It’s often said taking a trip can give you a new perspective on things. I recently found that to be true in my work life. I just spent a week in Washington, D.C., attending a National Press Foundation fellowship on local small business reporting. What I learned is that the Capital Region’s problems are not unique; small and mid-size cities around the U.S. are experiencing much of the same challenges and problems that we have here.

First, some quick facts I learned from the government affairs director for the Small Business Majority that surprised me: 99.9 percent of all businesses in America are small businesses. Eighty percent of businesses employ fewer than 10 employees. We hear more about the big corporations, but it’s the little guys that employ our country. Small business is the most respected major entity and is five times more respected than big business.

According to Dennis Shea, former U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, tariffs and immigration are the two top concerns of small business. (Eighty-four percent of small businesses are concerned about tariffs.) The tariff situation is holding businesses back from spending, not knowing what goods will cost in any given month.

“Businesses have developed supply chains over years, and it’s not easy depending on what it is your small business does. If it relies on a number of different components to make their product, it takes a while to get a secure supply chain,” said former U.S. Commerce Trade Undersecretary Francisco Sanchez, who spoke at the conference.

Immigration is the second biggest concern with employers, fearing they won’t have enough workers for their workforce. The bright spot is that 21 million new businesses have formed since the pandemic.

The fellowship was like going back to school. The 35 fellows, who represented 35 different newsrooms and cities around the country, sat at desks listening to a variety of speakers for four days, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We heard from representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the World Trade Organization, Wharton School of Business, Small Business Majority and many more.

We covered topics from tariffs to housing to crime, AI and immigration, investing and the food chain. We also heard from two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists: David Fahrenthold of The New York Times and Brody Mullins, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, who wrote the book “The Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government.”

I asked Neal Bradley, chief policy officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the program, what common concerns did his agency find in cities across America. Without a beat, he said affordable housing and crime, specifically retail theft and organized theft rings.

“Crime has for some time been an issue. We started hearing from local chambers of commerce around the country about retail theft, and in particular organized retail theft, probably seven or eight years ago. It’s a real problem because it is not just a cost issue, but it’s a sense of safety and kind of quality of life issue,” Bradley said.

We need to build more multi-family housing, he said, but the supply chain has been restricted and constricted.

“A top concern today is affordable housing near a place that’s convenient for their employees to live and get to work. Affordable housing is a huge problem, not everywhere in the country. In some places it’s acutely worse than others, but it’s a very common theme, and it’s not surprising because it’s a supply and demand story. We just haven’t built enough houses to keep up with demand, and when supply is constricted, prices go up,” Bradley said.

He said most housing advocates realize we need multi-family dwellings built, both to house more people and to be affordable, but most single-family neighborhoods don’t want apartment complexes or duplexes and triplexes next to them. The issue is density vs. single-family homes. (Editor’s note: Part of this issue is due not just to the desire of people in single-family homes but restrictive zoning laws that date back to the early 20th century; CNN has a good explainer. – J.C.F.)

Bradley said the housing market’s “fundamental supply problem” is coupled with a “regulatory problem as well,” citing a National Association of Home Builders study that found that government regulations and permitting cost about $100,000 on a new house.

A trio of speakers from the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District talked about the role of tourism in downtown business development. They shared concerns that Sacramento has: They’re trying to regain their downtown population that vanished during COVID. While D.C. is an international tourist attraction, it still doesn’t have as many visitors as pre-pandemic. Their visitors bureau is trying a variety of attractions to lure visitors, such as a month-long holiday market in December.

They stressed placemaking — establishing common areas as a way to make downtown more enticing. Some of the things they’re doing is putting unique attractions into parks, like adult-size seesaws and cocoons, to create gathering places for workers and residents. They said cities also have to host events that are affordable for families. They stressed that city leaders shouldn’t copy other ideas. They urged them to “capitalize on your assets” and create unique signature events that attract visitors. (I think Sacramento does this well with its various farm-to-fork events.)

D.C. business leaders added that we’ll never have a 100 percent return to office. D.C. is currently 50 percent of office capacity in a government town.

Several speakers said immigrants are needed to fill jobs. There are currently 500,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs in the U.S., and there are 50 million immigrants in the U.S. Immigrants make up 33 percent of the workforce in California compared to the national average of 17 percent, according to Julia Gelatt, associate director of the Migration Policy Institute’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program.

The U.S. workforce itself concerns Bradley of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He said if a worker leaves or is laid off, businesses are unlikely to replace them because of the uncertainty in the economy.

We finished the fellowship with a visit to a restaurant in Virginia that locally sources its ingredients. Sound familiar?

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