Were they viable businesses that went bust because they were not able to qualify for "women and minority" status?
At least in my area, MWBE status is not a requirement. It just happens to be Chinatown, and we have staff that can provide in-language Technical Assistance. Hence, MWBE customers. MWBE is a "good thing," for sure, but so is manufacturers in distressed Schenectady, or new businesses in Auburn. No one "good thing" category is better than the other, because each Zone operates with its own Board and Development Plan.
One of the main reasons why Chinatown was established as an EZ was because of the economic distress of the area after 9/11. Sad to say, there were a lot businesses that went bust after 9/11, and so yeah, government assistance was very important to sustaining the economy of the area, at least in these few years until the struggling business climate has passed. This isn't to say that there aren't new industries that haven't sprung up since 2001 apart from government assistance. Take the whole Chinatown bus industry, for example. It's absolutely flourishing (now there are buses to Boston, Philly, Baltimore, DC, and even Ohio and Harrisburg!). It started out with questionable legality, but now it's so legit that even the South Station in Boston has given Fung Wah and at least one of its competitors a gate at the station. So... economy is recovering, albeit now it's taken another hit with the recent financial crisis.
Again, I know there are lots of problems with the EZ program. Lack of accountability being one of the top ones the press has focused on and with which I agree to a certain extent (not completely, because not all the data they used is current and simply because my Zone is awesome and I have yet to see anything remotely close to corruption with a 100-mile pole). And there are lots of problems with government programs as well. I'm just coming from a POV that government programs are desirable despite its myriad bads, whereas you're coming from a different POV. Fair enough, because I'm sure we can both list lots of totally legitimate examples to support our points.
Signing off and will be computer-less for a while... no time to read through this comment so forgive me if I'm not making any sense!
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Date: 2008-10-16 10:36 pm (UTC)At least in my area, MWBE status is not a requirement. It just happens to be Chinatown, and we have staff that can provide in-language Technical Assistance. Hence, MWBE customers. MWBE is a "good thing," for sure, but so is manufacturers in distressed Schenectady, or new businesses in Auburn. No one "good thing" category is better than the other, because each Zone operates with its own Board and Development Plan.
One of the main reasons why Chinatown was established as an EZ was because of the economic distress of the area after 9/11. Sad to say, there were a lot businesses that went bust after 9/11, and so yeah, government assistance was very important to sustaining the economy of the area, at least in these few years until the struggling business climate has passed. This isn't to say that there aren't new industries that haven't sprung up since 2001 apart from government assistance. Take the whole Chinatown bus industry, for example. It's absolutely flourishing (now there are buses to Boston, Philly, Baltimore, DC, and even Ohio and Harrisburg!). It started out with questionable legality, but now it's so legit that even the South Station in Boston has given Fung Wah and at least one of its competitors a gate at the station. So... economy is recovering, albeit now it's taken another hit with the recent financial crisis.
Again, I know there are lots of problems with the EZ program. Lack of accountability being one of the top ones the press has focused on and with which I agree to a certain extent (not completely, because not all the data they used is current and simply because my Zone is awesome and I have yet to see anything remotely close to corruption with a 100-mile pole). And there are lots of problems with government programs as well. I'm just coming from a POV that government programs are desirable despite its myriad bads, whereas you're coming from a different POV. Fair enough, because I'm sure we can both list lots of totally legitimate examples to support our points.
Signing off and will be computer-less for a while... no time to read through this comment so forgive me if I'm not making any sense!