Handouts won't lure jobs to urban areas
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Few if any federal programs have been as dismal a failure as the Clinton administration's 1994 urban empowerment zone initiative. Back a decade ago, six urban centers were each handed $100 million to promote job growth in the inner cities. Clinton followed that in 1998 with another $400 million for another handful of urban centers, even though the jury was still out on the first urban experiment in 1994. But Clinton and the Democrats knew their power base and their votes came from the urban areas, so let the dollars flow.