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Page 1 of 2 Mehelich, Catherine • From: Lonnie Laffen [Ilaffen @jlgarchitects.com] Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 4:38 PM To: Mehelich, Catherine Subject: GF Herald Here you go- Lonnie EDITORIAL: Ned Hill, provocative as always OUR VIEW: Hill's conclusions about Duluth should interest people who followed his work in Grand Forks. Remember Ned Hill? If you follow Red River Valley economic-development issues, you probably do. Ned Hill was a Cleveland consultant who reported on Grand Forks'economic development prospects in 2002, courtesy of the Knight Foundation. Among his other suggestions, Hill said Grand Forks officials should figure ways to speak with one voice and to nurture the community's future leaders. The latter action's needed because right now, Hill said in a memorable line, there are"too many hats for not enough heads." Well, Ned Hill's back, although not in Grand Forks. He's in Duluth, doing the same thing there that he did here, again courtesy of the Knight Foundation. Duluth is a five-hour drive from Grand Forks, but it's close enough that the cities share key weaknesses and strengths. For example, here's an excerpt from an Oct. 19 Duluth News-Tribune story: "Duluth's business and political leaders have the best of intentions, says one expert who has consulted here, but the intentions are wrong. "Ned Hill, an economic-development specialist at Cleveland State University, concluded that practically every business leader and government official in Duluth said jobs were the most important goal of economic development, after several days of interviews here. "But'the root of all economic development is products, not jobs, because people don't buy jobs, they buy products,' Hill said. 'Jobs are a very important byproduct." Does that"jobs,jobs jobs" mantra sound familiar?That's been the call in Grand Forks for years, too. The distinction between jobs and products is important, Hill goes on to say, because it helps communities focus on their strengths. Leaders should ask, "What are our community's comparative advantages?" (In Grand Forks, the aerospace and energy industries are two obvious examples.) Those advantages, once identified, should get the bulk of the community's economic development attention, Hill believes. That's a better strategy than, say, simply copying a development plan that had worked somewhere else. As the News Tribune reports, here's another Hill observation that also rings true in Grand Forks: "And although community-development projects are important, such as sprucing up (Duluth's) Canal Park and downtown as well as investing in education, community development doesn't create businesses that trade outside the area. Such projects may make it more likely those businesses will locate here or find good employees here, but they don't export products or services." Does that call to mind a certain failed community development/economic development idea that was much in the 11/18/2003