COMMUNITIES THAT WORK – ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ENTREPRENEURS & MAKERS
Uplifting American Spirits
Branch & Barrel Distilling, in Centennial, Colorado, shows how an interdependent community-based economy can raise spirits for an entire region.
RURAL & REGIONAL
A Dining-room Meeting Begins a New Chapter in One Town’s Story
As Isaac and Heidi Tucker saw it, there was no use in waiting for their town to improve itself. Instead, they took action, and are rallying renewal efforts in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania today.
CIVIC LIFE
A Town of Doers Works Together to Preserve Their Past and Plan Their Future
Citizens and businesses in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania have adopted a mantra: if it’s a community problem, it’s their problem too.
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
The Economic Potential of the Great American Rail-Trail
The completion of a cross-country bike trail in old railroad corridors could add nearly a quarter-billion dollars a year to local economies.
INVENTION & RENEWAL
Revitalizing a community by focusing on 'quality of life'
Galesburg residents are redefining the heart and soul of the town by bringing their unique history and heritage to the fore.
BEER
The Local Tavern: The Tradition Continues at Max Taps-Centennial
Entrepreneurship. Gatherings of friends and colleagues. Industry leadership. Great American traditions. These are prime ingredients of successful local community taprooms. And there's a new one in Centennial, Colorado building community.
NEW OLD IDEAS
Renewing the call for a Marshall Plan for America
Seven decades ago, a plan to rebuild fragile, wounded countries swept across Western Europe. That idea should serve as a blueprint for American towns and cities and regions left behind today, argues Michael Cooper.
INVENTION & RENEWAL
Today, there is a tale of two Midwests.
Some communities have made the transition to a new, thriving economy in a changed world. Others are still struggling.
HOW-TO MODELS
Bucksport Maine Finds Its Heart & Soul
How can person-to-person democracy be revived? A one-time mill town in coastal Maine is a laboratory for a new approach.
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Tighe Bullock is working to building a vibrant, attractive downtown in West Virginia’s capital city.
Revitalizing Charleston, West Virginia Brick by Brick
PANDEMIC
Small-business owners continue working to build community through crisis.
Like many towns and cities, Erie, Pennsylvania long had its identity tied to its industry. The only county of the Keystone State’s 67 located on the Great Lakes watershed – on the lake from which it draws its name – Erie, through the decades, built the reputation for building. But unlike Detroit with its automobiles […]
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
A New Story from West Virginia
Behind the 4,000-square-foot building in the Elk City neighborhood of Charleston, West Virginia, a shed stood alone outside.
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
When a Company Invests in an ‘Underdog City’
The story of how a company that started in one of these places is now involving people and businesses in another—and why that matters in the next stage of equitable American recovery.
ECONOMIC & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Sparking a Small-Town Business Ecosystem
Read the story in The Atlantic here. An event in the long-abandoned Elks Lodge in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, now an office center and civic space. (Courtesy of Innovation Collective) The national-level response to the coronavirus pandemic descends from tragedy into catastrophe. The black granite slabs of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington display the names of […]