OK, I know this story is from Finland, and it's about a federal legislation thing which means it's not exactly a Rip-Off-And-Duplicate for a lot of you. But one of the things that I pound on in the book is the need to CrowdSource Wisdom from the public -- we need to engage them deeply …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: Look what those public types can do!
Every week I open The Local Economy Revolution: What's Changed and How You Can Help to a different section, copy out the first selection I see, and past it in here. Like what you see? Check out the whole book - print or e-reader. You'll be glad you did. Honest and for true. This section …
Continue reading Random Excerpt: Does the Talent want what we’re offering?
At its core, The Local Economy Revolution is all about community innovation. We've seldom thought systematically about how to innovate communities before, even though we need to do it all the time and have seldom needed to do it intentionally more than we do now. Thankfully, innovation is a major topic for business types, and if …
Sometimes Good Ideas sound so simple that we're inclined to say "really? that's a new thing?" But in the world of community revitalization, sometimes even the supposedly easy things to do are much harder than they look. Here's the lead of the article from the Detroit Free Press: The website — www.buildingdetroit.org — went live Monday. It will be the …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: auction website to help sell abandoned homes
I'm simultaneous really glad to see this story from MiBiz.com, and now ratcheted up another notch on my irritation at the Ohio Securities Division for its asinine treatment of the same exact issue. Here's the lead of the MiBiz story -- and a little, particularly aggravating, additional background: A new crowdfunding portal wants to encourage …
The National Trust for Historic Preservation's Green Lab has been doing some very interesting research and policy work around the environmental and sustainability implications of preserving and reusing historic buildings (short version: it's a good thing). This article was a particularly good candidate for the Good Ideas file because it gives you a good peek …
Every week I crack open The Local Economy Revolution, flip to a random page and put that brief section in here. Like what you see? Check out how to get a copy of the book for your very own. --- We've been talking (or, well, not talking) about incentives in economic development in the US a …
I've produced materials referencing Greater Cincinnati's Agenda 360 more than once. I've talked about them as an example of meaningful regional thinking and goal-setting, I've shared the story of their awesome Story Project, and I've even pulled them into my consulting work as an example of how to do something at the regional scale that …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File (aka the Good Affirmations File): Think 360
This article touches on a topic that received some attention in The Local Economy Revolution, but it's becoming so critical, and so potentially earthshaking, and so little discussed in planning and economic development and local government circles, that I'm starting to work out a new book on the topic. If you follow business and economic …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: Two views of a “Post-Employment Economy”
I love what Ellen Harpel at SmartIncentives.org has been doing to increase the awareness of rational and analytical approaches to economic development incentives, a topic that has been such a bee in my bonnet (and a few other bonnets, although who wears a bonnet anymore...) that a whole section of The Local Economy Revolution focused on it. …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: The Best Incentives Might Not Require Moola
