(Community Matters) We’re one of the fastest growing, most desirable markets in the country, we shouldn’t be making deals as if we’re Detroit.
I remain a fan of strategic incentives to attract the most desirable employers (only because that’s how the market works today). Kudos to Travis County for requiring Apple to hire local unemployed & economically disadvantaged. As well, the Green Water Treatment Plant is a unique and extraordinarily valuable site. The City of Austin shouldn’t buy poor boy arguments. If Trammel Crow can’t at least deliver on its original affordable housing promises, we should let them out of their letter of intent and reopen bids for the development. I’m not sure we shouldn’t reopen the project for new competitive bids, anyhow. It’s a new time in the market.
AAS, this morning “Austin-area Growth Rate 2nd in Nation,” “Affordable Housing Plans for Green Redevelopment,” and “Travis County Was Wise to Seek Share of Jobs for Locals.”
Community Matters 
We talked about this in my class last week. I’m floored that Imagine Austin is nearly finished and nobody to my knowledge is discussing its relationship to the city’s economic development policy. Shouldn’t we take a fresh look at the incentive policy to ensure that it aligns with Imagine Austin? I haven’t heard much discussion at all of that in the Imagine Austin meetings.