If you’ve ever spent any time in DC....you come to note how it’s impossible to create a new business, new pub, new restaurant, new anything. You have to have some personal lobbyist who is connected to the city council and is helping you get a seat at the table. That’s why the city council elections provoke big dynamics and interest.
When Wal-Mart expressed interest in putting two stores into DC....the council drew the company into deep negotiations. They were pushed toward donating toward “community-groups” as one step. They were pushed toward guaranteeing that only DC residents would get the jobs created (no Maryland or Virginia residents). Every single step was geared in some way for a political donation to come to this city council guy and that city council woman.
Go over into SW DC and look for a grocery. You won’t find a single one within that region of the district. Between crime, lack of cops, and frustrations with the city council....there are no groceries within a 2 x 2 mile area of DC...yet thousands of residents.
A lot of tax incentives to entice businesses back to welfare hatcheries have conditions like that (forcing them to hire the unemployable residents that made it a hell-hole to begin with).
No surprise NJ is in bad shape as well; to buy a home or open a business here is to buy a share in a massive (and growing) IOU to retired public employees. It is killing CA, and it is killing NJ as well; the only “business” that’s thriving is public education - and it is killing the state.