Santa Monica has built a fiber network called City Net that has lowered its own costs for telecommunications, helped to retain businesses, and attracted new businesses to the community. Built incrementally without debt, it offers a roadmap any community can draw lessons from. Unlike the majority of municipal fiber networks, Santa Monica does not have a … Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 6, 2014) — A survey of 2,602 independent business owners across the U.S. has found that the Buy Local message is boosting customer traffic and improving the outlook on Main Street. But entrepreneurs also say policymakers need to do more to create a level playing field and ensure that small local businesses have an equal opportunity to compete.
The survey was conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) in partnership with the Advocates for Independent Business (AIB) coalition.… Read More
Minneapolis, MN (October 7, 2013) – The economy has stalled and so has the war on climate change. But a new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance describes how dozens of cities are boosting their local economies while dramatically reducing greenhouse gases. City Power Play: 8 Practical Local Energy Policies to Boost the Economy reports … Read More
This week, ILSR joined a coalition of 18 independent business trade associations, led by the American Booksellers Association (ABA), in urging the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on the Judiciary to hold a hearing on sales tax fairness. In the following letter, addressed to Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), the associations wrote … Read More
Minneapolis MN (July 25, 2013) – In a groundbreaking agreement announced yesterday, the gas utility serving Minneapolis – CenterPoint Energy – will work with the city of Minneapolis to achieve a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. The agreement, negotiated with the grassroots campaign Minneapolis Energy Options, secures the support of the gas utility … Read More
For decades the US recycling movement has fought garbage incinerators that threatened to smother it in its infancy. Indeed, recycling is now a $300 billion industry in large part because of the success of a broad grassroots movement in halting the construction of hundreds of new incinerators. But, according to a policy review by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the specter of a revived incineration industry is again threatening the recycling industry and, ironically, this threat is being enabled by the application of new environmental strategy intended to increase re-use and recycling: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). In British Columbia, for example, the EPR program has embraced the construction of three new incinerators.… Read More
ILSR’s Wireless Internet 101 fact sheet provides quick information on wireless technologies and policy. Most of us take wireless for granted. We use it every day but we have very little understanding of how it works, its limitations, or how it is managed. This fact sheet offers answers to questions many of us ask at one … Read More
Stacy Mitchell, director of ILSR’s Independent Business Initiative, Discusses the Bill’s Impact … Read More
ILSR’s fact sheet is a reliable quick reference guide for policymakers and citizens. As discussion about the telecommunications landscape expands, language about broadband abounds. In order to make informed decisions without stumbling over terminology, ILSR has assembled some basic facts about broadband. This fact sheet is a great reference for anyone who may take up the … Read More
