In 1994, the Clinton Administration rolled out the Federal
Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community (EZ/EC) Program with high
expectations. So what has happened after three full years of
empowerment zone operation? Have things improved, or is it just
business as usual?
Those looking for quick fixes probably consider the empowerment
zone initiative a failure. Even after receiving the official
designation, zone administrators had to create governing bodies
composed of government officials, business leaders and residents,
as well as develop individual benchmark plans. In most communities,
this process took at least one year to complete, according to the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which
oversees the urban zones. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture
oversees the rural zones.) In some cities, tension between the
various factions made the process even more contentious.
According to HUD, there were no explicit goals in the EZ/EC
initiative regarding small business. The philosophy of how to
revitalize the community was left up to the communities. However,
all zones included small businesses in the process because they are
considered big job creators.
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Defining a zone as successful is not a cut-and-dried issue, adds
Noah Temaner Jenkins, project coordinator for the National
Empowerment Zone Action Research project being conducted by the
Egan Urban Center in Chicago. "The biggest problem is that we
don't know what the empowerment zone does by itself because it
doesn't act by itself," says Jenkins. "So many other
things are going on--other government programs and economic
factors, such as [having] one or two major corporations in the
area."
Jenkins believes the restraints are built into the structure of
empowerment zones. "The rhetoric says they will alleviate
poverty, put residents back to work and facilitate opening new
businesses," she says. "But the program doesn't
provide all the resources needed to do that right away."
Another big problem Jenkins sees is that, except for the tax
incentives, the program is geared toward preparing residents for
jobs. "The program is not designed for much direct business
assistance, though some zones are doing it," she says.
Still, small business does stand to benefit from the zones, at
least in part. "One good thing the zones are doing is drawing
[positive] attention to historically economically depressed areas
that have problems partly because of negative images."
This, in turn, is changing the perceptions of investors and
business owners who had written the areas off.
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