Economic development for ALL of Castle Rock

In the past few weeks, the Town Council has considered a proposal by the Downtown Merchants Association  regarding a Town loan to support the "Rink at the Rock." This proposal is for a temporary downtown ice skating rink in the winter months of December, January, and February. The Rink at the Rock would theoretically drive business to downtown merchants, as individuals who come for recreation at the rink use downtown restaurants or other downtown businesses. This would be good for the downtown merchants, and would provide another source of pride in Castle Rock's charming downtown.

However, the Rink at the Rock could hurt other Castle Rock businesses. A consistent fact of economic development is that economic growth in one area of a community is often at the expense of other areas of the community. In the case of downtown, when Castle Rock residents spend money at downtown businesses they have less money to spend in their usual northern, western, or southern business locations in Castle Rock.

While I believe that a healthy downtown is important for a community, I would prefer to invest in economic growth that benefits all of Castle Rock's residents and businesses. Such economic growth comes by attracting new money in the community, as people come from outside Castle Rock to generate sales tax revenues and build up local business coffers.

So I propose that we focus less on economic development strategies that pit Castle Rock businesses against each other, and more on strategies that bring in new dollars to the community, thereby providing economic development for ALL of Castle Rock.