As the nation reckons with the increasingly perilous consequences of neighborhood poverty in the wake of COVID-19, it is clear that we need fresh solutions for fostering investment within low-income communities. A new playbook by Hanna Love and Jennifer S. Vey, along with authors from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, provides concrete guidance for local leaders to implement a new, multidisciplinary approach to building wealth and opportunity while driving equitable regional economic growth.
To overcome patterns of inequity and fiscal fragility, local leaders need to invest in “activity centers”—places within regions where economic, physical, social, and civic assets cluster at a clearly defined “hyperlocal” scale. In a new research brief, Tracy Hadden Loh and Hanna Love discuss what activity centers are and why they matter.
The pandemic has brought a dramatic change to the “how” and “where” of office work, significantly impacting cities and metropolitan areas. Joanne Kim and Tracy Hadden Loh examine post-Great Recession trends in job locations to look for hints about whether and how cities will survive and recover from COVID-19 and its economic fallout.
Fostering equity in our cities and communities. Economic inequality in the United States has widened over the past several decades, and many minority and low-income workers’ prospects in the post-pandemic economy appear dim. To emerge stronger from COVID-19, we need to tackle inequality and embed equity into economic development. To this end, recent publications by Smart Incentives and Robin Hambleton highlight the importance of engaging community residents and building local civic capacity, while What Works Cities has introduced a tool cities can use to leverage the procurement process to deliver greater equity while closing their fiscal gaps.
The rise of hybrid work models. Joining other major companies, Ford Motor Company announced that it is adopting a hybrid working model. With the pandemic accelerating remote work trends, more places—including both cities and rural areas—are trying to draw untethered newcomers to revive their economies. Rather than focusing on attracting high-wage workers from elsewhere, cities need to leverage this moment to invest in their communities’ quality of life while adopting new fiscal policies, such as vacancy taxes, that incentivize occupancy and increase affordability.
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