Creating Green Jobs Part 1: The Role of Government
I have run afoul of some New York politicians for publicly saying “governments don’t build communities, people do.” A jobs initiative of any kind is part of building a community and the truth of the matter is that governments don’t create jobs--unless they are doing the hiring--the private sector does. The entrepreneurs who are concerned with building their businesses and the workers who are concerned with their jobs are the ones that will build and maintain the jobs in the community. So the bottom line is that it is the people of Buffalo who will make a Sustainable/Green jobs initiative work, not the politicians.
Governments can play a role in changing the climate for doing business. For instance, since approximately 10 percent of the automobile market is in California, legislation in that state has long dictated the direction of the automobile market, particularly for the US automakers. Likewise, high tipping fees required by law in some eastern states have led to the development of a larger recycling industry in those states. Like it or not, every time the private sector complains about regulation costing them money, it means that they are paying someone to meet that regulation.
I have worked with elected officials (meaning the people who care more about serving their community more than winning the next election) in cities around the country, who understand this role of local government to shape the business climate within their city. They use a combination of incentives and disincentives to make Sustainable/Green jobs more profitable now, encouraging private investment within their community. The types of incentives and disincentives are based on the resources, industry clusters and infrastructure specific to that city.
Buffalo is not in a position to offer financial incentives because it just doesn’t have money to spare in its budget. But its elected officials could help drive the creation of Sustainable/Green jobs by requiring those companies who do business with the city to meet sustainable/green standards. Those standards could be graduated so that every year or every contract renewal the standard is higher.
They could pass laws that progressively require more recycling. This mandate creates jobs by itself; people have to be hired to handle the materials, but it will also create a ready supply of materials. This supply creates a business opportunity which an entrepreneur can capitalize on. The City might be able to require at least a portion of those materials be recycled to meet City needs by businesses filling municipal contracts.
In England the local governments set parking fees based on the vehicle emissions. The higher the emissions the more expensive it is to park in the city center. Other places have tied the registration fees to the emissions so that the greater the pollution the more it costs to own the vehicle. Given the number of commuters from the suburbs, Buffalo could look at a creating a commuter registration sticker for Eire County residents who drive and park in the city. For instance, vehicles parked at LaSalle Metro Rail could be exempt, but if they are found parked further into town they could be ticketed for not having the sticker.
This is a tricky thing from a Constitutional Law standpoint. But if the fees and ticket revenues were dedicated to reducing gasoline powered vehicles in the city, and reducing emissions, it would probably pass muster with the courts. Then the City would have a stream of revenue that could help encourage sustainable/green jobs in that sector. This could include expanding the electric rail system downtown along major corridors and contracting for construction of light rail cars made from recycled materials collected locally. Running the electric rail system on wind power would capture the money spent on gasoline and sent to the Middle East, keeping it in the community. Each of these would give the economy a substantial boost. Together, well, who knew that the grain transport industry would lead to the kind of brewing industry that helped make Buffalo the Queen City?
There are some federal grants which the City could tap in to as well, but compared to the impact of changing the business climate to allow Sustainable/Green jobs to flourish, their value is negligible. Their only real value is to allow the City to purchase some green products, but if they aren’t already manufactured locally the money just leaves the community as soon as it arrives. Unless the City has created conditions for the local manufacture of those products and the local entrepreneurs have begun to take advantage of them, applying for the grants is a waste of time.
There is a Chinese proverb “Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” If a city structures the business climate so that entrepreneurs are encouraged to create new jobs, they will. Even if a city gives away money and land (as many local government economic development agencies do) the jobs won’t come or stay there if they do come, if the business climate isn’t favorable. In the end, the most that anyone can ask for from their local government as far as job creation goes is that they take down “no fishing” signs.
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Martin
What a terrible photo to post, does not portray a pretty picture of Buffalo in any way shape or form. My only hope is the associated press does not get hold of it!
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rubygreta
So much blather.
Here is one of my favorites: In England the local governments set parking fees based on the vehicle emissions. The higher the emissions the more expensive it is to park in the city center.
Yes, let's try that in the City of Buffalo. I call it the Keep the Suburb People Out Of Buffalo Act.
How about this one: This could include expanding the electric rail system downtown along major corridors and contracting for construction of light rail cars made from recycled materials collected locally.
Too funny.
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sbrof
What about Lockport now being able to recycle wide mouth plastic containers. Buffalo should follow suite and allow them to be recycled. What company is providing the services for their collections? We should get their number or ask that the company we currently use expand its services or loose out on our materials.
I agree that the city needs to pass more progressive laws that can spur green businesses. What about banning all Styrofoam. There are other products now available on the marketplace that can replace them with something more eco-friendly. Ideally this increased demand for the product could spur a local entrepreneur to start up a business to service this need instead of relying on shipments of the stuff from who knows where we could buy local corn or potato byproducts and process them into such items.
Such laws needs to be considered on a regional scale though. It doesn't do Buffalo or the environment any good is people can drive 5 minutes to buy something bad for the environment and it would create an us vs them mentality that we don't need right now.
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Martin
ok, here's one. Why do residents have to use a recycle container for glass and bottles, but bars and restaurants do not? I am sure my odd wine bottle pale's in compasison to the full cans of bar bottles I see going out weekly in the regular garbage trucks!
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Herdsman
Martin That's a GOOD one!!!!
