Subject: Community Development
-
On April 12, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke cited Jane Jacobs when he called for “bottom up” community development at a Federal Reserve community development conference. The affirmation of the importance of community development by Bernake demonstrates how far our…
Affordable and convenient transit is important to helping people access the employment, education and critical services required for physical and economic well-being. However, many low-income individuals lack access to transit, resulting in expensive and time-consuming commutes. In recent years, advocates…
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 of urban neighborhoods, namely city agencies and community development corporations,…
Even if you have not tuned out of the long-running debate about the future of health care in the United States, you can be forgiven if you’ve never heard of a “community health needs assessment” – which is also often…
The President made a big to-do about climate change in his State of the Union speech the other day, and focused particularly on the need for more clean energy from solar, wind, and natural gas and less from dirty coal.…
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 life and vitality of their homes and neighborhoods, incredibly creative…
Building affordable housing with integrated health services. Federally qualified health centers in low-income neighborhoods. These are the goals of the Health Futures Fund, a new $100 million investment fund launched a couple weeks ago by Morgan Stanley, The Kresge Foundation, and…
It has been said there are only two lasting bequests we can leave our children. One is roots. The other is wings. This lovely adage applies equally to the rearing of children and to the leading of organizations, particularly those…
Your Man About Town’s middle name is Moderation, Dear Reader; and although it is a somewhat awkward locution when making a full introduction, it nonetheless conveys the important fact that your Man About Town’s middle name is not Tom, Dick…
The National Housing Institute (publisher of Shelterforce) describes itself as “dedicated to fostering decent affordable housing and a vibrant community for everyone.” This fall, I charged 46 freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM) about the three…
-
“Let’s invest in what works,” is a common and recurring slogan that has gained currency in recent years and why shouldn’t it? Who is going to advocate that we invest in what’s broken? So I was not surprised to see…
In my earlier posts on this subject, dear reader, I first endeavored to put a finer point on the more than thousand-fold revenue variation between the largest cultural organizations in NYC, and the median cultural organization. Holy stromboli you say? Yes! While…
-
In the world of community wealth building, most of us (most of the time) operate in relative obscurity. As a result, “telling our stories” has become a routine conference topic. For example, one session at October’s Opportunity Finance Network (OFN)…
-
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 the ecosystems of well-being. It was an exciting and timely…
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 agriculture industrial complex: "Get big or get out." One late…
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 two great things that taste great together. My case in…
-
What does it mean when the country's largest community development intermediary opens its first new office in 15 years in a middling city like Peoria, Ill? In May, the Peoria-based Caterpillar Foundation gave the Local Support Initiatives Corp., better known…
Let's just come right out and say it: New York City is the best. At everything. We are the smartest, the hardest working, the most creative, and the best-looking. If you trace every social innovation of the past century back…
-
I recently stepped down from my role as the executive director of a community development corporation and I'm in the process of transitioning from a single-organization focus, as I've spent the past 15+ years, to working with multiple organizations in…
National Housing Institute
