The Development Finance Initiative’s Community Revitalization Fellows represent students from a variety of graduate programs: City and Regional Planning, Business, Public Administration, Information and Library Science, Applied Geography, and Public Health. In addition to working as DFI Fellows, the … Read more

Of the many challenges in community revitalization, determining how to allocate limited funds is often at the top of the list. Should the dollars be split evenly by focusing on the very worst neighborhoods? Or should there be a form of targeting or some sort of custom-tailored solution? If the latte … Read more

In previous posts the CED blog explored the many publicly available sources for local data that can inform municipal staff, real estate professionals, and policy makers. But how can local governments make use this data, and how can they know that the conclusions reached are valid? Often municipal go … Read more

The supply of affordable senior rental housing is a growing concern across North Carolina.  The source of this problem is linked to North Carolina’s growing senior population and a rising overall demand for affordable rental housing. As mentioned in a previous blog post, by the year 2050, according … Read more

The concept of industry clusters has significantly influenced our thinking about economic development in the last 15 years. It’s the idea that having a concentration of related industries in a location can benefit firms and regions in ways that enhance their competitive advantage. When firms in rela … Read more

A previous post discussed the benefits of conducting community housing assessments for local governments and non-profit organizations interested in community and economic development. This post will discuss the methods and strategies that interested stakeholders, from local governments to neighborho … Read more

The so called triple bottom line (TBL) in economic development calls for promoting growth in ways that are environmentally sustainable and that yield positive social returns.  (See Portland State University’s Initiative on Triple Bottom Line Development.)  The TBL framework takes into account the ec … Read more

Jonathan Morgan is a School of Government faculty member. So much about the practice of economic development is information-driven and the Internet has facilitated the creation of several web-based tools that make data on regional competitiveness more accessible than ever. A newly launched web site … Read more