Comments on: Angelou Economics Community Forum

By: Republican By Default

Republican By Default — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:55:36 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. I’m not against improving the arts/ entertainment/ tourism industries in Tacoma, but I don’t think they’ll be very productive economically.

One of my first customers was an artist turned distributor so I’m somewhat familiar with the business side of the industry and I’ve also produced a few concerts and done a lot of event planning. There seems to be a lot of money in those fields but it’s often concentrated in a few people’s hands. What Tacoma needs are industries that put money into a lot of people’s hands.

I’m also well aware of Tacoma’s image problem. Having worked extensively in Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, etc. I can say that it’s a very real problem. Some have tried to say it’s just a low self-esteem problem for Tacoman’s, but it’s very real. Those high-brow industries are impeded by that image.

Having also come from a blue-collar town I know the value that it has on the local economy. Whenever a small factory opened it made life a little better for everyone. When there was a lull in growth of blue-collar industries there was also a lull in growth of retail and entertainment.

I think Tacoma’s ‘destiny’ is to be what it is, not what a few people want it to be.

By: CA

CA — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:51:07 +0000

grubedoo, what blue collar jobs do you want to relocate to downtown? Arent downtowns, by definition, comprised of office buildings filled with “highbrow” workers?

By: grubedoo

grubedoo — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:22:12 +0000

I recently saw a program talking about cities that have successfully grown financially and in population while redeveloping their image and downtowns. The ones that did the best were ones that encouraged growth in blue collar industries rather than the “higher brow” alternatives. Cities like NY, LA, CHI all suffered from their focus on arts/entertainment/tourism because when it came down to brass tacks the most money and population still lies in the blue collar demographic.

I think Tacoma should stop trying to become a cultural centerpiece and focus on building blue collar industries, then the culture will come.

By: jamie

jamie — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 05:02:44 +0000

Great post, RBD. I’m really interested to hear the results, too.

I would agree that there are probably some big problems with the way that they collected results in their survey. Self-selecting samples are always less helpful than random sampling that captures a good cross section of the actual demographics. Seems like everybody and their mother is throwing out a SurveyMonkey survey these days, which is fine for many things…but recently I saw one related to some research by a UPS student–I’d like to think that our schools would teach better research methods than that, or at least spend some time talking about the statistical caveats for such things…

I’m sure if you’ve read any of my stuff you know I’m ridiculously progressive, eco-freaky, etc., and excited about investments in arts/entertainment/tourism…but I would agree that in all things a balanced approach is important.

Anyway, thanks again for the report-back.