Rebuilding Local Economies
How can small towns and cities adapt to changing conditions that affect the industries, technologies, and land use patterns that help form the foundation of their local economies? EPA’s new report provides case studies of seven communities that have successfully reinvigorated their struggling economies by emphasizing existing assets and distinctive resources. The report, How Small Towns and Cities Can Use Local Assets to Rebuild Their Economies: Lessons from Successful Places, draws on these case studies to offer strategies other communities can use.
Through the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program, EPA worked directly with Kelso, Washington, to explore how these types of strategies could address the city’s economic challenges brought about by the decline of the logging and smelt fishing industries. The resulting report, Using Smart Growth Strategies to Foster Economic Development: A Kelso, Washington, Case Study, provides a tool for communities looking to create their own smart growth economic development strategy that emphasizes existing assets, and it illustrates the use of that tool in Kelso.
SMART GROWTH STRATEGIES – Kelso, Washington
Strategic Economics was one of the Project Leads for the Using Smart Growth Strategies to Foster Economic Development: A Kelso, Washington, Case Study (2015). This study aims to help cities like Kelso rethink how to address economic development challenges with small, manageable solutions that create stronger, more resilient communities. A smart growth economic development strategy needs to support businesses and workers and improve quality of life. Smart growth approaches bring together these elements and recognize the balance among them and the need to create long-term value in addition to short-term gains.
See full report here
Welcoming our new Associate!
Emily Heard.
Ms. Heard focuses on the connection between transportation design and investment and development patterns, both locally and on a regional scale.
National expert says east metro will ‘reinvent’ meaning of bus rapid transit, lead the nation
Dena Belzer was one of the National Experts at the Gateway Corridor Development Forum sharing ideas on how communities and developers can use the proposed Gold Line bus rapid transit project to create prosperous communities.
Rose Center for Public Leadership Panel
Earlier this month, our Vice President, Nadine Fogarty, co-chaired a panel organized by the Rose Center for Public Leadership to advise Seattle’s Mayor Murray on the future of the Rainier Beach neighborhood.
Read more about the visit and recommendations: http://crosscut.com/2015/03/developers-think-tank-to-seattle-forget-about-redeveloping-rainier-beach-try-a-little-tlc/
Welcoming our new Associate!
Jake Cummings.
Mr. Cummings comes to Strategic Economics with a background in management science consulting, where he developed market response and price optimization solutions for the digital media, transportation, and tourism industries. Within the realm of urban planning, he focuses on housing policy and the impacts of regional planning on neighborhoods in transition.
Design Fort Ord Charrette
Dena and Alison are attending the Design Fort Ord Charrette this month. The goal of this charrette is to develop design guidelines to ensure that future development on the former Fort Ord army base supports the cohesive, sustainable reuse of the base, while maintaining the visual character of the Monterey Peninsula which plays a major role in supporting the area’s attractiveness as a destination for many visitors every year. Strategic Economics’ role has been to provide the economic analysis necessary to ensure that the guidelines will be implementable given current real estate market conditions, while also allowing for the flexibility to respond to unanticipated development opportunities in the longer term. Dena is presenting at the Work-in-Progress Presentation this Wednesday. She also spoke in January at the Fort Ord Trails Symposium about the economic benefits of improved transportation connectivity. Learn more about this project: http://www.fora.org/RUDG.html.
Houston System Reimagining Plan Approved
Houston METRO Board unanimously approved the plan System Reimagining Plan and we are happy to have been a part of this exciting project!
Click to view the interactive map:
http://transitsystemreimagining.com/web/the-approved-map/
Associates Positions!
Visit our “Job Openings” page to learn more about our Associates positions and how to apply.
Flavio Coppola.
Mr. Coppola focuses on assessing the economic impact of housing and transportation projects, and on elaborating data-driven local economic development strategies for cities and regions. Before joining Strategic Economics, Mr. Coppola helped design local economic development strategies in France, conducted urban planning research in London, and worked in transportation planning in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.