Economic Vitality Strategic Plan: Let’s ‘Begin Doing’

It was Benjamin Franklin who reportedly said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Well, when it comes to the City of Boulder’s new Economic Vitality Strategic Plan, I’m sure Franklin would join me in applauding the effort. But to better capture the urgency of our current economic circumstances, I steal a phrase from Walt Disney: “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

First, a little reflection: We’ve come a long way in our attitude toward economic matters in this town.

In the pre-pandemic era, it was taboo among local elected officials to speak of anything that suggested support for “economic development.” Boulder City Councilmembers harped on the proliferation of tourists and commercial construction was attacked as drawing more jobs to town. Even my mere mention of declining sales tax revenue relative to inflation — with sales tax providing most of the funding in Boulder for everything from public safety to open space — was greeted with the retort from our then mayor, “It’s still rising.”

It took a pandemic, a paradigm shift in federal investment policy and enough red flags from the business community to get the attention of our municipal leadership, but I think we’re finally turning the corner on the counter-productive attitude toward our collective economic vitality.

There were hints of it as early as two years ago when every City Council candidate responded, “Yes,” to the Boulder Chamber survey question – “Do you believe it’s important to continue to sustain a strong economy, which could include the potential for increasing job growth in Boulder?” It reached a crescendo this month with a recent unanimous City Council decision that overturned the Planning Board denial of the site plan for a major commercial development project.

Probably the best evidence that our civic leadership is taking seriously its responsibility for the economic welfare of our community was the recent study session regarding the draft Economic Vitality Strategic Plan.

City staff made a Herculean effort in their planning over the course of the past year to capture Boulder’s economic challenges — as well as the opportunities, of which there are many, if we seize them — and to offer their take on the strategies to support our business community and workforce. There is much to love in this Economic Vitality Strategic Plan, and not just because city staff had the temerity to include input from the Boulder Chamber, our other business support colleagues and business leaders themselves on what might be most helpful.

A few examples that warm this economic champion’s heart include the plan’s call for:

• “Enhancing programs to encourage purchases at local small retailers, restaurants and other businesses.”
• “Developing ways to facilitate navigation of city processes.”
• “Programs to support the creation, retention and expansion of existing businesses and attraction of new businesses including incentive and financial assistance programs.”
• “Partnerships to connect businesses, education, workforce development, economic development and community organizations to address industry-specific workforce challenges including workforce diversity.”
• “Expanding efforts to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, improve efficiency, and facilitate quicker approvals.”

I could go on and on. Again, there is a lot to love in this Economic Vitality Strategic Plan. In fact, there are so many defined action steps that I’ve heard some remark it might be too much. Whoa! These aren’t “nice to haves,” but instead urgent calls for action in the face of great risk to the success of our businesses, our municipal revenue base, and collective economic welfare. We can and must tackle all of it, recognizing that partner organizations — the Boulder Chamber, Downtown Boulder, the Latino Chamber of Commerce, Visit Boulder and the SBDC, for example — will collaborate with city staff to achieve the Economic Vitality Strategic Plan goals.

Even more encouraging, and further symbolizing the welcome change in direction from our City Council, is their push to move more quickly from planning to implementation. As Councilmember Matt Benjamin offered in his study session remarks, “My biggest concern is the current plan perhaps lacks urgency . . . Our businesses are needing help now, actually they needed help yesterday.” Couple that with an inquiry like this from Councilmember Tara Winer, “Do you think we’ve done enough to counteract our reputation of it being hard to do business here?,” and I think we’re headed in the right direction.

These are precarious times for the Boulder economy. Fortunately, we have the ingenuity and resilient spirit of our local business leaders that has always helped us adjust with great success to turbulent times. We also have a new plan of attack for addressing our economic fortunes and the conviction to take action from our civic leadership. With those pieces in place and in the spirit of Uncle Walt, let’s “begin doing.”