I have an op/ed in today’s Detroit News on how federal redevelopment aid has not helped Detroit’s economic development.
When Detroit was picked as one of the early targets for turnaround, the inner city empowerment zone got a cool $100 million in grants, followed by a share of $17 billion in tax credits for efforts to create inner-city jobs. And the 2005 annual report from the Detroit empowerment zone lists more than $650 million in other federal, state, local government and private grants. Federal subsidies wasted We might as well have stacked those hundreds of millions of dollars and had a bonfire with toasted marshmallows. All we got was a rush — of jobs and people — out of Detroit.