Occupy Wall Street: People, Protest, and the Nature of Social Change

When he was younger, my dad was active in the anti-war movement. Living in Ontario, then Quebec, he spent much of his time during and after university organizing protests against the Vietnam War throughout central and northeast Canada and the United States. By the time I was born in the early ’80s, that period in [...]

A Food Revolution in the City

The food economy is going through a transition; some would call it a revolution. The term revolution pops up a lot, from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s food revolution (bringing healthy food back to working class communities), to the innovative, fast-growing company Revolution Foods, which brings healthy food into schools. We heard from Revolution Foods co-founder [...]

The Death and Rebirth of Industry and Manufacturing

They’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back – Bruce Springsteen, My Hometown Industrial jobs are not dead. Certainly, many have been lost – shipped overseas, lost to the great recession, or eliminated due to automation or increased efficiency. To follow [...]

Clustering for Growth

Michael Porter, founder of the ICIC, kicked off today’s schedule with a talk about cluster-based economic development, and how these strategies can spur economic and job growth in inner cities. Inner Cities have particular characteristics, and strategies for economic development need to reflect this. In particular, he pointed out that higher poverty rates are common [...]

Private Leadership for Public Good

“This is Just What You Do in Chicago” James Glerum, a board member of the Civic Consulting Alliance, said this early in the session called “Corporate Community Engagement in Chicago: Commitment and Results”, which talked about private sector contribution, and cross-sector collaboration in addressing pressing social issues. The Alliance brings together pro-bono teams of consultants [...]

Building Capital in the Inner City

The first panel session was titled ‘Community-Based Capital for Small Business Financing’. In the introduction, moderator Matt Reilein of JP Morgan Chase noted that an ICIC study found that 70% of inner-city businesses are undercapitalized, which provided excellent context for the discussion that followed. Two ideas brought up by the panelists jumped out at me [...]

Thoughts Prior to Urban 2.0.

I have the pleasure of spending the next day and a half at Urban 2.0: The Next Generation of Jobs. As someone with a long interest in cities and urban spaces, and as someone who follows the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City’s work, I’m very excited to be attending and writing about this event. [...]