Wall Street Journal Section on Economic Development

On July 28, 2008, The Wall Street Journal published an interesting special report on economic development which is freely accessible without a subscription. The report profiles the successes of cities like Kobe, Japan and Omaha, Nebraska. There is an interview with Harvard economics professor Edward Glaeser on the state of the city and an interactive map that shows which states are the most and least business friendly.

There is also a scorecard which ranks how various cities and states in the U.S. compare on select measures of development. Boulder Colorado has the lowest rate of credit card delinquencies in the United States and Colorado has the third highest attainment of Bachelor's degrees of any state in the U.S. below the District of Columbia and Massachusetts.

Colorado Springs, the Denver region's Front Range neighbor to the south, is one of the city's which are profiled. The Journal focuses on that city's successful efforts to retain the U.S. Olympic Committee's Headquarters. See here for a blog entry on this story from a View of the Rockies.

"Keeping the USOC is a financial and moral victory for Colorado Springs, a city of 373,000 that also is home to the U.S. Air Force Academy, Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and religious groups such as Focus on the Family. An economist hired by Colorado Springs calculated that the USOC and affiliated groups pump an estimated $341 million annually into the city's economy in the form of wages, taxes, lodging revenue and car-rental fees, among other things. The USOC campus hosts 10,000 athletes a year, and its visitor center and gift shop get 120,000 visitors annually."

Quote from the Wall Street Journal's Profile of Colorado Springs - "Capturing the Gold"