Information influences investment decisions made in communities every day—a business owner’s decision on whether to open a new store or expand a warehouse, a bank’s decision on personal and business loans, or a family’s decision to purchase a new home. When information to make these decisions is not accurate, available, or accessible, urban markets fail to thrive.
Robert Weissbourd and Riccardo Bodini of RW Ventures LLC told us how information resources can be used to spur markets and build investment strategies to boost urban neighborhoods.
They are the authors of two papers recently released by the Urban Markets Initiative at The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. In the papers (see links below), Weissbourd and Bodini offer a framework for market-based community economic development and present business planning tools for undertaking market-based activities in inner-city communities. Practitioners learned about specific examples and key lessons for effectively using information resources for community development.
Resources
Commentary
Market-Based Approaches to Community Economic Development
March 30, 2005