This study was commissioned by United Northeast Community Development Corporation (UNEC) to understand how economic develpment is impacting community members in the East 38th Street Corridor on Indianapolis’s northeast side. Rather than looking only at one economic development intervention at a time, and rather than looking only at aggregated data, this study has looked at the area’s econoimc interventions as a dynamic, multifaceted network that ought to work together seamlessly to benefit existing community members. This report details community members’ responses to changes that have already come to the area and changes that are anticipated. It also details community members’ perspectives on what is going well and challenges that still exist.

A two-part series written for the International Economic Development Council’s ED|NOW blog, these articles describe how intensive, authentic enagement in communities that have been systemically left behind by economic development policies as they have evolved over the past several decades can help lead to equitable economic growth. Part 1 describes my own process of becoming embedded in a community and why it is the most authentic way to gather insights that can help decision makers and policy leaders facilitate sound solutions to persistent socioeconomic challenges. Part 2 describes how one company successfully models embeddedness and how other organizations can similarly embed themselves in communities.

Capitalism is a social construct that was made by people, and we continue to have the power to shape it. But what does it say about us when we do not view our capitalist economy as a shared, common pool resource (CPR) and we instead allow corporations to monstrously feed on our humanity and our environment in their quest for profits? In order to save ourselves, we must acknowledge and vote with the conviction that this Capitalist economy belongs to all of us. We must recognize that capitalism must be restrained and regulated to prioritize our interests and desires, our potential, our future, and the sustainability of our shared economy and our lives, communities, and environment, over their profits.

This study investigated the role that religiously affiliated entities (mostly churches and their associated nonprofits) play in shaping communities through their property ownership. Through a combination of quantitative analyses of property ownership data and qualitative inquiry among leaders of faith-based organizations across three Indianapolis geographies, this study has investigated some of the logistics and dynamics of property ownership among these types of organizations. The understanding developed through this study may be useful to churches and other religiously affiliated entities, as well as development practitioners and community members who are striving to improve the areas where they live, work, and serve.

Despite renewed interest in urban redevelopment, and despite growing populations of residents living in downtown Indianapolis neighborhoods, most people who are members of the city’s urban congregations commute to their churches. Furthermore, many congregations do not have consistently strong ties with the communities where their churches sit. This study has sought to understand the dynamics behind such a congregational-community nexus, wherein religious and civic communities operate within the same geography, but without much collaboration between them.

One of the most surprising findings of the initial Project on Religion and Urban Culture (RUC 1.0) was the tenuous connections that existed between congregations and the surrounding neighborhoods. Most people assumed that congregations were intensely local, with strong links to the communities that surrounded them geographically and even with most parishioners living near the place of worship. Public policy rested on such assumptions. Mayor Steven Goldsmith’s Front Porch Alliance was an example of a faith-based partnership between local government and congregations because, in the mayor’s view, faith-based organizations were uniquely local and invested in what occurred around them. If only it were so.

There’s good work happening on Indianapolis’ affordable housing front. Community development corporations are partnering with other not-for-profits to make quality affordable housing available to individuals who might otherwise struggle to find it. Also, the city is reevaluating how it can spur developers to expand the affordable housing supply. However, let’s not forget why this work is necessary…

Cities across the United States are full of “unfreedoms,” which manifest in the form of poverty and other infringements on people’s abilities to do things they value in their lives. These unfreedoms affect already-disenfranchised populations more than others. To maximize freedoms, overcome unfreedoms, and move toward the shaping and creating of more inclusive social and physical urban spaces, and more equitable social and economic outcomes, we must design different ways of producing urban spaces. This article describes a theoretical framework for imagining our relationships with and in urban spaces and the processes that shape and create them. It presents a case study observed through an ethnographic research project in a disinvested neighborhood in Indianapolis, Indiana, to illustrate how defined and abstract forms of power can accumulate and operate in ways that suit the values and priorities of individuals and organizations that are well networked and well resourced, edging existing residents out of decision-making processes. Finally, it provides a solution toward rebalancing the power between those well-networked and well-resourced decision makers and existing residents.