Across the country, local governments are increasingly embracing land banking as a key strategy to catalyze and control the revitalization of their vacant and abandoned properties. As described in this post on the CED blog, North Carolina local governments can cobble together the statutory authority … Read more

$12 million in one hour: That’s not a report of the ticket sales for the Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood’s Greensboro show last week. That is how much the City of Denver raised directly from the citizens of Colorado for the final phase of its Better Denver capital campaign. This past August, the Ci … 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

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

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

The White House Council on Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) initiative is a new approach to economic development support at the federal level that combines funding and hands-on technical assistance services for distressed communities across the country. Rocky Mount, NC was recently named as a … Read more

A previous post by Tyler Mulligan explained how local governments can utilize land banks to address vacant, abandoned, and tax foreclosed properties in their community.  This post provides an example of a successful land bank in Genesee County, Michigan – home to the city of Flint – and discusses ke … Read more

The Community Development and Block Grant Program (CDBG) is one of the key public sources of funds for community water and sewer projects in North Carolina and across the country. While the amount of funds available for water and sewer projects is not as large as other federal programs such as joint … Read more

How can we build on our existing assets to revitalize our downtown? How can we attract new residents and entrepreneurs into distressed areas? How can we encourage the kind of culture and vitality that keeps young professionals in our downtown? Many North Carolina towns are asking themselves these qu … Read more