On Independence Day, Americans celebrate the ingenuity, grit, and fortitude that led us to now. We’ve chosen this day to remember the decision to establish the United States as an independent country. Like other civilizations that have come and gone, America will always have times of honor and unbecoming moments in history, but its citizens have learned self-reliance — it’s in our DNA.… Read More
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
In Detroit, AT&T is facing a formal FCC complaint accusing the telecom giant of deploying discriminatory “digital redlining” tactics. This is the second such complaint filed against the telecommunications giant since the first of the year. NDIA’s report does not specifically invoke race or ethnicity— opting for the phrasing ‘lower-income neighborhoods’. The socio-economic realities of these communities, a result of the banking industries mid-century redlining tactics, has become the impetus for new types of discriminatory investment in these same areas.… Read More
Renewed Effort To Stop Burning Detroit’s Garbage Based On Pollution Levels And Environmental Justice. “Mayor Mike Duggan has taken recent actions, both quiet and public, that could signify a commitment to the health and well-being of Detroiters. Recently Duggan signed onto the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement, committing the city to reducing carbon emissions … Read More
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to spend a day in Detroit meeting with local entrepreneurs and sharing ideas for spurring small business development. I came away feeling that Detroit has quite a bit to teach the rest of us about how to build a local economy from the ground up. … Read More
