Countrywide CEO’s Cyberblunder
We hear it a lot these days, the Dante Alighieri quote that declares that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who...
Operation Neighborhood Recovery and the Future of Community Development
Urban Essex County, New Jersey, one of the hardest hit areas in the state by the ongoing foreclosure crisis, could be the laboratory for an ostensible reinvention of community development, as a local CDC there announced today the successful acquisition of 47 mortgages on troubled properties with an eye toward stabilizing neighborhoods in some of the oldest suburban communities in New Jersey.
For Cities, Industrial Land Matters
In a recent blog post, Tarry Hum, a professor of urban studies at Queens College, profiled the failure of the De Blasio administration to...
Embedding Equity Into Economic Development
It is another summer in which America’s deep racial fault lines are being painfully exposed. Following the horrific violence...
Why Your Community Should Kick the Subsidy Habit
Corporate incentives won't help communities thrive, even distressed ones. But nurturing local businesses will save municipalities money and promote the growth of income, wealth, and jobs.
How Not To Do Economic Development
Camden is one of the most distressed cities in the United States, and if any city needs state help...
The Slow Building Movement
Standing at the northern gateway of Milwaukee’s Fifth Ward and the confluence of the Menomonee and Milwaukee Rivers is...
“Let’s Refuel America”
According to a report in The New York Times Monday, auto sales are down by more than a million compared to 2007’s 16.2 million...
What Anchor Institutions Can Do by Working Together
Anchor institutions are beginning to realize that they face similar challenges and, by joining forces, can accomplish goals that once seemed out of reach.
Show Up and Be Heard for Rural America
As I was reading recently about China's effort to herd around 250 million farmers and their families from the...
Will The Creative Class Fly Back?
Perhaps this is a pointer to where America’s recovery will come from. Some of the less fashionable parts of the country may quietly get...
A Gem for New Jersey Neighborhood Revitalization
'A dollar and a dream,' was the phrase I read in a brochure about the starting point for revitalizing neighborhoods through the Neighborhood Revitalization...
CDFIs “Rethink” Systems, But (Hopefully) Not Identity
Last week I attended the Opportunity Finance Network conference, the annual gathering of Community Development Financial Institutions and those who work with them.
As usual,...
Investing in Communities Key to Obamanomics
With the Dems convening in Denver, the New York Times Magazine offered us David Leonhardt’s review of ‘Advanced Obamanomics’ on Sunday, August 24. In...
Maybe Money Really Can Grow On Trees
Guess what? The local food movement is actually good for your local economy! At least that seems to be...
Connecting CDFIs and Impact Investors
It should be a natural fit; what’s in the way?
Regenerating a Place of Cultural Pride and Healing in Albuquerque’s Barelas Neighborhood
Restoring a community's culturally significant site in Albuquerque to be a true economic resource as well as a source of healing.
Do New Yorkers Need an Emerald City?
The Christian Science Monitor reported a few days ago on the Bloomberg administration’s plans to redevelop the Willets Point industrial area of Queens (just...
More Than Marching: Creating Good Jobs That Protect Our Water And Air
Trump and his cronies are backtracking on ensuring a clean energy economy that provides green jobs to make our communities sustainable.
Q: Do economic development incentives support small businesses?
A. Not very much. Despite the claims of many states, when you look at the numbers, the vast majority of taxpayer dollars directed to economic development go to big corporations.