About Us
(6) Community-based Economic Development
Inequality and disproportionate wealth increasingly characterize and profoundly threaten our democracy.
The top 1 percent of our county earns more income each year than the combined incomes of the bottom 99 percent. Ownership of wealth in the United States is far more concentrated even than income: approximately two-fifths of all financial wealth is held by the 1 percent at the very top.
To preserve our democracy, we need to find alternative means to create, invest and sustain community wealth.
Community-based economic development embraces the belief that ownership of wealth must benefit the vast majority directly. Above all, it is about who owns and controls property, which is the basis of real power in most economic systems.
To rebalance power and build real community-based weath requires systemic change.
The past few decades have seen rapid expansion of new forms of local ownership to develop businesses, create jobs, foster local democratic practices, generate tax bases to support public services, and promote stability and community development. Change in ownership of local assets allows communities to address local social and economic problems. Across the country, new economic enterprises have emerged that include thousands of new worker-owned firms, community-owned enterprises, even state and national examples of alternative ways wealth might be owned to benefit small and large publics.
While many of our neigbhorhoods need to be revitalized, we don't want to replicate big box development that produces a similar mix of chain stores and franchises in community after community around the country and world.
Rather, we are interested in the kind of local development that will anchor wealth in the community through various kinds of community ownership of the assets and resources of the community. We endorse engaging community residents, local not for profits and other mediating institutions in local community-development decision-making and in creating unique community businesses and institutions that reflect and promote the interests and needs of all those who live, work, study, shop and play here.
Community credit unions, community focused small businesses, community-based services and markets are examples of the kind of development we hope to encourage through university expertise and investment.
The various forms of community-based economic development share two quite specific features. The strategies involve local institutions which inherently anchor jobs and wealth in the local community. They also either directly or indirectly provide new resources for community services through the ownership of assets or because of the special impact of 'anchored' institutions on the local tax base.
Local Community Economic Development Corporations
A number of Community Development Corporations were recently formed to revitalize the areas adjacent to the University in Prince George's County-the Gateway CDC, the International Corridor CDC, the Port Town's CDC, the Hyattsville CDC. The economic development model pursued by these CDCs include a number of promising elements: building on existing community strengths, engaging local residents in the visioning and planning, fostering non-profit development, supporting and encouraging small local businesses, using the needs of local artists and immigrant populations as basis for business development, resisting gentrification and keeping housing affordable.
We also have abundant University-based Economic Development Resources.
The University of Maryland, College Park has a number of unique and valuable resources that could be tapped for assistance. For example, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship is one of the oldest original entrepreneur centers in the country. Located in the Robert H. Smith School of Business, the center facilitates, supports and encourages new enterprise growth. A One Stop Shop for Business Assistance is operated within the office of the Assistant Vice President for Research and Economic Development's office.
The University also supports Hinman CEO's Living Learning Entrepreneurship Program, the nation's first living-learning center that brings together students from diverse majors to learn how to start their own businesses. The National Center for Smart Growth --a cooperative venture of four the Schools of Architecture, Public Affairs, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Engineering -exists to promote ecologically sound approaches to economic development. Undergraduate and graduate level design studios in Urban Planning and in Landscape Architecture help neighborhood groups envision and shape economic development in their communities. These and many other programs and faculty resources can be leveraged within the University to the mutual benefit of all community members.
There is great potential for University/Community Partnerships.
Many incipient revitalization efforts in Prince George's County are at pivotal points with regard to their role in fostering local economic development and enhancing civic engagement. A University/Community partnership could enliven the process and spur creative development plans and projects. University research and support in this area could address questions that are at the center of communities throughout the US-- how to reinvigorate the populace in dialogue and decisions affecting their own communities and create genuine enduring, and sustainable local economic development. Initiatives like the Gateway CDC's focus on the arts as a revitalization strategy has important implications for both the arts and community planning and development as does the International Corridor's emphasis on businesses that meet specific immigrant community needs.
Local Community Development Corporation revitalization efforts are at an important intersection of several schools of thought-- community economic development, community planning, non-profit & cross-sectoral administration, planning for enhanced diversity & improved race relations, civic dialogue & participation, leadership & cultural policy. A University/Community partnership that supports these entities with analysis and operational strategy would provide direct service to the CDCs and the local community redevelopment efforts while making an important contribution to demonstrating the viability of democratic economic development.