Surging City Center Job Growth Nationwide

[arcturus]

Short Read: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/upshot/more-new-jobs-are-in-city-centers-while-employment-growth-shrinks-in-the-suburbs.html?abt=0002&abg=0

 

Long Read: http://cityobservatory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Surging-City-Center-Jobs.pdf

[mpchicago]

In Grand Rapids it seems as though smaller companies with 1 to say 50 employee's are finding their way into the city core, but larger companies are building, expanding, or remodeling their campus' in the burbs.  Apparently parking/paying for parking seems to be the big issue in GR. Is the city missing the boat on incentives?  Can the city afford incentives?  

[GRDadof3]

In Grand Rapids it seems as though smaller companies with 1 to say 50 employee's are finding their way into the city core, but larger companies are building, expanding, or remodeling their campus' in the burbs.  Apparently parking/paying for parking seems to be the big issue in GR. Is the city missing the boat on incentives?  Can the city afford incentives?  

 

I think it's a double edged sword. I have a family member/architect who worked on a corporate HQ campus for a company in Ohio and the company received something like $30 Million from the State to "keep their HQ's in Ohio" and move it downtown Akron. We've already seen that MEGA grants from MEDC are putting the State in a really horrible situation for the next 10 - 20 years with lost tax receipts. When a pro-business rag like Crain's is knocking tax incentives, you know it's not good:

 

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150222/NEWS/302229975/were-michigans-corporate-tax-incentives-good-policy-or-a-mega-mess

 

So does having a big corporate HQ downtown really do that much? Especially if they need big incentives to do it? Or would it be better to have 20 new companies with 1-50 employees downtown? Fill up the existing buildings? Create some kind of transit incentive for employers?