The book emphasizes that the things that make your community unique are what makes them valuable, and for large swathes of the American Midwest, some of our most unique features are old buildings. Repurposing an old building for a new use takes creativity, and it's not always the rock-botton-price approach, but 49 times out of …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: almost anything can be rehabbed, especially in Cleveland
The Local Economy Revolution book doesn't talk specifically about online public engagement, but it does emphasize some of the factors that necessitate change in how we do public engagement - and make good online public engagement so critical today: the people we need to get involved aren't all gentleman farmers anymore (they have a lot more …
Continue reading The Online Public Engagement Emporium launches
I'm often assumed to be totally opposed to economic development incentives. I'm not. I just want the benefit to the broader community to be worth what we're spending. And a lot of times we don't know, or we don't ask, or we don't want to know.... or we don't ask because we don't want to …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: incentives that actually have a demonstrated good impact
A couple of weeks ago I had a return engagement in Middlesboro, Kentucky for Better Block Boro Part 2. As I wrote about in this entry, the first Better Block Boro was held last October, and since I had never witnessed a tactical urbanism intervention in person, it was fascinating to me. This time I …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: expanding the model at Better Block Boro
One of the first reviews of the Local Economy Revolution noted that the language in the book was a little, um, salty. I have always found a certain kind of aesthetic pleasure in a well-placed cuss word, and I think I indulged that a bit as I worked to make the book as much my …
There's a sizeable portion of the Local Economy Revolution that could be summed up as follows: Communities are way more complicated and messy than we usually admit professionally, although we know that in real life. Because we live in places. But complexity is messy. And hard. Because of that, we often come up with simple things that …
This shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone, but sometimes the first step toward a Good Idea is getting a little reinforcement in trying to convince other people that the things we used to do don't work anymore. This article from a Pittsburgh news site gives a pretty decent overview of why anyone who is …
Continue reading From the Yes-It-Is-As-Bad-As-You-Thought-It-Was File: Way more retail than we need
A couple of weeks ago I went to an event called Cincy Sundaes that I though definitely belonged in the Good Ideas file. The book talks about the importance of small improvements and Little Bets and micro-entrepreneurs, and crowdfunding, even for micro-projects, both helps good ideas take root and demonstrates the support that an idea …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: Sundaes for Crowdfunding!
I'm currently participating in a Good Idea that I've known about for quite a while, and I thought it might be useful for you, too. Business accelerators are a hot topic in economic development anymore, but they're usually described as a way to get technology businesses off the ground. As we say in the book, …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: Accelerators aren’t just for tech types
Good Ideas come from strange places. This one popped up on the Facebook feed of one of my parents' longtime friends, who I still keep in touch with because she's one of the few links back to that part of my life. I certainly don't consult with churches and I didn't know a church …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas file: Autopsy of a Deceased Church (or town, or organization)
The Local Economy Revolution Has Arrived 