We have a workable model for making housing affordable and protecting neighborhood residents from displacement: a Community Land Trust. Only one city to date has embraced it aggressively and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it began to do so when Bernie Sanders was its mayor. Now a coalition is pushing Baltimore to make a major investment in this model.… Read More
This article was originally published in our The Public Good: Reports from the Front Lines (September 27, 2017), available here. In the beginning there were no fixed prices. Every transaction involved a negotiation between buyer and seller. Then, in 1861, as Guardian reporter Tim Adams informs us, Philadelphia retailer John Wanamaker introduced price tags along with the slogan, “If everyone … Read More
This article was originally published in our The Public Good: Reports from the Front Lines (September 27, 2017), available here. In the 1980s, leveraged buyouts became financial engineering’s newest invention. Corporate raiders would use the assets of the target corporation to collateralize the debt required to take it over. The resulting large debt payments burdened the … Read More
ILSR’s insight on recent news stories that have to do with the public good. In this round-up: Dynamic pricing is a thoroughly modern way to fleece the customer; How community land trusts protect communities from gentrification; Punishing corporate criminals; and more.… Read More
ILSR’s insight on recent news stories that have to do with the public good. In this round-up: Germany’s public banks; The story behind the effort to “repatriate” U.S. overseas profits; The remunicipalization movement grows; How Philadelphiais expanding the civic commons; and more.… Read More
A selection of recent news stories with an ILSR insight into “The Public Good.” Separate and Unequal, Again In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 58 year-old decision upholding the right of states to have segregated school systems. “Separate but equal” it ruled, was inherently unequal. Sixty-three years later de jure segregation is illegal, but de … Read More
For CityLab, writer Dan Glass interviewed David Morris on the trend of Silicon Valley corporations to try and replace the real interactions of small and local businesses, such as the new startup Bodega.… Read More
Here at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, we advocate for independence in a variety of forms. From strengthening the status of independent businesses in the economy to encouraging local governments to break free from monopoly Internet Service Providers and invest in their communities’ connectivity, independence is vital for small-scale, local economies. That’s why, in honor of Independence Day 2017, we’ve gathered resources from across our work that you can delve into during this long weekend.
We have a number of podcasts, articles, and infographics from all of our initiatives that discuss the vital role independence plays in the local economy. We know that you need some fodder for conversations during BBQs, travel to be with loved ones, and fireworks shows.… Read More
David Morris talks with Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative about why the message of local self-reliance is as relevant today as it was when ILSR opened its doors in 1974. This wide-ranging conversation examines the rising concentration of economic power and cities’ responses. … Read More
