BusinessFlare Take

Los Angeles tourism has “fallen off a cliff” and the timing couldn’t be worse. Lingering pandemic fears and this winter’s wildfires have left LAX and local hotels emptier than expected, just as LA gears up to host the Super Bowl, World Cup and Olympics. City Council’s brilliant idea? Consider jacking hotel workers’ minimum wage to $30, even as international visitor counts tank. With hundreds of thousands of Angelenos depending on tourism dollars, LA is desperately trying to reassure everyone that the city is open – and not financially flaming out in the meantime.

Street Economics Insight

There’s a good chance your kid’s homework was written by AI. The The Wall Street Journal reports that students are freely outsourcing essays and problem sets to ChatGPT and its cousins – one teen admits she cheated through English, math and history using AI tools when assignments were “boring or difficult”. Teachers and parents are largely left in the dark, as AI-generated work slips under the radar. Tech boosters claim AI will enhance learning, but educators see a giant unasked-for experiment with our schools. Until institutions catch up, academic integrity has entered the chat(bot).

Drama Meter Reading

Pittsfield, Massachusetts earns a spicy 8/10 on the Drama Meter after a public camping ban proposal sparked outrage. The ordinance aimed to evict unhoused people from all city parks, streets and riverbanks – without saying where they should go – and residents were not having it. “How cruel are you to further criminalize the depths of poverty,” one citizen blasted the council. Facing the backlash, councilors sent the plan off to committee limbo instead of passing it. Attempting to legislate homelessness out of sight (and out of mind) signals a leadership failure that’s bad for a city’s social stability and business climate alike.

Book Drop

Atlanta just lived through a chapter of Red Tape Empire. A trio of new audits found city bureaucrats doing their thing: putting employees on indefinite paid leave for sketchy reasons, having no criteria for who gets to work remotely, and taking as long as 116 days to pay vendors. Kevin Crowder’s book warned how bureaucracies become self-serving empires, and here we are – rules applied arbitrarily, processes gumming up basic city functions. Today’s news mirrors Crowder’s premise perfectly: when city hall can’t even follow its own HR and payment policies, the red tape empire is alive and well.

ECOSINT Signal

A high-security biolab managed to become its own biohazard. At the Army’s Fort Detrick lab in Maryland, an argument between contractors turned into a literal safety crisis when one slashed the other’s protective suit, potentially exposing everyone to whatever nasty pathogen was inside. The NIH’s new director promptly shut the lab down “until I am satisfied it is safe”. For the city of Frederick, this fiasco is a local nightmare (nobody wants Outbreak in their backyard), and nationally it underscores glaring security lapses. If a top-tier lab can’t prevent a human error meltdown, every city housing such facilities will demand answers and safeguards fast.

Red River Flavor

Big Food labels love to fib, but millions now have an app for that. Yuka – a French food scanner app with 68 million users (including this author) reads product labels and scores their health impact based on real ingredients (and the sketchy additives). It’s exposing what Big Brands don’t want you to know: that “organic-ish” snack might be full of junk. The app has even earned praise from the US Health Secretary, of all people. In line with Goodnight’s Red River Spice Co. philosophy of real ingredients, consumers are using tech to stick it to processed-food fakery and vote with their wallets for the good stuff.

The Music Cities

Huntsville isn’t just about rockets; it’s about rockin’ out and piggin’ out too. The Rocket City BBQ & Soul Fest just returned for its fourth year, lighting up the city with a full day of barbecue, soul music, and family fun. We’re talking a pitmaster cook-off, live bands and DJs, food vendors galore – basically a local economic stimulus package in the form of smoked meats and sweet beats. Organizers say Huntsville’s food and music scene is growing so fast that the city is “the next Nashville” in the making. A festival like this boosts small biz revenues and cements the city’s rep as a cultural hotspot.

Space Economy Signal

Jacksonville, FL is shooting for the stars (and jets). City and state leaders are courting “Project Bluebird,” a secretive aerospace company, with a hefty incentive package to build its new manufacturing hub at Cecil Airport. The deal would mean a $430 million investment in a plant to produce a next-gen fuel efficient passenger plane – the first of its kind in Jax – and an estimated 400 jobs initially, with potential to reach 1,200 jobs as the facility expands. It’s a big play to boost the region’s space and aviation sector. If Jacksonville lands this project, it instantly graduates into the majors of the space economy game, with all the jobs and prestige that come with it.

Purple Cow of the Day (Unfair Advantage)

Post-pandemic corporate kumbaya is dead and gone. According to the Wall Street Journal, bosses have stopped coddling and are back to cracking the whip – telling employees to quit whining and be happy they have a job. The power dynamic flipped: with recession rumblings and AI automating work, executives feel emboldened to squeeze more output and even ax layers of management. It’s an “unfair advantage” moment for the C-suite. One professor notes this tough-love culture may be temporary, but for now 2025’s workplace vibes are clear: hustle hard, don’t complain, and check your office yoga at the door.

About Street Economics Daily

Street Economics Daily cuts through noise, jargon, and bureaucracy to deliver sharp, actionable insights for civic and economic development professionals. Blunt, irreverent, and grounded firmly in reality, it’s essential daily reading for city leaders who refuse to settle for outdated strategies.