Romancing the Smokestack

How did Federal Express decide to locate at the Memphis Airport? Why is China also losing manufacturing jobs? Do artists really help turn around a struggling neighborhood? What should you do with a declining auto mall - save it or let it die and start over again? What's better - subsidizing an business or subsidizing the infrastructure such a business requires? These are the kinds of questions that cities and states deal with all the time in their economic development. Bill Fulton's new book, ROMANCING THE SMOKESTACK: HOW CITIES AND STATES PURSUE PROSPERITY, is a collection of economic development columns from GOVERNING magazine that covers deals with these questions - and reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly about how economic development is practiced in the United States. Bill Fulton is a veteran author (GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA PLANNING, THE RELUCTANT METROPOLIS), urban planning and economic development consultant (with the firm Design, Community & Environment), and currently also mayor of Ventura, California, one of the most innovative communities in America. This book discusses economic development efforts that are sometimes shrewd and sometimes stupid - but shows that cities and states are tireless in their efforts to find the next economic engine. You can read an excerpt from the introduction here: https: //www.createspace.com/Preview/1073034