Welcome to the DED Blog!

Welcome to the first edition of the DED blog! As we foray into the world of social media, we will use our blog to communicate with citizens and businesses on important economic development issues like job growth, development projects, and new business openings. Like any blog, our goal is to engage in a healthy conversation about these issues. Your thoughts are important to us, so share them by email at economicdevelopment@cityoffrederick.com.

Now, we have a question for you - how well do you know DED? Do you know our mission and our goals? Let's take a minute to learn more about your advocate in City Hall.

Our formal mission is "...to increase economic opportunity for Frederick residents through job creation, revitalization and reinvestment." At the foundation of that mission is the core belief that quality jobs with family-supporting wages, located close to home, are a critical component of the quality of life for the residents of our city.

DED is focused on this mission every single day - fostering new business creation through entrepreneurship and small business start-up support; retaining and growing our existing businesses; and recruiting new companies to Frederick.

There are other components to our mission that further the goals of job creation - encouraging and supporting revitalization and reinvestment in areas such as Downtown Frederick, East Frederick and the Golden Mile; and advocating for infrastructure investments to support private-sector investment (water/sewer, road, Frederick Municipal Airport, and more).

DED is the voice of business in City Hall - advocating for a predictable and business-supportive environment. We look forward to communicating this message in new ways in the new year. In addition to our blog, we are now on Facebook ("Frederick DED").

Happy New Year - we wish each of you much joy and success in 2011!