Empowerment Zones: Picking the Winners

Abstract

Empowerment zones (EZs) and enterprise communities (ECs) represent the flagship of the Clinton/Gore administration's urban policy. Almost 300 cities entered the competition for federal designation in June 1994, with 8 cities winning EZ status and 65 cities securing the second prize as ECs. The selection of cities involved an elaborate process of eligibility (based on population, size, and poverty criteria), submission of a detailed strategic plan, and then careful scrutiny by a federal interagency review panel. This commentary suggests that the eventual choice of winning cities in this latest federal sweepstakes may have been influenced as much by other, more traditional factors: geographical distribution, political opportunity, and the possibility of short-term program success. For information, the commentary is accompanied by a detailed listing of all urban EZs and ECs and the corresponding political context following the November 1994 elections.