|
|
|
A Radical Notion: Invest in People
|
Business New Haven
11/15/1999
By: BNH
|
President Clinton was in Hartford early this month. He came at the behest of Aetna CEO Richard Huber. Huber's goal was to help to persuade Hartford's (still) well-heeled corporate community to pony up new investment for the city. Times are such that Aetna would have to use such a tactic. For decades, Aetna led - and all of Hartford's corporate community dutifully followed.
Even when Aetna didn't lead, the Hartford, Travelers, Connecticut Bank & Trust or United Technologies could be counted on to push ahead on their own and promote the arts, save a failing non-profit or send some skip-rope jumpers to Europe. Hartford's one-time centerpiece of urban renewal - the Hartford Civic Center, now a failed mall - was a showpiece of Aetna's involvement in helping to rebuild Hartford the last time around.
Certainly, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, Hartford's corporate community gave, and unselfishly. Their efforts were magnanimous and unrelenting, but as for the ultimate goal - well they're at it again. By the time Connecticut's recession took its toll CBT and Travelers, among many others, were gone or had lost their independence. Aetna had become a pariah for its efforts to save itself through divestiture and downsizing.
Times are better now, and Huber and the President were able to count on, cajole and wheedle nearly $180 million from Hartford's Bishops (or, in the case of some lesser executives, knights). People's Bank, UTC, the Phoenix, Citigroup and Fleet, among others, should be commended for their willingness once again to commit to Hartford.
The President, after all, is on a clear and great mission to convince corporate America that it should invest in America's cities. He rightly notes many have been left out of America's new prosperity. In urban America and elsewhere it is hard to understand why Suharto's Indonesia was a better investment in the early '90s then DeStefano's New Haven, or Mayor Mike's Hartford. But clearly, corporate America thought it so - at least until a few months ago.
While the President visited Hartford's vital but struggling Frog Hollow neighborhood, shakers and movers were already assuring themselves that this corporate investment would fund the Adriaen's Landing project - a mega-retail, sports, convention center or something. At least that's the plan today. An investment of approximately $225 million was required by Gov. Rowland and the legislature to let loose another half a billion or so in money from Connecticut taxpayers for the complex.
We're not going to be the ones to scoff at the softness of some of these corporate pledges; we're far too enthusiastic. But it is hard to argue that the best way to help poor people is to build stores for rich people using money from the middle class, HMO members and ATM surcharges. Our only complaint is that this isn't part of the financing package for New Haven's own subsidized luxury retail project, the Galleria at Long Wharf.
Regardless of the worthiness of projects for Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford, the problems of these cities cannot be solved by these or almost any so-called economic development schemes. It's pointless to talk about economic development when the real challenge is human development.
Connecticut is a small and prosperous state with one of the best education systems in the U.S. Until recently however it had an under funded state university system and an all-but-forgotten vocational training regimen. Today, after more than five years of testing and investment, the state's urban school districts have made little real progress.
Far be it from us to preach education to the corporate chieftains who are willing to pony up for Hartford. People's Bank and UTC, for example, are leaders in this regard and have spent millions to create innovative programs within their own companies and their respective communities. What we can say is this: Education and training is the only economic development model for Connecticut that makes sense.
We wish that President Clinton had rounded up support to promise Hartford's parents, students and educators that the assembled corporate and government leaders were guaranteeing Connecticut's urban youth access to a college education, to family educational assistance, to mentors, to tutors, to whatever it takes to help them move up.
The governor could have promised that Connecticut will base its economic development strategy and evaluate its success on how educated its students are, and not on how many software companies or bioscience companies are helped, or how effective its "youbelonginCT.com" youth marketing campaign is.
Focusing on people, not projects, makes sense because it speaks to the real needs of Connecticut's companies, and is more politically appealing to taxpayers who would rather pony up to help their own families and neighbors, not luxury retail chains.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
