The New Bottom Line
Fighting organized money takes organized people.
Hitting Construction Hiring Goals
How do you ensure that the jobs a new development is supposed to bring to a community actually go to underrepresented populations?
Defining the Creative Economy People
I was pleased to hear at a recent planning workshop that the definition of the creative economy has been expanded. As popularized by Richard...
Catalysts Turned Stalemates
All too often in cities around the country, a once-clear vision of a “catalytic development project” is easily blurred...
How Much Outside Help Do Worker Co-ops Need to Get to Scale?
Though they end up as owners and decision-makers, workers in low-income communities often don't start off doing all the work...
Rebuilding The Ghetto Does Work
Last January, The New York Times Magazine published "The Myth of Community Development" by Nicholas Lemann. The article painted a gloomy picture of urban...
How Much Money Is Your City or State Losing to “Economic Development?”
Have you ever wondered how much money your city or state is actually losing when it gives a 20-year tax break to a developer in exchange for a handful of jobs? You might soon be able to find out. As Shawn Escoffery of the Surdna Foundation and Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First explain in […]
Why Don’t We Build It Ourselves?
Humboldt Construction Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chicago CDC Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation, has been providing local employment and high-quality work for over...
Jersey City: Lessons from Unequal Development
Across the water from Manhattan, this once working class city has experienced dramatic economic growth—but the rising tide did not lift all boats.
Not Just Any Job
Community lenders and local governments wrestle with how to encourage—or simply require—that jobs created with their support provide real pathways to opportunity for those who need them most.
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...
Is Your Town a Parasite?
What would you do if someone told you your town, the place you'd grown up in and where you had...
Anchoring “The Community” to the Community Building Movement
Community building has many definitions all of which capture an integrated approach to addressing poverty. For me, community...
Keeping Everyone Afloat: Is Universal Basic Income the Answer?
Advocates and organizers who deal with the needs of the poor often say it's not really a housing/food/training issue, it's an income issue. So what would happen if we just addressed income?
The Cavalry Is Us: Civil Rights and Cooperative Action
In our nation’s most vulnerable places, every vulnerable person and those more fortunate who care about their well being, are best served when we come together to help ourselves.
Why Do Low-Income Residents Oppose Development Even When Displacement Risk Is Low?
There’s more than one way to be excluded from your community.