{"id":11027,"date":"2012-09-06T09:19:30","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T16:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=11027"},"modified":"2012-09-06T09:21:31","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T16:21:31","slug":"the-riehl-world-city-video-more-fat-less-filling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=11027","title":{"rendered":"The Riehl World: City Video More Fat Less Filling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Oh6Kp1CTOjA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Carlsbadians who couldn\u2019t afford the $85-a-plate Chamber of Commerce State of the City report luncheon at the Sheraton last month were invited to a free showing of a ten-minute video at the Dove Library a few days later. Former Mayor <strong>Bud Lewis<\/strong> didn\u2019t like to give or listen to long speeches, so he turned to videos to serve as the annual report to city residents. <strong>Mayor Matt Hall<\/strong> continued the tradition, sacrificing information for feel-good entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>Sinclair Lewis would have smiled at the unbridled boosterism of Carlsbad city officials featured in this year\u2019s State of the City video. He\u2019d be reminded of the self-satisfied city fathers of Zenith, <strong><em>Babbit\u2019s<\/em><\/strong> fictional Midwestern hometown. But Carlsbad residents were shortchanged if they expected to get more than a virtual pep rally from their city\u2019s annual report.<!--more-->Most of the video consists of city council members taking turns singing the praises of high profile companies that have made their homes in Carlsbad, stressing the importance of investing in business-friendliness to keep them here and attract others.<\/p>\n<p>After congratulating themselves for keeping the budget balanced during the recession, city officials say they now must find more ways to cut city services expenses, pointing to the loss of state redevelopment funds and uncertainties about the state budget. A soothing voiceover explains, \u201cThe city is working to transform itself to a new model of government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no explanation of what that means. But judging from the city council\u2019s decision to seek contractors to bid on outsourcing parks maintenance, the \u201cnew model\u201d is apparently code for privatizing.<\/p>\n<p>The problem with all this talk about business friendliness and city belt-tightening is the absence of measurable objectives. How many new businesses have opened in Carlsbad since last year? How many new jobs and how much additional tax revenue have they brought with them? What are the costs of investing in business-friendliness? Where\u2019s the cost-benefit analysis for outsourcing city services? To quote the 1980\u2019s hamburger commercial: \u201cWhere\u2019s the beef?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead of hard data, we get generalities and dubious claims. Carlsbad is \u201cone of the top 50 exporting cities in the U.S., yet we\u2019re not in the top 200 in population,\u201d says the city\u2019s economic development manager, Kathy Dodson. She doesn\u2019t cite her source.<\/p>\n<p>Dodson continues, \u201cCompanies are bringing their manufacturing back from Asia and producing here in Carlsbad.\u201d We\u2019re left to guess the number and names of those companies.<\/p>\n<p>When I asked her about those claims, Dodson corrected herself on the city\u2019s exporting rank. It\u2019s the San Diego metropolitan area, not Carlsbad that <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/globaltrademag.com\/?s=top+exporting+cities+in+U.S.\" target=\"_blank\">ranks in the top 50<\/a><\/strong>. She promised to \u201cget that updated.\u201d And she could name only one company, San Clemente\u2019s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelightthatsaveslives.com\" target=\"_blank\">Lightsaver Technologies Inc<\/a><\/strong>. that has <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2012-06-21\/made-in-china-not-worth-hassle-for-small-firms-returning-to-u-s-.html\" target=\"_blank\">shifted its production from China to Carlsbad<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a small sample of what else was missing from this year\u2019s video: 1. The city\u2019s cultural and ethnic diversity, 2. The arts, 3. Any concern about the two-year, $7 million budget cut to schools, 4. Updates on the financial viability of the golf course, open space acquisition, desalination, and the city\u2019s opposition to a second ocean-view power plant.<\/p>\n<p>Carlsbad has a lot to brag about, but not this glossy ten-minute infomercial posing as the city\u2019s annual report.<\/p>\n<p><em>Richard J. Riehl writes from Carlsbad. Contact him at <\/em><strong><em><a href=\"mailto:fogcutter1@yahoo.com?subject=Carlsbadistan%20Feedback\" target=\"_blank\">fogcutter1@yahoo.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carlsbadians who couldn\u2019t afford the $85-a-plate Chamber of Commerce State of the City report luncheon at the Sheraton last month were invited to a free showing of a ten-minute video at the Dove Library a few days later. Former Mayor Bud Lewis didn\u2019t like to give or listen to long speeches, so he turned to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11027"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11030,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11027\/revisions\/11030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}