ED Now

The new CitiesSpeak podcast, hosted by National League of Cities CEO and executive director Clarence Anthony, gives listeners a close look at local leadership across the United States. His guest on the first episode was Mitch Landrieu, who served as the mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018 and is now a senior advisor under the Biden Administration in charge of coordinating the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The episode focused on the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, part of the Build Back Better plan. Landrieu’s experience as mayor has assisted him in his new role. His tenure as mayor was “where the rubber meets the road” whereas federal positions often feel as if they are ...

In honor of the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, today we’re sharing disaster preparedness and post-disaster economic recovery resources. Over the past decade, IEDC has worked with communities on the Gulf Coast and across the U.S. to conduct trainings, consulting, and research on the subject, thanks to funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Because every community is vulnerable to some type of disaster, we hope this knowledge will help you prepare to mitigate the economic impact of a devastating event. All the resources listed below are available at RestoreYourEconomy.org, a website which offers guidance on critical activities to engage in before and after a disaster to assist in economic recovery. The ...

Gulf Coast residents knew it was coming, and they knew it would be bad – but few probably imagined just how devastating it would be. Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans, obliterating entire towns in Mississippi, killing more than 1,500 people and causing billions in damages (Time; Washington Post). The rest of the nation could only watch the suffering in horror. “Ten years later, it is not exactly right to say that New Orleans is back. The city did not return, not as it was” (New York Times). Indeed, New Orleans is much changed, and continues to face challenges. Yet at the same time, it also has major new medical facilities, a revamped school system, millions ...