This post reflects on the keynote presentation at this year’s “Reinventing Older Communities: Bridging Growth and Opportunity” conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which was delivered by Dr. Raj Chetty, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and one of the principal i … Read more

A previous post by Tyler Mulligan explained how local North Carolina governments can utilize land banks to address vacant, abandoned, and tax foreclosed properties in their community. Another post provided a case study of the Genesee County Land Bank Authority in Genesee County, Michigan. This post … Read more

Sometimes, what’s old becomes new again. Streetcars were the dominant form of public transportation for several decades in the late 19th-early 20th centuries with dramatic growth all across the United States. Between 1890 and 1907, the number of miles of streetcars in the U.S. grew from 5,783 to 34, … Read more

In 2010, you might have read a post on our blog regarding tools available to local governments for dealing with foreclosures. The economic crisis resulted in a record number of foreclosures in North Carolina, leaving vacant properties in its wake. Four options available to local governments to tackl … Read more

Downtowns are popular destinations again after decades of losing residents and businesses to suburban areas. Between 2000 and 2010, Census data show that the rate of residential growth in some of the nation’s largest downtowns grew more than twice as fast as the rest of their cities. While some of t … Read more

In August 2000, The Durham Housing Authority (DHA) in partnership with The Community Builders (TCB) received a $35 million HOPE VI grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to revitalize Few Gardens, a public housing development located in Northeast Durham. The purpose of the … Read more

Eastern North Carolina is home to the densest industrial swine farming activity in the world.  The pork production industry is foundational to the eastern North Carolina economy, accounting for 11,821 jobs and over $200 million in wages (UNC Chapel Hill, 2013).  This activity comes with a cost, howe … Read more

A court case pitting two unlikely opponents in the effort to provide better housing opportunities for low-income households has captured the attention of state housing finance agencies around the country. At issue in Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. v. Texas Department of Housing and Community Af … Read more

Downtown redevelopment to attract talented Millennials has become an important and popular economic development policy in many cities across the country. By now it is almost common knowledge what it takes to attract talented Millennials to your town or city: walkable, diverse and vibrant neighborhoo … Read more

It seems like everywhere you turn these days, someone is talking about climate change and the effects of high energy consumption. No matter what your stance on the subject matter, the data concerning energy consumption and the cost of supplying its demand throughout North Carolina is shocking. A 201 … Read more