Welcome to Curated Morning. A compendium of news, information, and stories that economic development professionals, community development leaders and elected officials read every week to stay in touch with what is happening in our economy.

I sell things

Crazy, right? Well, not really. While some may think I write this newsletter out of the kindness of my own heart, I don't. This isn't meant to be a harsh opening, but I want everyone who reads this newsletter to understand that, like many newsletters, it is a marketing tool for my business.

Don't get me wrong, I love doing it, and based on the feedback I receive from readers, it is well-received. However, it truly is a way for me to communicate with you, the reader, that I have services and offers to sell. Because a guy has gotta eat, right?

I'll go ahead and get right to the point. This newsletter is changing. Here are the changes:

• You are going to see more stories about economic development, the green economy, as well as AI and its impact on economic development, cities, and states. There will a greater concentration on the stories that economic development professionals, community development leaders and elected officials need and want to see.
• You will see less about leadership issues, human performance, flow, resilience, grit, and related stories. Those are moving over to my new newsletter, JustBe. You are welcome to go to the JustBe subscription site, learn more, and sign up for a special rate. (See, I'm selling :)

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Why JustBe? You should have received a sample copy of the first edition last week, which explains my rationale.

However, let me reiterate it in a nutshell: because we all need help.

We all need to learn the lessons and wisdom of how to be human, especially in the midst of the chaos we call our current reality. I hope that, in the long run, JustBe will accomplish this task.

And JustBe is for anyone and everyone. Not just the EconDev crowd.

I would love to have you along for the ride.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled broadcast:

The Main Thing:

I was thinking of the song "Who Are You" by ​The Who (of course) when I wrote this week's blog post. The song was ringing through my head. It came out when I was in high school, a time that is formative for many people.

That is precisely what this week's post is about. Who are you, truly? What is your story? We each have one. And our experiences, teachers, parents, aunts, uncles, friends, and our observations of all these things inform who we are today.

Who we are and what we have become is moderated by the thing we call our brain or mind. How we process our experiences is impacted by the evolutionary limits of our brains. Our amygdala, which processes many of our emotions, works to keep us safe —a trait that worked well for our ancestors but sometimes gets in our way in these more modern times.

I'm letting on too much. Read this week's post here for more information and tips to regulate and change your story (if required).

Focus On Economic Development

Housing Wars: How Cities Are Fighting Back Against the Affordability Crisis

City leaders gathering at the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference identified housing costs and availability as their top challenge recently. Vice President JD Vance was a speaker and highlighted local zoning reform as a critical solution, praising Austin, Texas’ recent policy changes that allowed smaller single-family lots and apartment buildings near transit lines, making it "one of the few major American cities where you see the cost of housing leveling off or even coming down." The conference underscored that housing isn't a partisan issue but a fundamental economic development concern affecting communities' ability to attract and retain workers. The meeting is highlighted in the article: JD Vance calls for zoning, regulation reform to improve housing affordability by Dan Zukowski in SmartCitiesDive

Why This Matters: For economic developers, housing availability has become the make-or-break factor in talent attraction and business retention strategies. When companies can't find affordable housing for their workforce, they look elsewhere, taking jobs and tax base with them. As new HUD Secretary Scott Turner brings his opportunity zone experience to federal housing policy, economic developers have a window to align local housing strategies with potential federal initiatives and funding opportunities.

Take Action: Conduct a housing availability audit in your community, mapping current inventory against projected workforce needs for target industries. Partner with your planning department to identify zoning barriers that artificially constrain housing supply, particularly near employment centers and transit corridors. Develop relationships with local housing developers to understand regulatory pain points and streamline approval processes for workforce housing projects.

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Nuclear-Powered AI: Amazon's $20 Billion Pennsylvania Power Play Rewrites the Data Center Playbook

Amazon Web Services has announced a historic $20 billion investment in two Pennsylvania data center complexes, marking the largest capital investment in the state's history. The project is highlighted in Amazon to spend $20B on data centers in Pennsylvania, including one next to a nuclear power plant (Marc Levy | AP).

