Poetry on the Panel
Attendees at the 2015 PolicyLink Equity Summit experienced something unexpected when they walked into many of the panels and workshops: a poetry performance.
Poetry Is Not a Luxury to Achieving Racial, Social, and Economic Equity
In her essay, Poetry Is Not a Luxury, Audre Lorde, the Caribbean-American writer, poet, radical feminist, lesbian, and civil rights activist, describes an often overlooked yet necessary process in community […]
Time to Bet on Prize-Linked Savings
During 15 years of working within a community development corporation to create and support socially and economically resilient communities, one of my perpetual frustrations was with the persistent presence of […]
How CDCs (and TIFs) Might Help Create Equitable Public School Districts
As many parents know instinctively, and economists have shown, there’s a reason why the housing cost in many communities is strongly correlated to the quality of the local public schools. […]
Affordable Housing Doesn’t Have Enough Advocates, Science Explains Why
In May, Scientific American (SA) published an article entitled “You Are Less Beautiful Than You Think.” The title refers to the article’s pointed rebuke of a well-publicized Dove brand video […]
Can Community Development Solve the Municipal Budget Crisis?
Oakland, Calif., like many cities, is beginning an annual or biennial budget process and coming to terms with the stark realities of structural problems with its municipal budget. An overwhelming […]
The New Age of Code Enforcement
A recent post in Rooflines by Alan Mallach entitled “5 Things Cities and CDCs Don’t Get About Code Enforcement” makes a pointed argument that two key players in the future […]
We Should Be Running This Place: Electing More Community Developers
I hosted a meet-and-greet recently for first-time candidate Lynette McElhaney (pictured), who was newly elected to the City of Oakland City Council from District 3 in November 2012. I live […]
CDCs and Creative Placemaking: Who Should Learn from Whom?
Feb 2013: I'm attending a small conference in Miami. With me are over 150 participants—all folks deeply committed to their communities, passionate about engaging their neighbors in improving the quality of […]
Community Development and New Understandings of Health and Wellness
In June 2012, I attended the Institute for the Future’s Health Horizons conference Innovating Information Ecosystems: The Next Decade and Beyond as an expert on the importance of place in […]
Get Big or Get Out!
Earl Lauer Butz, as the U.S. secretary of Agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, used this slogan to illlustrate his push to transform U.S. farming into a hyper-efficient […]
Achieving that “Last Mile” Impact
I like chocolate chocolate chip and I like peanut butter and chocolate but I’ll take a stand and say that twice as much of one great thing—chocolate—is more awesome than […]