By Christa Tinsley, Project Associate.   During the community input phase of each project we work on, a comment we usually hear repeated in almost every community is regarding the lack of adequate or quality child care options for working families. In the past, child care has been seen as a welfare or social services issue, rather than a critical component of successful economic development; therefore, business recruitment, retention, and expansion efforts did not...

By William Teasley, Project Manager.    I recently had the pleasure of working with the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce in creating the One Vision – One Voice – One Morgan County community strategy that addresses near term challenges while preparing the community for a positive future. One of the Goal areas addressed the need to engage new faces and young professionals in leading initiatives critical to the County’s future success. This is often a significant...

By Matt Tarleton, Project Associate.  One the most common things we hear from communities across the country is a desire to be a magnet for the college-educated. High-tech centers such as the San Diego, San Francisco, and Boston metropolitan areas have had little trouble attracting new college graduates in the pursuit of lucrative careers. The same is true for our nation’s capital, a destination for many college graduates seeking federal government and government-related employment....

By Alex Pearlstein, Senior Project Manager.  A Sunday  article in the Des Moines Register on the steep decline of manufacturing jobs in rural Iowa communities again called to mind the plight facing hundreds – perhaps thousands – of U.S. cities and towns as their traditional economies gradually fade away. After Webster City, Iowa’s largest employer announced the closure of its plant, a local businessman defiantly resisted the possibility that Webster City would one day become a “ghost town.” ...

By Ellen Anderson, Research Manager. It is estimated that nearly nine million households in the United States do not maintain bank accounts. That is a staggering number of people who do not participate in the mainstream financial system. They cannot write a check, they pay excessive fees to check-to-cash shops, and they are likely not building credit that is essential for longer-term economic mobility. According to a study from the Pew Charitable Trust, approximately 89 percent of these...

By Christa Tinsley, Project Associate.   Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that a private Chinese energy farm is constructing a $1.5 billion wind farm in western Texas, to be completed in 2011. The wind farm will add 300 temporary construction jobs and 30 permanent jobs to the west Texas economy.   Manufacture of the turbines, however, is the real job generator, expected to create 2,000 jobs. The catch? The wind turbines will be built in...