Tag Archives: Participatory Democracy

The Art$, Small Business, and Community Development

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Just testifying for the arts, people.

Dear Reader, below you will find testimony that I presented recently before a joint hearing of the New York City Council on the impact of the arts on small businesses and community economic vitality.  You may very well be interested in two previous posts on this subject:  The Art$ (wherein I discuss the economic realities of very small versus very large nonprofit culturals in NYC), and The Art$ – Part II (wherein I dig deeper into how very large nonprofit culturals make their money compared to how small nonprofit culturals do). Continue reading →

Dear Mom, Here’s What Crashed the Economy (Part III) – And How to Fix It

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Reposted from my guest blog on Rooflines. 

Mom at the Darke County Fair, Greenville, Ohio

Happy New Year!  And what better time to talk about my favorite ideas for getting us out of this fine mess of an economic jim jam we’re all bunched up in.  But first, a recap of my previous two posts:

  • In Dear Mom (Part I) I talked about the absolutely bizarre and vitriolic discussion around what role US federal housing policy played in the collapse of the global economy.  Basically, it played a very minor role, in spite of lingering (or, should I say, malingering) opinions to the contrary.  When even the industry publication American Banker weighs with a super geeky online commentary saying pretty much what I already said in my blog post, I think we can all put this bugbear to bed.
  • In Dear Mom (Part II) I took a pretty heady Wall St Journal editorial by Republican dissenters to the Federal Crisis Inquiry Commission and broke down their top ten reasons for the economic collapse into plain English.  I’m proud of this blog post, really.  It works.  And my mom says you should read it because it’s good for you.
But now that I’ve debunked the junk and laid down the ground, I owe it Mom and to you, dear reader, to put my money where my mouth is and talk about what my favorite fixes include.  So to begin. Continue reading →

Brooklyn’s Participatory Budgeting Process

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NYC Council Member Brad Lander

Just a very brief posting to share with you all a nice blog written about Brooklyn Council Member Brad Lander’s Participatory Budgeting process.  Council Member Lander has turned over the decision-making process for spending $1 million in city capital funds for his district to the residents themselves.  JC does a nice job of capturing both the challenges and the enthusiasm for the effort.