The Puzzle of Turning Vision into Action
Articulating a vision from the hopes and dreams of diverse community members is like piecing together a 250 piece jigsaw puzzle. Translating that vision into action steps in the course […]
Suitcases and Shopping Carts:Â Lessons from Recent Labor Victories
This week, the Hyatt Hotels Corporation agreed to pay $1 million to the 98 housekeepers who were fired and replaced by lower-paid workers five years ago. A few weeks earlier, employees of the Market Basket family-owned grocery store chain returned to work after over a month of protests helped to reinstate the ousted, worker-friendly CEO. […]
Building Bridges, Building Muscle, Building Momentum
Two cities show how community-based organizations and labor can overcome their historical divide to work together.
Writing Truth for Power
When Union United, a recently formed coalition of residents, local business owners, labor unions, and community and faith-based organizations in Somerville, Mass., read a local newspaper commentary about the proposed redevelopment […]
“Learning In”: A Coalition Organizes for Equitable Redevelopment
Residents and small business owners are already seeing rents rise in Union Square, a diverse neighborhood in the largely working class city of Somerville just north of Boston, Massachusetts. But […]
4 Reasons Why We Need More Community on Labor Day
“Good Jobs: Strong Communities” read many of the signs at the Labor Day rally and march in Cambridge organized by the Service Employees Industrial Union’s (SEIU) 32BJ that represents property […]
The Community Builder’s Guide to Vacation
We’re all familiar with the benefits of vacations. They keep us healthy and happy. They give us time to spend with our families and friends. They’re fun! But can we […]
A New Way to Diffuse NIMBYism?
Proposals for affordable housing developments elicit predictable opposition, summed up in the familiar acronym, NIMBY—Not In My Back Yard—is the well-known shorthand for complaints about offensive land uses, offending architectural […]
Finding Allies in the Sequester
There are two good things to say about the sequester, the federal government’s obligation to cut 8 percent from the budgets of all federal programs. First, the cuts and the […]
4 Lessons from “Envisioning Home”
Relationships are critical to promoting affordable housing and community development, but how we invest in those relationships may be even more important. This is the message that stayed with me […]