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February 28, 2007
"Finishing Second Is Not Bad"
I read those words about Chattanooga's failure to secure the new Toyota assembly plant, as have you, in several places today, most distressingly from a story that hit the Associated Press wires. They were spoken, of course, by the Worst Mayor for Centuries and a Decade, Ron Littlefield. Hooray. Now people all over the country are saying to themselves, "Well, in a contest with only one winner--finishing second is pretty much as bad as it gets. Whatta doofus."
Yeah, but he's our doofus.
Let me reiterate what I've said on the auto-plant at Enterprise South subject: Ron Littlefield had no bearing whatsoever on that, pro or con. Other than looking a little schlumpy to the sort of businessperson who is making those decisions, Ron's just not a factor. Mind you, I wish we had a mayor that a site recruiter would be impressed by, but whatever...
And, I'm sorry, but let's speak plainly here: It is bad that we didn't win. It's bad by definition. But that's not the point. The point is that we have to face up to the fact that it's time to start filling Enterprise South. Everyone who studies job growth knows that most growth comes from existing businesses. We need to be making it attractive for current businesses to grow. And we need to be recruiting smaller and different kinds of businesses to help broaden Chattanooga's economy. Chattanooga has become much too focused on landing the big one.
Fortunately, at this early point in the development of Enterprise South, we can recruit smaller businesses and still hold room for a big fish. But don't lets put all of our eggs in the basket of landing a car manufacturer--we're losing too much time in the process.
Comments to: worstmayorever@aol.com
| By Billy Blades | 08:44 AM
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