The Sound was on hand when the new Annapolis Economic Development Corporation and research firm BBP presented the preliminary results of the economic viability study of Annapolis today.
You’ve seen their side – what do YOU think?
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They say they’re 75% done, but so far, there doesn’t seem to be much substance here. Hopefully, the last 25% will have some meat to it. Otherwise, this is a 100% waste of money.
There was a lot of information in the charts presented that just didn’t make sense (median vs per capita averages, avg. age/avg. housing cost, proposed store breakdowns). The demographics also almost exclusively favored educated, middle-upper/upper class Annapolitans who are relatively tech savvy. That pretty much excludes our significant labor base, and leads to all kinds of inaccurate assumptions.
Also, I don’t want to jump to conclusions about BBP’s competency, but the question & answer session was filled with “why didn’t you think of this?” and their reps responding “yeah, we need to include that in the future.” I’m sure $25k isn’t a terribly large retainer for this sort of work, but if that was my business I’d be a heck of a lot more prepared if not simply to save my reputation.
When will the other 25% be presented, which will hopefully contain information to justify 100% of the fee.