It’s Business Appreciation Week in Anne Arundel County, and our Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation (AAEDC) team has organized 77 visits by county staff to local businesses, to hear their stories and thank them for helping to make our county The Best Place - For All.
I think I was assigned the best three to visit: Always Ice Cream, Wyrd Bookstore, and Blondie’s Doughnuts. I highly recommend all three on days when you know you deserve an inspiring treat, be it oral or intellectual. I did all three in the space of two hours, and nobody deserves that much pampering.
Last week, I did my fifth Chesapeake Connect trip, organized by the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, an institution led by the elected leaders of the city and surrounding counties that studies economic development, transportation, housing, workforce development, and some other regional challenges.
Each trip brings seventy-or-so government and private sector leaders to a metropolitan area that faces problems similar to ours, where we hear directly from local leaders and tour sites with them that demonstrate successes and challenges. Since I’ve been on the BMC Board, we’ve visited Nashville, Detroit, Philadelphia, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and last week was St. Louis.
The day before the trip, I was interviewed by Fourth Economy, a consulting firm that is getting input from business and community leaders on behalf of AAEDC. It’s the first step in drafting a Strategic Plan to guide the agency’s work in the coming years.
And tonight I will attend the Anne Arundel Chamber of Commerce Business Hall of Fame Awards Dinner.
In my earlier years as an activist, I believed that looking at public policy through the lens of business and economic development made politicians blind to the needs of workers and the communities they live in. I associated this with trickle-down economic theories and anti-government bias.
But I’ve changed. I’m not less progressive, or more conservative. I’ve just learned that the tools of capitalism can be used in the service of equity. Wes Moore’s “Work, Wages, and Wealth” market-driven solutions that “Leave No One Behind” and Kamala Harris’ “Opportunity Economy” ring true to me now. I’m also able to appreciate good pro-business policy coming from Republicans.
When I ask business owners in the county what government can do to facilitate their success, I now hear calls for affordable housing, quality schools, public transportation, and affordable childcare. It’s the stuff that creates a quality workforce. Diversity, equity, and inclusion is being led by private businesses that want creative talent.
All five of the metropolitan areas we’ve studied on our BMC trips have shown us success stories where capital, community, and government set aside their political differences to direct investment where people would benefit.
In my interview with the consultant about economic development strategy, I found myself pitching all the social problems that could be solved through market-based solutions when AAEDC aligns strategies with the agencies that deliver workforce development, education, social services, health, housing, and public safety.
In my past life as a horse trainer, I fell in love with Thoroughbred horses, the ones bred to race. I trained them for second careers, sold them to caring owners, and thereby kept them out of the slaughter pipeline. It was a business, but it was also a way to address an injustice.
I was able to duplicate that work across the country by building the nonprofit Retired Racehorse Project. When I hit the road to raise money for its Thoroughbred Makeover, I was able to show wealthy racehorse owners who had made their money in business that their sponsorship of our activities was creating a marketplace for small businesses to transition their horses to second careers. They loved that it was a market-driven solution to their problem, and they invested.
It’s really pretty extraordinary how in recent decades human beings have moved past the capitalism vs socialism, or business vs government, schism to solve real problems together. You’d never believe it during election season, when political advertisers are eagerly driving wedges between us wherever they can find cracks.
So I will end with a reminder that today is the first day of early voting in Maryland, and you can go to this link to find out when and where you can cast your ballot for President, U.S. Congress, U.S. Senate, school board, and judge. Please step up and be heard.
Until next week …