Van Broad, City of Mauldin, and Taft Matney, Mauldin City Council

"Businesses like to go where people are happy.  If you've got people who are happy, you've got happy employees." 

Van Broad, newly retired economic development director for the City of Mauldin, reflects on why economic development is important, how it is done, and how it's about so much more than simply recruiting businesses to our community. He's interviewed by Taft Matney, Mauldin City Council member, and he says:

"Economic development is multifaceted.  It can be community development - like renewing a downtown - taking events, the cultural center, activities, connecting people, connecting opportunity, and using that to showcase to business that you can do business in the community. And certainly you want to do business in a community where a city council and the government sees the value of investing in arts, investing in people, and not just in the traditional sense of industrial and business development and recruitment, but really in community life and quality. I think those are hand in hand with economic development."