cli: understanding your neighborhood economy

10/23 NeighborWorksCLI, Louisville KY; Understanding Your Neighborhood Economy; Lee Ann Adams

Key Concepts in Community Econ Dev

1. Comm. econ dev

a. Improving econ conditions: decreased cost of living, increasing income, improving financial stability

b. Enhancing quality of life: fostering growth of creative and cultural industries, creating attractive and healthy environment

Really good comm. dev can displace people.

2. Attributes of an ideal local economy

a. Econ vitality: provides good jobs, good services, productive activities and full utilization of human and physical resources

b. Econ equity

c. Econ security

d. Econ quality

e. Econ empowerment: local ownership

Comm Econ Dev Term:

1. Community Benefits Agreement

2. Development Subsidies

3. Social Enterprise

4. Small Business

5. Microenterprise

6. Employment Multiplier—when new jobs within community generate related jobs

7. Local multiplier effect—number of times a $ invested in labor is recycled on other items w/in community

8. Capital leakage--$ leaves community when goods are purchased elsewhere

9. Import substitution—local work that replaces the need for importing those goods or services

10. Green jobs

11. Smart growth

Key players in neighborhood economies are residents, neighborhood associations, educational institutions, local/state/federal govts, financial institutions, corporations, private developers, cdc’s.

Adams laid out the typical process for both private and publicly initiated development.

Strategies for improving your neighborhood economy:

1. Select guiding principles

2. Improve econ conditions through reduction in cost of living or increased income. Encourage asset accumulation.

a. Reduce cost of goods/services

b. Reduce time/travel costs

c. Increase demand for labor

d. Improve labor safety

e. Increase asset building

Raising property taxes will usually result in higher cost of living w/in neighborhood.

3. Local first campaigns. Chicago studied that big box stores do not result in increased jobs as they replace local ones. The tax revenue generation is negligible b/c the low wage jobs often push residents onto public assistance.

4. Anchor institutions.

5. Commercial district revitalization

6. National Main Street program

7. Workforce dev

8. Growing good neighborhood jobs