Federal Reserve Banks Look for Small Town Lessons in Growth

The Federal Reserve banks of Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, and New York released a report on place-based funders. The organization picked several cities to study and traveled to Rochester, New York; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Chattanooga, Tennessee to see practices first hand. These places were picked because they,  "…experienced some measure of revitalization in the post Great Recession environment evolved into an understanding that revitalization in these places is moving along two distinct paths: an ‘arc of growth’ and an 'arc of opportunity,'" according to the report.

Among the common strategies found in the report, the group highlighted "[r]evitalizing downtown with greater attention to preserving and increasing affordable housing: Investments in making communities more attractive by building downtown entertainment or “innovation” districts and increasing desirable amenities, raised property values but also increased living costs." It also looked at issues concerning poverty: "Addressing concentrated poverty by place: Interventions in this category were geographically targeted, but multi-faceted and cross-generational. Distressed neighborhoods that were located near resources – for example transportation or a good school – were seen as good places to start."