Government has a role to play in economic development. But sometimes things can go off the rails when politicians decide winners and losers.
Case in point: The Village of Glenview’s decision last week to cover nearly a third of the costs of opening a new coffeehouse in the suburb’s downtown. The Village Board voted to provide $500,000 to the owners of a growing local chain called Hometown Coffee over the adamant objections of the owner of an existing coffee place just two blocks away. The project will cost about $1.6 million to get going, so that’s quite the helping hand.
Suburban downtowns go through their ups and downs over the years and decades, and Glenview’s is in a bit of a funk, at least according to the village government. Comments from residents solicited by the board more than once came in along the lines of “downtown has little to offer,” Jeff Brady, the village’s director of community development, told the board at its Aug. 6 meeting.
To help change that perception, the board approved two large grants, the $500,000 for Hometown Coffee and another $1.4 million for a renovation of the former Glenview House for a new Mediterranean-themed restaurant. The Glenview House, for decades a bar and central gathering place that closed last year after a fire, was a true mainstay that is sorely missed and also is a historic site, since that’s where the village’s charter was signed in 1899. Village support to make that site productive again makes perfect sense.
But another coffeehouse? There certainly is no shortage of coffee places in the northern suburbs, including in Glenview. Cathy Schiltz, owner of the Glenview Grind coffeehouse, understandably takes offense at the village, where she has lived for 24 years and has run her business for 11 years, helping finance a direct competitor located a short walk away.
“We need a variety of businesses in downtown,” she testified. “We have seven existing coffeehouses. This new business will definitely hurt all of us existing downtown businesses.”
It’s hard to disagree with that point of view, but the Village Board did just that. They voted unanimously to help finance the new coffee place. By way of countering Schiltz’s argument, Village President Michael Jenny said that grants are available for existing businesses that want to expand or make major improvements. “It doesn’t have to be just new businesses,” he said.
You might be wondering how Glenview can afford to be so generous with taxpayer money. The village is in the fortunate position of having an economic development fund at its disposal thanks to the development nearly 30 years ago of The Glen, a sprawling multiuse project that established the pot of money the board now is tapping to revitalize downtown.
The village was wise to extract that concession back in the day given concerns that the stores at The Glen would draw retail business from downtown — and clearly have done so. But that doesn’t mean the board should be funding uses that aren’t needed. If someone wants to open a new coffeehouse in downtown Glenview, by all means they should go for it. But they shouldn’t be getting public assistance as if they were a grocer considering a new store in a food desert.
Struggling downtowns are a fact of life in the suburbs and in rural parts of Illinois. The public has an interest in their revitalization. But the last thing municipal governments ought to be doing as they seek to boost investment in their downtowns is to penalize the very businesses that have stuck it out during the tough times.
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