ED Now

Mark Weldon, MBA, EDP, small business programs administrator for the City of Raleigh (N.C.), is part of the second cohort of certified Entrepreneurship Development Professionals. IEDC’s EDP credential is designed to build capacity for those supporting entrepreneurship in their communities, and demonstrates the skills and expertise to lead communities through entrepreneurship-led economic development (ELED). Why did you decide to pursue the EDP credential? Small businesses have long been a passion of mine, with the contagious optimism that springs from the entrepreneurial mindset. I have worked with and supported local Main Street businesses and organizations for the past 14 years, and worked in and around small businesses long ...

The California Supreme Court ruled in March that the University of California, Berkeley must cut its undergraduate enrollment by nearly 3,000 for the 2022–23 school year. The ruling came only three weeks before the university had planned to mail acceptance letters, forcing it to send 5,000 fewer offers. The university had been sued by Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, a local anti-density group, under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods successfully argued that the university had insufficiently assessed the environmental impact of increasing its enrollment. However, the group’s leader publicly stated that he sued because higher enrollment would increase the city’s ...

The housing affordability crisis is likely to continue for low-to-moderate income households and people of color, according to a recent annual report from the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies. As the crisis has intensified, people and groups opposed to new housing developments in their neighborhoods have come under increasing levels of criticism. Such opposition is often characterized by the acronym NIMBY, short for “not in my backyard,” and the term NIMBYism. The San Francisco Bay Area has been plagued by a severe affordable housing shortage since the 1990s. In recent decades, anti-density activists have been elected to positions of power in Marin County, Palo Alto, and Cupertino, entrenching opposition to ...

IEDC offers a robust paid internship program for undergraduate and graduate students during the spring, summer, and fall semesters. Interns are valuable members of the IEDC team and make significant contributions to the work we do. ED Now recently asked past interns to share a little about their experience working at IEDC and how it influenced their career.

The defining challenge that local governments have faced during the pandemic, and one that they will continue to face for some time, is how to administer critical services in a manner that keeps both the public and government employees safe and healthy. While many services can be delivered via internet and web-based applications, some residents do not have access in their homes, and others may prefer to interact face-to-face. Still others do not have access to transportation or must rely solely on public transit where it is available. As a result, there is an enduring need for areas inside government facilities where the public and staff can safely interact in person. In our current pandemic planning work with Franklin County, Ohio, our ...

Transportation is important when it comes to addressing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) gaps. The largest proportion of Americans who do not own vehicles are Latinx, Black, and Asian. Because there are DEI factors when it comes to who relies on public transportation to commute to work, transportation networks have the power to influence equity in regional economies and labor markets. According to a recent Regional Economic Models Incorporated (REMI) webinar, DEI in transportation looks at whether networks connect diverse workers to job opportunities, whether all demographic and income groups have equitable access to affordable transportation, and how groups that have historically been underserved might benefit from a region’s ...

Equitable economic development depends on efficient and reliable public transportation to connect people to jobs, resources, and services. However, policymakers and key stakeholders often lack clear definitions and measures of equity needed to make the right transportation decisions. The Urban Institute recently hosted a webinar titled Access to Opportunity Through Equitable Transportation to share insights from its new Spatial Equity Data Tool which uses an established set of metrics to analyze transportation equity for neighborhoods. City and community leaders from four case study regions—Baltimore, Lansing, Mich., Nashville, Tenn., and Seattle—discussed barriers to transportation equity and shared lessons and solutions ...

A new report from Smart Growth America shows that walkable neighborhoods perform better economically. Suburban drivable commercial real estate has been losing market share to walkable real estate in all 30 metros studied. In some metros, walkable places have accounted for almost all new commercial spaces while drivable suburban places have added no new space or lost occupancy since 2010. Historically after World War II, governments at all levels subsidized suburban sprawl by promoting car culture and the American dream of homes with white picket fences. However, there is growing demand for walkability in suburbs as well as cities. Housing costs are higher in walkable neighborhoods, but this is partially offset by less expensive ...