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Michael Wiebe's avatar

>I mean literal entrepreneurs, with a long-term financial interest in a city, at the helm of management.

Did JC have such a financial interest?

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zach.dev's avatar

No, he did not enjoy financial upside in the city. But we shouldn't build on the assumption we get such a unicorn at the helm ;-)

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Michael Wiebe's avatar

Do you know of cities that have created residual claimant incentives?

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zach.dev's avatar

Arguably Singapore during the FlexPay period (salaries/bonuses indexed to GPD growth). But the proper analog is in the shopping mall, large multifamily, and master planned community industry

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Clark Peterson's avatar

Wasn't familiar with this story. There's a lot to learn from it. Thanks for telling it so well!

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zach.dev's avatar

Thanks, Clark!

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L C W's avatar

And a classics major, at that. Three cheers for the Humanities ❤️

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zach.dev's avatar

Yes, a very interesting education. Cowperthwaite did some studies in classical economics after his undergraduate, as I recall but was certainly no PhD.

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L C W's avatar

I really appreciate that he was driven by neither ideology nor greed, and that he managed to resist the pressures and trends the way he did. Quite exceptional for someone in that kind of role.

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Obsidian Blackbird.'s avatar

That was fantastic education for me! Thank you for writing that!

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zach.dev's avatar

Thank you!

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Tudor Iliescu's avatar

What a character! His story merges with that of Hongkong itself.

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zach.dev's avatar

Yes, HK would look very different without Cowperthwaite, I suspect.

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