Assorted Links Tuesday

What I'm reading today: Corporate Site Selection and Economic Development: A 30-Year Perspective by Mark Williams.

If you missed it yesterday, we published episode #3 of the Econ Dev Show Podcast.  In it, we talk to Shad Burner:

Shad made the jump from economic development at a chamber of commerce, to a startup tech company, and then back to economic development for the state of Missouri.

Along the way, he learned not only how to be entrepreneurial, but how talk to entrepreneurs in their own language. He understands what keeps them up at nights, what they care about, and most importantly what they don't care about at all.

Give it a listen or follow/subscribe.

The life and death of the central business district: Offices are not going back to the way they were pre-pandemic, and neither are the downtown neighborhoods that house them.

New research finds a big rise in new businesses despite the pandemic, particularly in predominantly Black neighborhoods.  Was it the stimulus?

Maybe part of the housing unaffordability problem is that expectations have gotten ahead of reality. Houses were more affordable for our parents because the ones they were buying bare little resemblance to the ones we’re buying. I know I’m generalizing, but I think there’s definitely some truth here. Again, I’m only speaking through my own experience.

‘Everyone wants to look their best’: As restrictions ease, stores say sales are shifting away from toilet paper and baking flour to cosmetics and swimsuits.

Deodorant, teeth whitener and condoms are in high demand. Sales of perfume, nail polish, swimsuits, sunscreen, tuxedos, luggage and alarm clocks are climbing fast, according to companies that make these products and large retailers.

The economy is booming. Why don’t more firms believe it?

And finally, you can't get more local (or more unappetizing) than this: Now on the menu at DC-area restaurants, Brood X Cicadas.