E-Newsletter | Winter 2005
Dear Colleague,
Welcome to the latest quarterly edition of our Community-Wealth.org
e-newsletter. Once again, we have added more links, documents, and
other materials to our site. Look for this symbol *NEW*
to find our most recent additions.
We call attention once more to our newest web section: C-W
Cities. Our featured city this time is Portland, Oregon,
a city that is home to a wide variety of community wealth-building
efforts, including community development corporations, a community
development bank, co-operatives, social enterprises, and city efforts
designed to support environmentally sustainable community development.
Also, please continue to send us material to post. This enables
us to continue expanding this web site and to better link community
wealth-builders.
 Ted
Howard
Executive Director, The Democracy Collaborative
War
on Poverty: Unfinished business (current issue of NEJPP on
the UMASS website)
 Forty
years ago, President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed that the nation should
undertake a war on poverty. The poverty rate fell, but, according
to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2004, 37 million Americans still
live below the poverty line. In this special issue of the New England
Journal of Public Policy, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) article-frank.pdf
(55KB), Prof. Pablo Eisenberg of Georgetown article-eisneberg.pdf
(62KB), community land trust leader Gus Newport article-newport.pdf
(64KB), and nearly two-dozen others address what we have learned
and what should be done to reduce poverty today.
Evaluating
Community-University Partnerships (PDF 1MB)
Over the past few decades, deindustrialization, suburbanization,
and disinvestment have combined to undermine the economic health
of many cities. Increasingly, community groups are finding partners
in local colleges and universities to turn these problems around.
In this article, Kenneth Reardon of Cornell University, who has
been a participant in such partnerships for the past 15 years, highlights
ten exemplary efforts.
 After
the flood: Rebuilding New Orleans
The photos are all-too-familiar, but can we use what we have learned
from community-wealth building approaches to rebuild New Orleans
in ways that respect—rather than destroy—community?
Two reports — one from the Metropolitan Policy Program at
the Brookings Institution report-brookings.pdf
(3.54MB) and the other from the New America Foundation report-boshara-et-al.pdf
(70KB) — suggest some answers.
Community
Development Corporation Trade Association Looks to the Future (PDF
149KB)
In September, over 200 community development activists attended
the recent 35th Annual Meeting of the National Congress for Community
Economic Development (NCCED) held September 19-21, 2005, in Washington,
D.C. Conference discussion centered on two issues: the long-range
future of the community development industry (which included a plenary
session moderated by Juan Williams of National Public Radio) and
the need for an immediate effort response to Hurricane Katrina.
Speakers at the conference included Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy
Collaborative, Bret Harvey of the Enterprise Foundation, Buzz Roberts
of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Ken Wade of Neighborhood
Reinvestment, and keynote speaker Rep. Diane Watson (D-California).
 Foundations
Fall Short in Support of Community Development (PDF 76KB)
Rick Cohen of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy,
in a recent address at the annual meeting of the National Congress
for Community Economic Development, said that overall foundation
support for community development has fallen. Cohen called on community
development activists to “view the half trillion dollars in
foundation assets and $30 billion in foundation grants as an organizing
target just the way community developers have organized to address
bank investment or HUD and USDA programs.”
Santa
Cruz, Calif. Deposits Funds Locally to Spur Local Development (PDF
71KB)
Santa Cruz, California has moved nearly $600,000 in city reserve
funds from U.S. treasuries and other securities into certificates
of deposits at two locally owned financial institutions, Santa Cruz
County Bank and the Bay Area Federal Credit Union. Not only do the
deposits create local investment capital, but the city also earns
a slightly higher rate of return. Santa Cruz City Councilor Ryan
Coonerty has been in touch with the National League of Cities and
hopes to encourage the spread of the idea to other cities. This
article is reprinted with permission from The Hometown Advantage
Bulletin, a free email newsletter published by the Institute for
Local Self-Reliance. To read back issues or join their mailing list,
please visit www.newrules.org/retail.
CalPERS
inner city investments pay off (PDF 100KB)
Can state pension funds earn both social and economic returns? With
eight years of inner city investment history behind the California
fund's efforts, results are starting to come in. To date,
CalPERS' inner city investments have generated $106.6 million
in profits and a 20.2 percent internal rate of return,. Its residential
and commercial projects have spanned the state — including
low-income areas of Sacramento, San Bruno, and Emeryville in the
North and similar efforts in Hollywood, southwest Los Angeles, Inglewood,
and San Diego in the South. All told, CalPERS has invested $1.2
billion, with another $2.2 billion set aside for future efforts.
Local
Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Turns 25 (PDF 81KB)
 As
Washington Post columnist David Broder notes, the Columbia Heights
neighborhood of Washington, DC was once marked by crack houses,
boarded-up windows, and burned-out buildings. No more. Today it
has a thriving shopping center, a theater, a dance institute, a
Latin American youth art center, and several child-care centers.
LISC and its community development partners are a large part of
the reason for the change. Nationally, LISC funds up to $720 million
worth a year into grants, loans, and equity investments in 34 cities
as well as rural areas of 37 states.
Urban
loan plan advances in Milwaukee (PDF 100KB)
In a move that would put Milwaukee in the forefront of urban
economic innovation, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett met with lawyers
and financiers last month to design a program to employ assets -
including vacant lots - as collateral to back loans for minority-owned
businesses. Milwaukee is one of five U.S. cities that are pursuing
creation of a "collateral loan fund," said Greg Stanton
of Wall Street Without Walls, who is advising Milwaukee, Washington,
D.C., and other cities about how to leverage market financial tools
to bankroll urban development projects.
Business
Alliance for Local Living Economies
 Founded
in 2001, BALLE is a group of socially conscious small businesses
that believe in the importance of building strong local communities
that are both economically and environmentally sustainable. BALLE
has grown rapidly. It now has 18 local chapters in 13 states plus
two chapters in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
www.livingeconomies.org
Wal-Mart
Watch
 In
Spring 2005, Wal-Mart Watch, a coalition of labor, environmental,
and religious groups, began its nationwide campaign to challenge
the world's largest retailer to become a better employer,
neighbor, and corporate citizen. The web site contains a wide range
of news, research reports, and other activist resources. Last month,
over 400 groups spread across all 50 states participated in "Higher
Expectations" week, a week of actions designed to call attention
to Wal-Mart related issues. These events included free screenings
of a new documentary, The High Cost of Low Prices, directed by Robert
Greenwald, who also directed "Out-Foxed."
www.walmartwatch.com
Partnership
for Community Development, Colgate University (Hamilton, NY)
 Founded
in 1998 as partnership between Colgate University and the Town and
Village of Hamilton, New York, the Partnership for Community Develop
has created programs to foster small business development; provided
design help and funding to improve building facades and streetscapes
in the five-block business district of downtown Hamilton; help restore
the Village Green; and established retail and marketing support
for local arts and crafts. To date, Colgate has provided $630,000
in funding, which has leveraged over $1.5 million from private sector,
foundation, and government sources.
www.partnersatwork.org
The Energy
Cooperative (Philadelphia)
 Started
in 1979 as a spin off from Weavers Way Food Co-op, by members who
wanted to use the concept of "group buying power" to get
lower prices on heating oil, the Energy Co-op has expanded to provide
renewable electricity, heating oil, and bio-diesel. Their annual
sales are just under $5 million.
www.theenergy.coop
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