Never been there but I'm sure I've got a good sense of it here in NYC. Come meet our mayor, he's a helluva fellow.
I'm not a big gov't, big tax guy. But (looking at it from that point of view) if there's a choice between having the city be a business partner vs. taxing a business, it is better just to tax. Municipalities aren't good at running a business. They are good at taxing businesses.