If all of this recycled material has value that the city can redeem then why should anyone be allowed to toss it away? That would include not only restaurants, but also government offices and other businesses. Seems to me that a city that is bankrupt should be trying to save every asset it’s got.
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tonyarmani
Dr Knaub,
Good post, but a regurgitation of 10000 posts on this site. Government should/shouldn't do this that and the other thing. Buffalo will NEVER get it. As long as there are outrageous taxes, union stranglehold, WASPs trying to keep the status quo, and Politicians who promote based on family/friends rather than by merit, nothing will ever change. I would like to think otherwise but it is very difficult. Buffalo has to do all it can to promote private business, and lessen the % of the workforce that is employed by Uncle Sam. Private business is the biggest and best employer in America, and is the only thing keeping America great.
Wanting green jobs is commendable; just tell US Sam laissez faire.
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moby
Good post, great photo! Are there a lot of Canadian's living there or something? Who else would save up that many Blue cans. Go Habs!
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thinker
The vast majority of the problem with Buffalo is the defeatist attiitudes and the self-assured quickness to discredit someone's story as worthless or having holes in it or that it can't be done or is a regurgitation. It's ironic that a city and region that is supposedly one build on pride and hard work is really nothing like that. It's a roll-over and die community always pointing out what is wrong but rarely doing anything about it.
There is a reason the vast majority of the highly motivated, highly educated people leave this area. It's a complete unwillingness by not just the government, but by the community as a whole, to seize its own future, so the motivated young professionals sieze their own future somewhere better. And the few of us that are left here are just counting the days until we have to leave.
And yes, I am involved, actively.
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thinker
The vast majority of the problem with Buffalo is the defeatist attiitudes and the self-assured quickness to discredit someone's story as worthless or having holes in it or that it can't be done or is a regurgitation. It's ironic that a city and region that is supposedly one build on pride and hard work is really nothing like that. It's a roll-over and die community always pointing out what is wrong but rarely doing anything about it.
There is a reason the vast majority of the highly motivated, highly educated people leave this area. It's a complete unwillingness by not just the government, but by the community as a whole, to seize its own future, so the motivated young professionals sieze their own future somewhere better. And the few of us that are left here are just counting the days until we have to leave.
And yes, I am involved, actively.
P.S. That picture says it all. The truth hurts sometimes.
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leadi
Dr. Knaub - I enjoy reading your stories as they are so packed full of information. Would you be able to include who we can contact to make the changes you suggest? Again - great posts!
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thinkBIG
There's a wonderful article about green activism, business and rebuilding community in The Sun Magazine. It can shed some light on this discussion and refute much of the negativity with posibility. You may want to investigate it. It is at this web address: http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/387/bridging_the_green_divide
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MikeInWNY
Every job "created" by regulation increases the cost of goods or services to consumers. Hardly the model job creation program. Bureaucrats have proven themselves incapable of determining what is best for society many times over. Stop the insanity!
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AtwaterLouse
That idea is so perfect so many ways - charging suburban drivers in the city special fees for stickers and fines for parking here without one!
First as rubygreta said, it'd motivate many to just stay in the burbs. Fewer people in our way here in the city when we go to stores or restaurants, etc. Sounds nice. It'd also encourage businesses to locate in burbs instead of the city. We'd be spared from greed-driven atrocities such as parking lots and having a bio-tech company ever install dark windows on a lab building to harm our urban fabric.
And when people come to the city anyway, some of their money they could otherwise spend here would instead go to the government to pay sticker fees or ticket fines. The government will spend it much better on programs to create green jobs than however the people would have wasted it here.
I can't make this idea any better, except I'd say obviously make the fees and fines as high as possible. Is the Common Council moving ahead on this? What are they waiting for? All you trespassers get back to your suburbs!
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TheUptowner
tony - what's up with your obsession over "WASPs trying to keep the status quo"? It's as tiresome as it is offensive and false!
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Einstein
Exactly right, increase the burden on local taxpayers and alienate the local business owners. Add jobs to the already inflated government payrolls and pay for them with increased taxes on residents and businesses. Great plan... last one to leave the city please turn out the lights.
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tonyarmani
TheUptowner - if you have to ask, you're probably one of them
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TheUptowner
Yea, all WASPs are against change just like all Italians are in the mafia right? Way to stereotype!
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Martin
Hey Toni, what is wrong with being a WASP? We are just like any other Buffalonian, the only slight difference is, we quitely put our empty vodka bottles out in the trash under the cover of darkness with a shaky hand at night instead of hanging them from a tree...
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al-alo
oh boy a beer tree!!! can i get a sapling from retree?
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Martin
lol al-alo...good one!
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TheUptowner
ahem you forgot the gin Martin!
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Herdsman
I hate to step in the way of the kind of fighting that has made Buffalo infamous, but it is exactly this kind of sniping and personal attacks that keeps the people who live in Buffalo from pulling together and turning the City around.
If we EVER expect to rehab this place we are going to have to be Buffalonians first and then what ever ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, or career path, second. That means that yes the business owners are going to have to say, well gosh if the homeowners have to recycle, we need to do our part and recycle too. It means that EVERYONE on city payrolls need to take pay cuts so we can balance the budget and move forward. Everyone has a role to play in the future of Buffalo and if they chose not to play it, then Buffalo has no future.
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sinkingbuffalo
love the tree, looks great. Depicts Buffalo perfectly.
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