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Community Benefits from Development

RISEP’s research in the area of community benefits from development looks at how publicly funded projects such as stadiums can be structured to provide the most benefits to local residents. Best value contracting, local hiring, apprenticeship programs, health benefits for workers, and using small and minority contractors are ways to make large public works projects not only important amenities but true engines of economic and workforce development. We also look at public opinion about development in South Florida and investigate economic development tax breaks given to private companies to see how these incentives measure up as a way of creating jobs.

Who Benefits Report

What are the impacts of Neighborhood Stabilization Programs (NSP) in Florida? This report is the third in a series that looks at the opportunity landscape in Florida before the recession, and how economic stimulus investments should be targeted towards making quality of life opportunities accessible to all communities, particularly communities of color. This installment focuses on the impact of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and its efforts to rehabilitate foreclosed and abandon

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The purpose of the reports is to determine the best way for the public to maximize the benefits it will receive from the construction of a new, approximately $490 million stadium for the Florida Marlins at the Orange Bowl site in Little Havana. In particular, we examine the different employment and contracting options facing the city and county, and the consequences of different choices between these options. The goal is to obtain a good value for the taxpayer’s investment, obtain stable and w

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State and local agencies have subsidized private sector investment in the name of economic development in Miami-Dade County. We analyzed the outcomes of subsidized economic development in Miami from a community benefits perspective. Accordingly, we were interested in the number and quality of jobs created through public-private partnerships, as well as the extent of local hiring, the transparency and inclusiveness of the development process and the extent to which such standards were monitored a

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Miami-Dade’s expenditures for economic development: Do they effectively address the problem of low-wage work, housing affordability, and the homelessThe purpose of this project is to assess City of Miami residents’ opinions about Miami’s building boom of the past few years. We were concerned with how development directly affects the lives of individuals in Miami, especially in the areas where development is concentrated. We wanted to learn what residents view as the positive and negative i

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The five research reports in this series address the ways Miami-Dade County might undertake the renovation of the Orange Bowl and the expansion of the Jackson South Community Hospital. Both of these projects will be built with partial funding from the taxpayers of the county through the “Building Better Communities General Obligation Bond” (GOB), which was passed by county voters in November of 2004. The purpose of the reports is to determine the best way for the public to maximize the bene

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Two Miami-Dade County GOB projects, the renovation of the Orange Bowl and the expansion of Jackson South Community Hospital, will create thousands of construction jobs for local workers. But in order for these jobs to truly be a benefit to the community, all workers must be provided with health insurance. Uninsurance is costly for the community and governmetns and also creates stress and financial crises for families. In 2004 almost 72 percent of Miami-Dade emergency room visits by the uninsured

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Miami-Dade County will invest more than $100 million in taxpayer-supported General Obligation Bond (GOB) dollars in the renovation of the Orange Bowl and the renovation and expansion of Jackson South Community Hospital. For this large and important public investment the county should get the best value possible from both projects. The choice of contractor makes a big difference in the overall value of each project. The county should use a performance-based contractor selection process, such as B

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This report examines the state of the local construction industry and the role of apprenticeships within it, and uses existing research on apprenticeship impacts and the “return on investment” to argues the County would be wise to either require or encourage by means of incentives in the procurement process the use of apprentices in the renovation of the Orange Bowl and the expansion of Jackson South Community Hospital.

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The Orange Bowl renovation and Jackson South Community Hospital renovation and expansion projects are large, visible, and economically important projects that will make needed improvements to important community assets. But it is imperative that all sections of our community receive the benefits of these projects and have an equal opportunity to participate. That the nature of the construction industry tends towards exclusionary networks and unequal hiring practices is all the more incentive for

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This report provides an economic impact analysis of the renovation of the Orange Bowl and the expansion of Jackson South Community Hospital. The positive impact of hiring locally could be magnified enormously if efforts were made to concentrate the local hiring in communities most in need of stable, well-paying jobs. Thus, a modest impact on the county as a whole could be translated into a major impact for a community (or communities) with low incomes and higher unemployment.

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