2006/08/17
County cooperation and entrepreneurial development
Jill points us to a piece on North Carolina's Research Triangle – a 13-county region that encompasses Duke University, NC State, and UNC-Chapel Hill.
The secret to the Triangle's success is a lot different from what some people are envisioning here in Central New York.
First, let's get it out there: The Research Triangle is nothing like any other area in the U.S. You pick any given area in the U.S., you'll find that about between 20 and 30 percent of the residents have a college degree. In that area, the number falls somewhere around 70 percent. [They also happen to have a really great progressive blog.]
But that doesn't mean it's not competing with other areas in the same way we are.
Over the past 50 years, the Triangle has seen a significant drop in manufacturing, and has realized it needs to start looking elsewhere (this is being driven home even more here, as Deluxe announced today it's closing its call center).
What the Triangle is doing: Luring businesses with tax breaks.
What the Triangle is not doing: Shopping for a cure-all. Or a shopping mall.
More specifically, what the Triangle is doing right is creating development and training, and working with its universities.
There's also the realization that competition for development is global:
The secret to the Triangle's success is a lot different from what some people are envisioning here in Central New York.
First, let's get it out there: The Research Triangle is nothing like any other area in the U.S. You pick any given area in the U.S., you'll find that about between 20 and 30 percent of the residents have a college degree. In that area, the number falls somewhere around 70 percent. [They also happen to have a really great progressive blog.]
But that doesn't mean it's not competing with other areas in the same way we are.
Over the past 50 years, the Triangle has seen a significant drop in manufacturing, and has realized it needs to start looking elsewhere (this is being driven home even more here, as Deluxe announced today it's closing its call center).
What the Triangle is doing: Luring businesses with tax breaks.
What the Triangle is not doing: Shopping for a cure-all. Or a shopping mall.
More specifically, what the Triangle is doing right is creating development and training, and working with its universities.
There's also the realization that competition for development is global:
A first step was to develop a coordinated strategy for the entire region. Previously, each of the 13 counties in the Triangle region essentially competed against one another for investment with its own economic development agency and strategy. "Now we have one overarching strategy that all 13 countries have bought into," says [Research Triangle Regional Partnership CEO Charles] Hayes, who, before joining the Research Triangle Partnership 10 years ago, led one of those county agencies.We have disagreement on some issues between even county government and city government (think the proposed Armory Square sewage plant); we need to get everybody on the same page with development. And if we could get Utica, Rochester, Ithaca, Oswego and Syracuse all selling Central New York in an effort to bring realistic development to the area – including sharing in the economic benefits – wow, we'd be right up there with the Triangle.
Several counties now even share the same tax base. "None of them sell their counties anymore. They sell the region. We have come to grips with the idea that before County X beats County Y, we had better make sure that project doesn't go to Austin, San Diego, or Singapore," Hayes says.
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The Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the pride of our state. It wasn't a quick payoff though. The idea for RTP was first proposed in the 1950's and actually begun in 1959. The founders were true visionaries--to envision something that would be such an economic force decades later. The lesson? Think loooong term. Our children and grandchildren will thank us.
Roch --
Fine by me. Most of the development projects they're talking here are five to 10 years at minimum, and the monster project, we're probably talking 30 years. What we need is long-term vision and on-going cooperation to keep those short-term developments cropping up and sticking around.
And the great part is, the wheel's already been invented on this one. We'll be able to take the 50 years of learning the RTP had to do and knock it down to a few years of, "this is how this is going to work, we just have to nail down how this model is going to work for Central New York."
Fine by me. Most of the development projects they're talking here are five to 10 years at minimum, and the monster project, we're probably talking 30 years. What we need is long-term vision and on-going cooperation to keep those short-term developments cropping up and sticking around.
And the great part is, the wheel's already been invented on this one. We'll be able to take the 50 years of learning the RTP had to do and knock it down to a few years of, "this is how this is going to work, we just have to nail down how this model is going to work for Central New York."
BTW here is an article about Idaho. Idaho is investing in itself. I wish I saw the same vigor in NYS.
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