is somewhat important.
Warehousing has to be approached carefully...a lot of these robber capitalists set up shop, take advantage of the incentives, and then hire temp workers at poverty wages while contributing nothing for roads and infrastructure.
How long can US Steel be the major taxpayer of the area and manufacturing somehow miraculously remaing the heartbeat of the Granite City economy?
While roads, water, rail and air should make Granite City (and frankly even East St. Louis) ideal for all kinds of development.....
The economic director will have a tough job in helping the city discern what it wants to be and what it can manage to be.
With all that said...when you don't get your White Castle or Golden Corral... and want to blame Ms. Hamilton that nothing is happening....
Remember, it takes digging down to the bedrock and reworking the whole system... Dressing the flower bed has a short-term feel good effect.
Fixing Granite City.... if it can be fixed ... you better be prepared to be in it for the long haul.
on March 4, 2019, 9:40 am, in reply to "