Community Matters Webinar Explores Ways to Expand Economic Opportunity Locally

The East Bal­ti­more Revi­tal­iza­tion Ini­tia­tive is the largest urban rede­vel­op­ment effort in Bal­ti­more in decades. The ini­tia­tive — which began in 2002 as a $1.8 bil­lion effort among many part­ners — aims to trans­form a neigh­bor­hood north of the Johns Hop­kins Med­i­cine cam­pus into a mixed-income com­mu­ni­ty with new and ren­o­vat­ed hous­ing, retail and com­mer­cial devel­op­ment, improved schools and safe­ty, more engaged res­i­dents and a larg­er employ­ment base. The project has encoun­tered chal­lenges that many cities face as they seek to rein­vig­o­rate the real estate mar­ket in com­mu­ni­ties bur­dened with vacant build­ings and land, mak­ing them bet­ter places to live for cur­rent and future residents.

A major pri­or­i­ty of the ini­tia­tive was to increase eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty through job cre­ation and con­tract oppor­tu­ni­ties for local, minor­i­ty and women-owned busi­ness­es. In a webi­nar this week, Vic­tor Rubin of Pol­i­cyLink, Cheryl Wash­ing­ton of East Bal­ti­more Devel­op­ment Inc. and Asheigh Gardere of the city of New Orleans shared the project’s efforts and achieve­ments to that end, as well as sim­i­lar endeav­ors under­way in New Orleans. This webi­nar is the third install­ment in our Com­mu­ni­ty Mat­ters series, which explores the com­plex issues sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ty change — and the lessons we and oth­ers have learned from our work in com­mu­ni­ties through­out the country.

Watch webi­nar record­ing of Expand­ing Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty for Local Res­i­dents and Business

Pan­elists
Ryan Chao, vice pres­i­dent for civic sites and com­mu­ni­ty change, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion (mod­er­a­tor)
Ash­leigh G. Gardere, senior advi­sor to May­or Mitchell J. Lan­drieu and direc­tor of The Net­work for Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty, City of New Orleans
Vic­tor Rubin, vice pres­i­dent for research, PolicyLink
Cheryl Wash­ing­ton, senior direc­tor, East Bal­ti­more Devel­op­ment Inc.

Check out our pre­vi­ous Com­mu­ni­ty Mat­ters webi­na­rs on finance strate­gies for com­mu­ni­ty change and com­mu­ni­ty build­ing and res­i­dent engage­ment.

Addi­tion­al Resources

Expand­ing Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty: Lessons From the East Bal­ti­more Revi­tal­iza­tion Initiative

Lever­ag­ing Anchor Insti­tu­tions for Eco­nom­ic Inclusion

Pol­i­cyLink’s Amer­i­ca’s Tomor­row newsletter