Entries by Bart Taylor

Business left high and dry by immigration dodge

One measure of today’s political dysfunction is the inability of elected officials to govern at the margins. For business, immigration is a stark example. Last year the U.S. Senate passed the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act”, Senate Bill 744. Today it sits idle in the House, stalled indefinitely and its meaningful pieces […]

Manufacturing’s lost its cultural mojo. Here’s how to get it back.

Later this month in Colorado Springs, over 1000 high-school age kids and 500 or so community college students will visit the Southern Colorado Manufacturing Expo & Conference to view demonstrations and interact with industry, suppliers and service. It’s what manufacturer’s have been asking for – and need: visibility to a next-generation workforce. How many of […]

As manufacturing boosts commercial real estate, Placemakers are taking note

Denver’s most illustrious Maker defies description. She’s a real-estate developer by trade, though the moniker understates the outcomes of her work. After all, how many developers have a hotel named after them? No, Dana Crawford is a placemaker. Crawford’s projects – her places – are often a brick-and-mortar continuum: they remind us of who lived […]

What’s your Colorado manufacturing IQ? Take this quiz and find out.

Last week, with a push from the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, Governor John Hickenlooper proclaimed this workweek ‘Manufacturing Week’ in Colorado, adding a regional flavor to Friday’s national Manufacturing Day. It’s music to our ears, so we thought we’d join the festivities with a pop quiz celebrating Colorado’s broad, dynamic manufacturing community. Go […]

Questions from Walmart’s strange Denver manufacturing summit

Walmart is a study in contrast. For shareholders and Wall St. the company’s a rock star. For consumers, Walmart’s high-volume low-margin model has helped family budgets go further, at a time when wages are stagnant for a big majority of Americans. But Walmart stores have also changed America’s economic fabric by forcing smaller retailers out […]

Change at Colorado’s OEDIT an opportunity to upgrade Hick’s Blueprint

The worst kept secret in Colorado economic circles is the impending leadership shake-up at the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade, or OEDIT. Ken Lund, Executive Director of OEDIT and Karla Tartz, Deputy Director, Strategy & Operations, are leaving as early as September. The change shouldn’t come as a surprise. Lund’s made it […]