Big City economic development

The primary theme of the chapter is “First Wave†chambers as the municipal lead agencies of economic development. The post-Civil War rise of modern chambers—their “one-percenters†governance, primary strategies of attraction/promotion, tourism, tax abatement and deal-making and “exposition competition†, and their subsidiary EDOs (industrial bureaus and industrial parks)—were core to the development of mainstream, classic economic development. Gilded Age city-building is discussed, with privately led “planned communities†such as company towns and Garden Cities as new forms of suburbanization. The turn of the century professionalization of chambers and chamber secretaries, using Ryerson Ritchie as an example, led to the establishment of modern chambers across the USA. A discussion of the usefulness of the First Wave chambers concept follows. The chapter’s second theme is the modernization of municipal government to develop sufficient capacity to conduct meaningful public policy implementation. Home rule, charter reform and the early twentieth-century victory of business “structural reformers†installed strong mayoral, commission and city-manager forms of government. The role played by municipal one-percenters in municipal research bureaus, the formation of the US Chamber of Commerce and the injection of responsible and professional management into municipal government are considered. A final section presents a little-known early municipal strategy—“selling frozen water†—as an example of Dillon’s Law in operation.