@cjsummers : Good reads, but curious if you are opposed to TIFs and Enterprise Zones? These still seems to be reasonable incentive mechanisms for investment in underperforming areas. Watching any episode of This Old House will immediately affirm that building new is cheaper and faster than rehabbing something old.
Absolutely there is a point of diminishing (into negative) returns like with Amazon's HQ average outlay of $120k/job to create a $30k warehouse job making no sense, but I'm not sure that I'd rule all projects with some level of public investment as boondoggles. Curious if anyone has the numbers for Shoppes at Grand Prairie, IE
jobs and sales tax over the 20 years versus original public dollars inputted (War Memorial improvements, etc. )?