What would you like your town to have? (Omaha: environment, travel)

[Steve_W]

Yeah, I'm a libertarian about as much as you aren't naïve about North Omaha.

A change for North Omaha is a culture change and only that. There is an entire generation (maybe 2 now) which can't be helped on a financial level. To turn the socio-economic situation around you have to change the gang banger culture. That all starts from home. You can be poor and still be hard working good person.

What could be an incentive for businesses in North Omaha? I'm very curious.

[SCGranny]

A TIF district - taxes are not paid for 10 years on a piece of prime development property so that the investment business can prosper without tax burdens,
A FILO - A Fee in Lieu of Taxes - the business pays a fee based not on sales but on inventory of permanent (not sellable) inventory, with depreciation added in - for a determined amount of time;
A MIDI - The government has a bank sell bonds to finance the project. The government lends its name to the bonds but is not responsible for any reneging on payment of those bonds, or any loss derived therefrom.

There's LOTS of ways government can provide incentives. In the first two, though, taxpayers foot the bill for any impacts to infrastructure (police, fire protection, extending or expanding water/sewer lines) that the business has - since they are not paying their 'fair share' of taxes or business fees.

[tpabes]

Didn't Omaha propose a trolley system downtown, around the the time Qwest was opening, must have fell through?

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by Steve_W

That all starts from home. You can be poor and still be hard working good person.

What could be an incentive for businesses in North Omaha? I'm very curious.

Agree... this ties back to an discussion back in December about the difference in work ethic between poor Black North Omaha (N24th is boarded up building) and poor Hispanic South Omaha (S24th very vibrant and a ton of self started businesses.

[downthathighway]

Originally Posted by Steve_W

A change for North Omaha is a culture change and only that. There is an entire generation (maybe 2 now) which can't be helped on a financial level. To turn the socio-economic situation around you have to change the gang banger culture. That all starts from home. You can be poor and still be hard working good person.

What could be an incentive for businesses in North Omaha? I'm very curious.

Alas, investment by business in a high crime area is wasted. I lived in Detroit before (parents still do). That city has slipped into becoming a very high crime area, almost 80% 'bad neighborhoods' ALL the chain stores have left that city for the suburbs despite there being about 900,000 residents in the city still. Not an exaggeration- there are no chain grocery stores, no WalMart,Target or KMarts at all in that city. KMart took alot of heat for closing 2 stores in the city. No traffic! The stores had very little biz, and shoplifting, parking lot crimes were severe. KMart relented to the P.C.'s , signed a lease for a brand new store. It lasted 2 years, with numerous incidents. Again, that store had very little 'traffic'. People won't park their car and shop in fear of getting robbed or worse. Kroger also opened a 'state of the art' store that did not last one year for the same reasons. Detroit shows what happens when 'hip hop' behavior is considered acceptable.
...What would I like to see in our town? Oh, just keep up, maybe even put more emphasis on criminal justice. Should sentences become lenient, just look at Detroit.Almost the whole city now looks like North Omaha, abandoned buildings, businesses, bars on the windows and doors, bullet proof glass, etc. Criminals there know if caught they may get released. Easy judges, full jails, etc. With our police force being reduced by retirements, and lacking funds for newer cruisers, could get worse before it gets better.

[Steve_W]

Originally Posted by SCGranny

A TIF district - taxes are not paid for 10 years on a piece of prime development property so that the investment business can prosper without tax burdens,
A FILO - A Fee in Lieu of Taxes - the business pays a fee based not on sales but on inventory of permanent (not sellable) inventory, with depreciation added in - for a determined amount of time;
A MIDI - The government has a bank sell bonds to finance the project. The government lends its name to the bonds but is not responsible for any reneging on payment of those bonds, or any loss derived therefrom.

There's LOTS of ways government can provide incentives. In the first two, though, taxpayers foot the bill for any impacts to infrastructure (police, fire protection, extending or expanding water/sewer lines) that the business has - since they are not paying their 'fair share' of taxes or business fees.

Those are great and all but they don't address any of the problems of North Omaha.

The only real incentive I could think of would be police presence for local businesses. In essence, that would be no different than babysitting an entire section of our city and a waste of tax dollars.

[2Adam29]

bleach, Walmart can stay out of all of Omaha as far as I'm concerned. I wish they hadn't built the stores they already have.

(not that my statement is relevant, I just feel compelled to say something)

[SCGranny]

Originally Posted by Steve_W

Those are great and all but they don't address any of the problems of North Omaha.

The only real incentive I could think of would be police presence for local businesses. In essence, that would be no different than babysitting an entire section of our city and a waste of tax dollars.

Steve, I was addressing someone's question about how to/why governments encourage business development in a depressed area. If you give any business enough incentives, it will locate there.

ChinaMart will build anywhere they have incentives and see profit or growth availability. Some of their most frequented stores are in the worst areas of town. Why? Because ChinaMart is cheap, and people can go there any hour of the day or night, and make money. Robberies and shoplifting are a way of life in ChinaMart; they writeoff about 30-40 per cent of their inventory every year depending on location. Because they buy in massive bulk at a very low cost, their failsafe mark is about 42% of their yearly writeoff load for their inventory. As long as a potential employee does not have a criminal record, and will accept ChinaMart's low pay and lack of decent benefits, the store will be staffed. That's how ChinaMart can locate in depressed areas. Not to mention that they normally lease, not buy, the property for 10 years, and demand so many concessions and reliefs (such as I referred to above) from the governing entity, that they have very little expense in those areas.

Why do governments do it? To encourage other businesses to locate there. If they can do it in the 10 year span that ChinaMart is in business, then they can seek redevelopment loans and grants by showing that it is a viable area that just needs work. Eventually (if they do it right) the area around ChinaMart will expand, the crime element will move elsewhere, and the redevelopment funds can buy the crackhouses and tenements and turn them into something shiny and new.

Hope that explains it better.

[Steve_W]

Originally Posted by SCGranny

Steve, I was addressing someone's question about how to/why governments encourage business development in a depressed area. If you give any business enough incentives, it will locate there.

ChinaMart will build anywhere they have incentives and see profit or growth availability. Some of their most frequented stores are in the worst areas of town. Why? Because ChinaMart is cheap, and people can go there any hour of the day or night, and make money. Robberies and shoplifting are a way of life in ChinaMart; they writeoff about 30-40 per cent of their inventory every year depending on location. Because they buy in massive bulk at a very low cost, their failsafe mark is about 42% of their yearly writeoff load for their inventory. As long as a potential employee does not have a criminal record, and will accept ChinaMart's low pay and lack of decent benefits, the store will be staffed. That's how ChinaMart can locate in depressed areas. Not to mention that they normally lease, not buy, the property for 10 years, and demand so many concessions and reliefs (such as I referred to above) from the governing entity, that they have very little expense in those areas.

Why do governments do it? To encourage other businesses to locate there. If they can do it in the 10 year span that ChinaMart is in business, then they can seek redevelopment loans and grants by showing that it is a viable area that just needs work. Eventually (if they do it right) the area around ChinaMart will expand, the crime element will move elsewhere, and the redevelopment funds can buy the crackhouses and tenements and turn them into something shiny and new.

Hope that explains it better.

Lol, I understand exactly what you are saying and in many cases it's probably a great idea. Who knows, I guess we'll find out soon enough what is in the works for North Omaha.

[ehenningsen]

Northeast Omaha is nowhere near detroit, and at the same time I understand that it is by far the worst part of Omaha, but by no means is it at a point of no return..

The only way to revitalize is to provide a good economy, as that is the key to less crime..