Gretchen seems most concerned that Public Policy Forum (PPF) hit DCD before the department and Barrett could get their guards up … forgetting how closely tied PPF and Journal Sentinel are. No doubt this is why folks at DCD and in the mayor\’s office feel picked on — PPF is the next thing to a direct attack from Journal Sentinel. I disagree that this is some sort of a problem, given that effectiveness/use of economic development funds has been an issue for years. JS practice is usually to promote individual positive economic development efforts, then move on to another story; the PPF has the resources to look at the entire program, and it is about time.

The press is not obligated to give DCD or the mayor an opportunity for preemptive defense. Nor is it the job of JS or PPF to go behind the scenes and finagle a better jobs and economic development idea out of the mayor.

Why didn\’t a report like this land during the Norquist Administration, one might ask? The entire CDBG program was a wreck during the Norquist years, and economic development funds in neighborhoods was part of that poisoned process. A small part, perhaps, with a lot of neighborhood usual suspects receiving funding, doing what not always clear … Sure, Norquist had just about everybody sold on his neighborhoods vision, but … …. There are quite a few people working in print media over the last decade or so who thought city economic development should be about something more than creating jobs for those who get economic development funds. Why should anyone be alarmed that the Journal and PPF finally told the story without mayoral approval?