Regional Problem-Solving: A Fresh Look at What Works:

1.27.12 | Politicians like to throw up their hands and pretend they don’t understand how to do more to help the 22% of children and families living in poverty. In fact, we do and we have recent evidence that anti-poverty legislation works.

As Greg Kaufmann wrote at The Nation blog this week, “six initiatives in the Recovery Act kept nearly 7 million Americans from falling into poverty. Saying we failed simply because there is still poverty is like saying clean air and clean water laws failed because there is still pollution.” (more…)

1.25.2012 | One of the first things many regional economic development groups do is establish a set of benchmarks of success. It’s critical, after all, to know if the efforts are having any effect, especially in an era of tight budgets.

But Geroge Erickcek, a senior regional analyst at the W.E. Upjohn Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan, says that might be a little too hasty. While benchmarks are necessary, they come with some common pitfalls.  In an article in January’s “Employment Research” newsletter, Erickcek walks readers through some of those pitfalls–as well as ways to avoid them. (more…)

1.19.12 | Unwilling to wait for Washington, governors, state legislatures, mayors and city councils around the country are taking some innovative steps to promote local economic development, say Brookings’ Bruce Katz and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Judith Rodin.

In a series of posts at The Atlantic Cities this week, Katz and Rodin are highlighting state and local solutions to national economic problems. Leaders at the local level, they say, recognize that future prosperity will depend not on business as usual but on creative solutions and new models of government. These leaders are focusing on job creation, building the economy, and perhaps most importantly, collaborating across public, private and nonprofit sectors.

(more…)

1.17.2012 | Two recent news items showcase the strength of regional thinking. In “Despite Long Slide by Kodak, Company Town Avoids Decay,” Peter Applebome chronicles the dangers of putting all your eggs in one basket when planning an economy. In this case, Rochester, NY, had relied heavily on Kodak as the backbone of its local economy. Yet when the technology changed (in this case, the advent of digital photography), it caught Kodak unaware. Today, Kodak’s stock price has fallen to below $1 and its employees are down to 7,000, off from a high of 62,000 in the 1980s.

As one former employee put it, “We felt we were working with the most capable people in the world. And then it all sort of crumbled.”

Yet this is not the typical story of decline. (more…)

1.13.12 | Is there still opportunity in America?

In today’s political climate being a working class average Joe can help muster votes. The Boston Senate race for Ted Kennedy’s old seat is shaping up to be a contest over who’s the real populist.  And Mitt Romney told a crowd at a campaign event in New Hampshire this week that his early days in business were spent “pulling ourselves up, in some respect, by our bootstraps.”

While we can be as skeptical as we want about how self-made these political millionaires really are, there is new evidence that these days, even with a lot of hard work, it’s becoming harder and harder to make it in America—even if you don’t aspire to be one of the ruling elite. (more…)