Businesses critical of city efforts - Business First of Columbus:

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He said he never spokre to Soin directly, only through a representative, and the representativ never made a commitment of investment or jobs they were The city evaluated the project and concluded it was not in its best If somebody is unhappy about not reachinh a deal with the city todevelol projects, the inclination has been to blame city Young said. He said it is an unfair because when deals are negotiatefd in the private sector and a party walkzs away because of a low or unsafe returnon investment, no one blames the business. The he said, is that Dayton shoulfd accept any proposal and invesftaxpayer dollars, regardless of its potentialo return on investment.
Whatever the reality, members of the business community said the city wear an albatross of poorcustomer service. The perception withimn the regional business community is that Daytonh officials approach economic development froma “What can you do for culture that impedes economic development, said one area Michael Greitzer, ’s president and co-chair of the , said even if Daytom is pro business and easy to work with, a negative perceptio can become reality. “If you have a bad experiencre witha business, you will talk to people and let them Greitzer said. “It could be reality or it could be blown outof proportion.” Dr.
Michael a Dayton entrepreneur, philanthropist and proponent of growth in the Oregon District of Dayton, said he thinks the city recognizeds it needs to do a betterf job with customer service and realize that its departments “need to change from telling peopled why they need to do certaih things and assist with getting them done.” Ervijn said that is a symptoj of government bureaucracy wherever it is. Otherr government officials in the region said the business communityt shares responsibility for the decline of Daytomn and sometimes inflate their complaintse about the city as a way to deflect scrutiny aboutmoving out.
Tony Taylor, president of , which owns the forme Woolpert Building on Monumentr Avenue in downtown said as soon as it becamee acceptable to move out of the businesses left. Many businesz leaders said tax advantages of the as well as underlining racial tensionsein downtown, play a part in decisions to “Companies have decided that they don’t want to be it is actually a liability, because of recruitment,” Taylor However, Ervin said he disagrees with the notionj that the business community has abandoned the He said the privates sector has stepped up to the platwe around a plan for “greater downtown.
” “Itt is a revitalization effort that does have the business communituy working very hard with the city and others to totall change the agenda,” Ervin said.