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Colleges Tightening Bonds With Cities

Posted by: Nate Berg

28 February 2008 - 1:00pm

Universities are embracing their interrelationships with their cities, sparking a flurry of university-led urban development projects.

"Universities, increasingly, are extending their reach to off-campus development in an effort to give their surrounding areas and town centers a vibrant and modern feel. In the process, they are becoming major drivers of economic development after concluding that their fortunes are directly tied to those of their cities."

"Another reason for the push is that institutions are recognizing that, along with lucrative financial packages and strong academic reputations, they need to have attractive and exciting college towns to lure top faculty and students."

"The University of Maryland in College Park is converting a 38-acre tract of industrial development on its campus into a shopping district with a hotel, theaters and a music center to further spur redevelopment along a depressed stretch of U.S. Route 1, the town's main thoroughfare."

Full Story: Colleges Teach 'Urban Development 101'
Source: The Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2008
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The areas where we have severe blight and indications of more blight to come are basically the same as they ever were. How in the world are we ever going to move our community development selves into an alternative future that thinks differently about the challenges we face in our cities and low-income suburban and rural communities?
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