By Alex Pearlstein, Director of Projects. A couple posts ago, I betrayed my bias that the quality of a community’s leadership is the ultimate determinant of its current and future success. I mentioned Cincinnati and its confounding malaise despite a wealth of incredible assets. A few days ago I came upon a blog entry from UrbanCincy lamenting an editorial from a mouthpiece of the city’s old-money oligarchy that railed against efforts to build a streetcar line and waterfront park in town....

By Alex Pearlstein, Director of Projects.    Today’s blog could easily be a novel; I won’t deny that this subject is done short shrift by a cursory examination of why some cities succeed while others fail. Indeed, there is probably no “magic formula” to illuminate this topic just as the reasons why some people succeed and others don’t cannot be explained away by one or two key moments or traits. However, what has become clear in the two dozen or so communities I’ve worked with...

By J. Mac Holladay, Market Street founder and CEO. The Merriam-Webster definition of perception begins with observation, concept, and consciousness. Last week we all watched as another horrible mine disaster engulfed the State of West Virginia. Twenty-nine men lost their lives and the state was once again cast in the national limelight based on “perception.” While mining has been a part of West Virginia’s economy for decades, today the sector employs ONLY 4% of the private sector...

By William Teasley, Project Manager.    At Market Street , we often talk about change and growth of communities and the people within them. As an outside observer it is sometimes easier to see what impedes communities moving forward than those from within which have become accustomed to what they know and see. During numerous input sessions in 2009, people have shared frustrations, positions, hopes, and dreams about their communities. There is one story shared by one...

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 William Teasley, Project Manager.    At Market Street , we often use a quote in our presentations from the book World Class , by Rosabeth Moss Cantor: “Change is debilitating when do to us, but exhilarating when done by us.”  This is true in personal, professional, community, and national life and encourages those to be proactive before difficult situations become more challenging.  Today there are three pieces of legislation before the U.S. Congress that are critically important to...