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Abstract

This research article presents a comparative analysis of economic development efforts in four West Michigan communities: Grand Haven, Holland, Hudsonville, and Zeeland. These cities have developed economic development plans specifically targeting the revitalization of their downtowns and commercial districts. This paper discusses the history of each community, assesses their current economic development efforts, and frames them within a greater discussion of scholarship on economic development strategies in small and rural U.S. communities. It seeks to answer five core research questions and conducts a comparative analysis of the four towns employed as case studies for the paper. This comparative analysis assesses the effectiveness of each city’s economic development efforts and measures their overall success through the Small City Economic Dynamism Index(SCEDI). This paper takes academic theory and highlights it in practice by including a robust literature review on small town economic development strategies, before turning to a comparative analysis of local cities that have been selected as case studies. Finally, this paper will conclude with the presentation of an economic development toolkit which discusses the lessons and best practices gathered from the case studies and academic literature. The cities involved in this research article stand out as representative samples of the many communities that dot the landscape throughout the American Midwest. As such, this paper will serve as a practical economic development guide for small and midsized cities across the region.

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