By Ellen Anderson, Director of Research.   The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER, formerly ACCRA) celebrated its 50th anniversary last week at its annual conference held this year in our nation’s capital. The theme of this year’s conference was “Sustaining Economic Recovery: Preparing for Tomorrow’s Opportunities Today” and focused on exploring issues surrounding the green economy, industry transformations, and tools for measuring innovation and growth. Because it continues...

By Alex Pearlstein, Director of Projects.   It’s funny how things work.  About a week ago, I was scheduled to fly from Des Moines to Nashville via Minneapolis when my old nemesis, Delta Airlines, reared its ugly head and delayed my outbound flight due to “flight attendant illness.”  Must admit, that was a new one.  I would miss my MSP connection, which was the last flight to Nashville that day.  Delta could get me to Nashville the following day around...

By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate.   In October, I wrote a post highlighting dropout factories and how prevalent they have become. The issue of high school dropouts is one near and dear to my heart since I tutor students in math and see firsthand how life circumstances, lack of guidance and vision, and poor self-confidence in their own abilities and talents can have a major impact on students and their academic success. The Alliance for Excellent...

By Will Corbin, Project Associate. Microfinance is a very interesting and important concept in the world of economic development. Its usage has grown increasingly over the last quarter century - most notably by nations in the emerging world that have large proportions of poor residents, such as India.    Essentially, microfinance is the lending of small sums of money to poor or low-income individuals who otherwise may not be able to get a larger, more traditional loan from a mainstream...

By Christa Tinsley, Project Associate.   Incentives in Georiga have triggered another “race to the bottom.” While communities still clamor to be awarded the labels of Main Street community, Certified Work Ready, Certified Green Community, Entrepreneur Friendly, All-American City, and other designations, many Georgia cities are willfully adopting a new label – slum.   A recent story   in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution discussed municipalities in...

By Matthew Tester, Project Associate. It should come as no surprise that our nation’s cities are in trouble; the Great Recession has cut a wide swath. My colleague Will Corbin blogged in March about the Recession’s constrictive effects on municipal finances, which are confirmed in a report by the National League of Cities from December 2009. In 2009, municipal budget shortfalls averaged about three percent, which, alongside increased demands for municipal services, severely inhibits city...