From my time on the City Council and from serving on the Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Board, I have learned that creating a sound plan – a ‘road map’ for economic development first means knowing where it is you want to go and how you want to get there. I believe the goal of any economic ‘road map’ should be a diversified economy that protect and markets our plentiful existing assets, protects rather than depleted our natural resources and created the conditions for new and existing businesses to grow and prosper.
This means developing an economic strategy of “Import Substitution” or “Economic Infill” as I like to call it. Simply put, our economic strategy must be based on finding those areas of our local economy where goods and services are being imported from outside and using our economic development efforts to encourage the development of local business into those areas.