One facility is being constructed directly adjacent to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in a controversial "behind-the-meter" arrangement that would funnel 40% of the plant's output—enough to power half a million homes—straight to Amazon's servers. The second complex will rise from the ashes of industrial Pennsylvania at a former U.S. Steel mill site in Fairless Hills. This investment continues Amazon's aggressive $10 billion-per-state data center expansion across Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina, as Big Tech races to secure the massive power requirements needed for artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Why This Matters: This development signals a fundamental shift in how tech giants approach power procurement and site selection, creating unprecedented opportunities for economic developers who understand the new rules of the game. The "behind-the-meter" model—where data centers plug directly into power plants—is revolutionizing development timelines by bypassing congested electrical grids. However, federal regulators are scrutinizing whether this arrangement unfairly diverts power from other users. The Pennsylvania deals also demonstrate how industrial legacy sites can be transformed into high-tech assets when combined with adequate power infrastructure.

Take Action: Are there opportunities in your community? Conduct an inventory of all major power generation facilities in your region and assess their capacity for behind-the-meter arrangements with potential data center developers. Reach out to nuclear plant operators, utility-scale solar and wind facilities, and natural gas plants to explore partnership opportunities and understand their excess capacity. Develop relationships with data center site selection consultants to position your community for similar opportunities, emphasizing any existing industrial sites with robust electrical infrastructure that could be repurposed for data center use.

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The $63 Million Lot: How New Albany Became Big Tech's Billion-Dollar Playground

Google has paid $63 million for an undeveloped site in New Albany, Ohio—a staggering 4,000% markup from the $1.6 million the property sold for just two years ago. The tech giant hasn't announced specific plans for the Columbus suburb location. Still, the purchase adds to Google's already massive $6.7 billion investment in Ohio data centers, positioning the company for future expansion in what has become the epicenter of central Ohio's data center boom. New Albany has attracted a who's who of hyperscale operators, with Google, Meta, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft all operating or planning facilities in the city. You can read about it in Google Acquisition Continues Ohio Data Center Gold Rush (Dan Rabb | BISNOW).

Why This Matters: New Albany's transformation from suburban community to data center capital offers a masterclass in how strategic positioning and early action can create exponential economic returns for communities. The 4,000% land appreciation in just two years illustrates the wealth-building potential that occurs when economic developers successfully attract anchor tenants, triggering a clustering effect. Economic developers should note that roughly 1,900 acres have been acquired across the Columbus region in just over two years, demonstrating the scale at which these projects consume available land and the importance of having adequate inventory ready.

Take Action: Identify communities in your region that could serve as anchor locations for data center clustering and develop comprehensive land banking strategies to control key parcels before speculation drives prices beyond reach. Establish relationships with utility providers to pre-identify sites with sufficient power capacity and develop expedited approval processes for supporting infrastructure, such as dedicated power plants. Create incentive packages that reward anchor tenants while incorporating mechanisms to capture value from land appreciation and follow-on investments they generate.

Other Articles of Interest this week:

Green Economy -- These 5 countries are leading the energy transition by World Economic Forum -- The World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index 2025 ranks countries by how well they are progressing towards secure, equitable, and sustainable energy systems.

Leadership -- What’s the Best Way for Large, Disparate Teams to Communicate? By Abraham Kim | Kellogg Insight -- Figuring out the best way to communicate about a task can get increasingly complicated the more people get involved. Who needs to know what? And who should be telling whom?

Technology -- Honda successfully launched and landed its own reusable rocket by Andrew Liszewski | The Verge -- The rocket flew for almost a full minute and reached an altitude of 890 feet before landing within 14 inches of its target.

AI -- Advanced AI models generate up to 50 times more CO₂ emissions than more common LLMs when answering the same questions by Ben Turner | LiveScience -- Asking AI reasoning models questions in areas such as algebra or philosophy caused carbon dioxide emissions to spike significantly.

Mentoring-- Beyond managers: Why mentors are the real drivers of employee retention by Nicholas Wyman | Fast Company -- Mentorship is foundational. Without it, workforce programs risk becoming just another short-term training exercise. Leaders serious about long-term talent development should treat mentorship not just as a learning tool, but as a lever for confidence, inclusion, and commitment.

Something You Should Read:

Psychologists and Neuroscientists often describe the conscious as the entity that is the observer of the thoughts and emotions your brain creates in response to external stimuli. Our perception of the world is shaped by the observations we make and the meaning we place on them. Without this process, there would be no reality. I know, this sounds a little heady, but you have to understand this before I recommend this week's “Something You Should Read.”

This week, we get to spend some time reading Vann Cunningham’s essay, The Complexity of Consciousness and Its Implications for AI. The article covers some basics when trying to understand the interaction between humans and AI and questions the likelihood of AI becoming “human” or, as described above, having consciousness.

