Monday, September 19, 2005
The mayor of Milwaukee is launching an important experiment in urban economic innovation. Meeting with lawyers and financial professionals, he has devised a program that would use a wide range of inner-city assets, including vacant land, to provide collateral for promising entrepreneurs.
The loan fund is targeted at people with strong management backgrounds and credit histories. These people do not, however, have the assets to support larger scale financing to expand their businesses.
This approach is promising, because inner-city economies are characterized with very successful, but isolated businesspeople who operate on the edge of markets. This program will assist them in getting into the more mainstream banking relationships. Read more.
The inner city is an important economic development frontier, and new models of development show promise. Some years ago, Michael Porter established the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City to apply cluster approaches to these markets. Learn more
posted by Ed Morrison |
links
Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site:
Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber:
Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
Milwaukee's inner city innovations
