In this opinion piece from the Detroit Free Press, John Gallagher identifies the next challenge, and the unpleasant reality, of our current strategies for dealing with the massive numbers of vacant buildings we have in cities: The simplistic, ipso-facto hope that often rears its head: if we just clear it, "the market" will take care …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas File: You Tear Down the Blight, But then what?
Note: this is a random selection from The Local Economy Revolution: What's Changed and How You Can Help. Like what you see? Check out the book for print or e-reader. You'll be glad you did. We've been talking (or, well, not talking) about incentives in economic development in the US a lot lately. They work, …
This is all kinds of awesome. Young people gaining skills and confidence, communities getting the kind of personal-scale improvements that change people's everyday relationships with their communities, breaking through suspicions and helplessness to re-knit people's relationship with their community and each other... your community probably needs this. So go do it! http://www.fastcoexist.com/3023330/how-the-tiny-wpa-is-transforming-neighborhoods-with-help-from-teenage-girls
I'm not sure this is a good idea...it's probably a devil-in-the-details situation... but it's certainly an interesting idea. This opinion piece from Matt Reed at Florida Today does a nice job of outlining the picking-favorites, what-about-me spiral that incentives programs fall into if they aren't backed by a very careful, very prudent strategy for clearly targeting incentives …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas file: Why not incentivize every business?
What's that got to do with your local economy? Easy: people spend money in places they find fun. And they spend more time in places where they have fun. And, from the book, That Which Makes You Unique Makes You Valuable. Nuff said. This was the second of a great series of ideas. Of course, …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas file: 100 ways to make your town fun.
"Resilience" is a new and hot concept in planning and urbanism -- a term I didn't think would take off like that when I first wrote the section in the book about scrawny little February crocuses in Cleveland. Part of the growing interest in resilient places comes from our experiences of natural disasters, like Hurricane …
Continue reading From the Good Ideas file: Networked communities handle disasters better
After years and years of reading Soapbox, the excellent online magazine from Issue Media Group, I was delighted to be invited to write a feature article about how the lessons of The Local Economy Revolution can be applied to Cincinnati. The timing couldn't be better, either -- Cincinnati is on the verge of hiring a new city …
Continue reading From Cincinnati’s own Soapbox: Launching the Resilience Revolution
I'm not sure if this really qualifies as a "Good Idea." But it's good words. Especially for you people, the ones I couldn't figure out what to call in this book. except for... the People who Give A Damn. I think it fits. You migh want to print this out and stick it in the …
Impressive. Last one not recommended (ouch)40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World - A Sheep No More
From Mike Lydon. Simple but smart.Street hack
The Local Economy Revolution Has Arrived 