Columnist: Shortsighted motorists learn the hard way about the wisdom of preventive auto maintenance; such maintenance almost always pays off in the long run  Our usually shortsighted city council should be praised for using similar wisdom when they hired a long-term economic development adviser  In hiring this adviser, the council made an investment that is likely to have a big payoff in several years
Other cities in this region that have devoted resources to economic development planning have earned large returns on such an investment
The columnist's city has a much smaller population and economy than the other cities did when they began devoting resources to economic development planning.