By almost all accounts the Lawrence Avenue Development Corporation has done an outstanding job advising local merchants on how to start, sustain, or expand their companies. Yet earlier this year LADCOR lost $25,000 in funds when the state reorganized its small but effective Illinois Small Business Development Center Network.
At issue is how best to finance and operate the Network, which recently emerged as a modest success story for the state. The program’s purpose is to help small businesses by offering them free or low-cost financial and technical advice. “A businessman may need help getting a loan to expand, or he may want to conduct some kind of market study,” says Bookman. “Or maybe he’s thinking of moving to a new location in the neighborhood or doing an inventory. Whatever the case, we have the expertise to help him.”
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Instead, Grayson wants to spend state money in a way that would foster widespread community development. “We want to create new jobs and new economic development that go beyond one or two neighborhoods,” says Jeff Mitchell of DCCA. “We want to foster a long-term gain for entire regions.”
Worse, the changes planted seeds of distrust between long-standing allies. “I don’t begrudge any of the groups that got money,” says Bookman. “They do a good job. But so do we. And I have to wonder, why them and not us?”
One possibility is that organizations such as LADCOR could solicit subcontracts from their more fortunate not-for-profit counterparts. “There may be some bad feelings for a while,” says Monroe Roth. “Some people may think its demeaning to have to come to their friends with hat in hand. But maybe in time they will have to swallow their pride.”
