Thursday, April 23, 2009

Who Is James Wood?

He's director of the University of Utah Bureau of Business and Economic Research. SL Trib articles have quoted him twice in the last month.

First he told Rebecca Walsh "What we don't know is how many people [the Home Run program is] going to bring into the market that would not otherwise be in the market." Then he told Lesley Mitchell that Daybreak is unique. "It's a true mixed use project, where you have a range of residential options as well as commercial choices," he said.

I think he's right about the Home Run program. Handing out $6000 checks won't do anything to stimulate new home sales, it just diverts buyers from existing homes.

The Daybreak comment sounds like paid testimony. Daybreak isn't the first mixed use project in Salt Lake, and it's not even a particularly good one.