Vann emphasizes that we should go beyond anthropocentric assumptions about what consciousness should look like and prepare for the possibility of sharing our world with genuinely conscious artificial minds that may experience reality in fundamentally different ways.

So, what is the source of consciousness? Vann explores that question as well, arguing that it is likely emergent (based on current research) from specific brain architectural complexity and information processing patterns rather than requiring biological. Evidence from convergent evolution (birds achieving mammal-like intelligence through completely different brain structures) suggests that the right computational architecture and complexity, not specific biological components, may be the key to consciousness, making AI consciousness theoretically possible.

What makes this article so fascinating is that a retired economic developer wrote it in his seventies. Why is that such a big deal? It shows that life doesn’t end when one retires, but with lifelong curiosity, one can tackle some of the biggest philosophical and compelling questions of our age later in life.

Overheard:

“If you're not ready for everything, you're not ready for anything.”

—Paul Auster

Pick the Pickle

Have you started playing Pickleball? I have not adopted the sport yet. Every time I think of it, my right knee files an objection. Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the USA. According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), Pickleball has experienced an astounding 223% growth over the last three years.

Its popularity is strongest among older populations, with eighty and ninety-year-olds participating, as evidenced by this video.

In my community, an entrepreneur acquired the former indoor tennis club and transformed it into a Pickleball club. This club offers a range of amenities, including leagues for players of all levels and an indoor restaurant for post-game socializing.

A recent news release by The Pickle Pad, an indoor Pickleball court developer, supports the growth of the sport. The PicklePad operates in nine communities, has signed twelve agreements, and is set to open three new locations in the third quarter, according to the press release.

What are you waiting for? Get your paddle and join the fun! Pickleball is not just a sport; it's a social activity. So, grab your friends and smash some pickles! (Oh, wait, that’s not the goal?)

​Read this week's post here for more information and tips to regulate and change your story (if required).

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​Some Rules are Meant to be Broken

If you have traveled by plane for any amount of time, you will notice something that occurs on every flight. This activity is something I have seen people complain about and rail against on social media platforms. On one Instagram channel called Passenger Shaming, the administrator of the post complains about it. What is this activity?

(Note: Passenger Shaming also points out other offensive activity performed by airline passengers, in particular, the removal of shoes and placing dirty feet in unwanted places.)

The activity I'm talking about is standing up as soon as the plane arrives at the gate. I don't know why anyone would be offended by that activity. The plane arrives at the gate, comes to a stop, and the "unbuckle seat belt" bells ding. Like a standing ovation for the pilot and crew, everyone stands up. What's wrong with that?

The passenger-shaming people say standing up means nothing, as no one is going anywhere until the jet brigade is connected and the doors are opened. Ok, I agree with that. But after the airline has had you pay $500 for a seat with a one-eighth-inch padding and no room to accommodate your 6'2" frame for three hours, I don't see how standing up to stretch before disembarking is a crime.

Doing it before the plane stops could be dangerous, which is why some countries have passed laws to prevent people from doing so. I have rarely, if ever, seen that happen on domestic flights.

If you're going to stuff me in a small aluminum tube for three hours next to the guy who ate a tuna fish sandwich, took up both armrests, and snored through half the flight, you bet I'm going to stand up at the end of the flight.

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​I Have my Teams, You Have Yours

I am a Chicago sports fan. Growing up, I remember going to my best friend's house to watch and listen to the Chicago Cubs. They had a tall antenna added to their home (before cable TV) to pick up the WGN-TV signal from Chicago, eighty-five miles away. This cemented my love for the Northsiders.

Despite an inexplicable childhood allegiance to the Packers, it was my move to the Chicago suburbs during Graduate school that marked a significant shift. It was then that I made a conscious decision to embrace the Bears, a team that resonated with the spirit of Chicago.

Apologies to the Packer fans, but as I often jest with my Wisconsin kin, the Packers endured a prolonged period of mediocrity before their recent success. My switch, as fate would have it, coincided with the Bears' triumphant Super Bowl win in 1986.

The Bears-Packers rivalry dates back to the early days of the National Football League (NFL). Other NFL rivalries exist, but none are as intense as this one. That is the subject of this article: sports rivalries.

The only one they missed is the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry. When I lived in Central Illinois, I had to listen to Cardinal fans all the time. But maybe that is more regional than I realize.

​Explore the sports rivalries here.​

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