Current Events > small town in my state was featured in the BBC for its economic development plan

(+) Yeah! (+)

it actually isn't a 'small town' for my state, it is the 23rd most populous city, but this is Arkansas so that is very small (it's technically a micropolitan area and not rural but whatever)

http://www.bbc.com/capital/gallery/20180122-one-tiny-towns-radical-plan-to-stop-a-rural-exodus

Like many small rural towns in Americas Deep South, the population of El Dorado, Arkansas, is dwindling. In 2000, the town had well over 21,000 inhabitants. Now it has nearer 18,000. Job losses and the exodus of blue-collar workers are sapping the place of life.

It's not the most obvious place to build a $100 million entertainment complex but that's exactly why it's happening.

The town has just hosted concerts by ZZ Top, Migos, Smokey Robinson, and country star Brad Paisley. Its part of a music festival celebrating the launch of a regeneration project spearheaded by three New York Stock Exchange-listed companies still based in the town. Tiny El Dorado will soon have two concert halls, a restaurant, a theatre, museum and several bars...

The Murphy Arts District (MAD) opened with a bang with a successful music festival in September.

The line-up was improbable, designed to cater for the town's varied residents and their eclectic taste in music, says Terry Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of El Dorado Festivals & Events and former president of Marvel Comics.

Bearded rockers ZZ Top were followed by Atlanta rapper Ludacris and the grand finale came courtesy of Motown legend Smokey Robinson. "Its put us on the map," says Georgia Howard, an elderly member of the First St James Baptist Church...

The entertainment scene has never been part of El Dorado's heritage, says Murphy Oil chairman, Claiborne Deming. And its been a difficult sell. Deep in the Bible Belt, even putting on the play Breakfast at Tiffany's, is fraught with difficulties, says Emily, a 29-year-old drama graduate, who's just moved back from the state capital Little Rock, for a job at MAD. "You have to take out the goddamns and other profanities," she says. "When someone slipped up once, the church folk stomped out. We got letters delivered to the front desk the next day."

Selling alcohol is also a challenge. The head of the local chamber of commerce, Mike Dumas, explains that although Union County is not a dry state, you still could not serve spirits in bars in 2017. The local authorities went to the legislature to change the liquor laws. "Times are a changing," says Dumas, "and the church don't fight as hard as it used to."

It is hoped that the new entertainment complex will also reinvent the town as a tourist destination. "I've had six states in the shop since yesterday morning!" says Rexayn Tribble, owner of the florist on the main square for 22 years. She is delighted that shes now serving customers from across the country.


I can't imagine this will work but it is cool to have a new concert destination in sorta driving distance at least for a few years
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Balrog0 posted...

it is the 23rd most populous city

That's pretty far down the list, dude.

Anyways, to the subject at hand, basically any study will tell you that these sorts of event venues are not worth public money spent on them, but...
- I'm not sure if that logic still holds for a place of this size
- Was public money spent on this project? It's unclear from what you've pasted and I can't seem to figure out how to navigate that BBC layout
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Antifar posted...

That's pretty far down the list, dude.

23 out of 504 incorporated municipalities. Its a 'first class' city -- I'm not saying it is big, but putting it into context since this piece refers to it as rural and it is not that (either in fact or by technical definition of the term)

Antifar posted...

Anyways, to the subject at hand, basically any study will tell you that these sorts of event venues are not worth public money spent on them, but...
- I'm not sure if that logic still holds for a place of this size
- Was public money spent on this project? It's unclear from what you've pasted and I can't seem to figure out how to navigate that BBC layout

Yeah those arrows on the side are dumb.

About $75m was contributed by the three big companies in El Dorado, the rest was given by the state and the city. As far as these kind of projects go, I would actually say it isn't as clear cut for arts districts as it is for, say, stadiums. It's less about having one big anchor instiution and more about offering amenities that might cause businesses to relocate, so the logic is slightly different (although I don't mean that to say it is worth it, just that a different analytic lens would probably need to be applied)

and if anything imo the research says it works better for bigger cities, e.g.,

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1078087416657895

The results indicated that some of the QOP factors associated with better human capital outcomes in prior literature focusing on larger cities were also significant predictors of better human capital outcomes in midsized cities. The relationship between these factors and development outcomes for small cities was much weaker.
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