Angelou Gives City Mixed Economic Grades

June 21, 2006

By Matt Olberding

'A' for effort. 'C' (or lower) for results. That seemed to be the theme of Wednesday’s “report card” presented to Lincoln’s government and business leaders by consultant Angelos Angelou.

In his presentation at the Cornhusker Marriott, Angelou gave the city high marks for the sales and marketing efforts of the Chamber of Commerce and Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development. He also gave fairly high marks for the collaboration between different entities and between Lincoln and other cities in the region.

But when it came to what Angelou called the most important elements of Lincoln’s economic development strategy -- developing a business park and fostering entrepreneurship -- Lincoln got a trip to the dunce chair.

Angelou gave the city a D+, its lowest grade, for development of a business park.

Though the city has identified 800 acres near Northwest 48th Street and Interstate 80, it is not ready to be utilized, Angelou said.

And existing business parks are not large enough and are not modern, he said.

“Without that product you’re going to be missing a whole lot of business opportunities,” he said.

Angelou urged the city to “show a sense of urgency” in developing a park. “Act on this as if your economic development lifeline depended on it, which I think it does,” he said.

In addition to the business park, Angelou said the city needs to do a better job of getting infrastructure in place.

Most communities nationwide go into debt to finance infrastructure and ensure it is available for large projects, but Lincoln is an exception, he said.

“You would rather have the development community pay for the infrastructure,” he said.

Two City Council members said it it’s not as simple as that.

Ken Svoboda and Patte Newman noted that the public has been loath to approve bonds lately including a recent parks bond and a much larger bond for street construction in 2004.

Newman said that illustrates a split in the community over the issue, which is one the city’s two main business organizations -- the Chamber of Commerce and the Lincoln Independent Business Association -- fail to agree on.

Svoboda said that for people to vote for infrastructure spending, they have to be sold on it as needed “seed money for the future.”

He said the city has not done a good job in selling that.

On fostering entrepreneurship, Angelou gave the city no grade higher than a C+.

He said the city needs to do more to “provide an entrepreneurial culture”because 70 percent of all economic development is going to come from entrepreneurship.

Part of that entrepreneurial culture is providing opportunities for young people, which is something Lincoln needs to work on, Angelou said.

Glenn Friendt, director of the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship, said he agreed with Angelou’s assessment of the state of entrepreneurship in the community, but sees potential for improvement.

“I happen to agree with his ratings that this community has not given enough attention , focus and resources to fostering an entrepreneurial environment,” Friendt said. That being said, I’m more optimistic than I ever have been.”

Friendt said he sees “a lot of pieces falling into place” concerning entrepreneurship.

Though Angelou dished out a lot of criticism, he told Wednesday’s audience that the city is doing a good job when it comes to economic development.

“Your economic performance is good and steady,” he said, “but it’s not knocking anybody down.”

Wendy Birdsall, interim Chamber of Commerce president, called Angelou’s presentation “very exciting.”

“It tells us we’ve been on the right track but also tells us we have a lot to work on,” she said.

2006 economic report card

Consultant Angelos Angelou presented Lincoln’s 2006 economic report card to government and business leaders Wednesday. Some of the grades:

Promote regional cooperation: A

Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development clearinghouse for economic development: A-

Build awareness of Lincoln’s new brand: A-

Understand the needs of the targeted industries and become experts: A-

Establish evaluation for measuring success of new business formation: B

Re-evaluate the city’s development process – make it business friendly: B

UNL and other higher education institutions become active in economic development: B-

Consider using bond debt for large-scale, long-term development: C+

Recruit and maintain young population of employees trained for target industries: C+

Promote Lincoln’s entrepreneurial resources: C

Create a young professionals’ networking group: C-

Organize networking events with “angel investors” and venture capitalists: C-

Establish an industrial/business park: D+