blackprogress.net -- Inner-City Business Development

This listing includes only a sampling of initiatives & works and is by no means comprehensive. It will be continually expanded and updated. We invite (and greatly appreciate) suggestions on materials that merit inclusion in the listing.


Initiatives / Websites

National Urban League Announces Urban Entrepreneur Partnership. October 15, 2004. National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial announced today a new groundbreaking national partnership to encourage minority entrepreneurship and business development nationwide.

New Help for the Black Entrepreneur. Elizabeth Olson. The New York Times. December 23, 2004

Baltimore Venture Fund

Black Business Community Investment Fund (Nova Scotia, Canada)

Black Business Investment Fund (Florida, USA)

BusinessLINC® - A program of the Business Roundtable aimed at stimulating economic growth in distressed cities and rural areas by fostering business-to-business partnerships

Cities for Progress (Institute for Policy Studies)

Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund - U.S. Treasury Department

New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program

Coalition of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI Coalition)

Community Renewal Initiative - for America's Renewal Communities, Urban Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (RC/EZ/EC) - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC)

Inner City 100 (UK) The Inner City Entrepreneurs' Fund

Inner City Economic Forum

Business Perceptions Study on Inner Cities
Communications Campaign for Inner Cities
Bringing Small Inner City Companies ($500,000 to $2 million) to Scale
Creating a National Brokerage Mechanism for Inner City Deals
Tapping Public Pension Funds for $ 1 billion in Investments in Inner Cities

Kauffman Foundation

Minority Business Development Agency

National Urban League / Stonehenge Capital Empowerment Fund - $127.5 Million Community Investment Fund

National Urban League - Kauffman Foundation Initiative

New York City Investment Fund

Social Compact - Coalition of business leaders from across the country who are promoting successful business investment in inner-city and rural communities

Reports / Papers / Articles / Etc.

State of the Inner City Economies: Small Businesses in the Inner City. Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. Oct 2005

New Atlanta-Based Business Development Center Focused on Increasing Minority Entrepreneurship and Business Expansion. Nov 10, 2005

Kansas City Launches the first of five Urban Entrepreneur Partnership centers. September 20, 2005

The New Agenda for Minority Business Development (Report). James H. Lowry and Richard Holland (Boston Consulting Group). Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. June 2005

Minority-owned businesses face challenges. Companies must have aggressive growth strategies, study says. Tannette Johnson-Elie. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. June 28, 2005

Minority-owned firms must move into growth mode. Study reports progress but calls for adjustments. Joyce Smith. Kansas City Star. June 29, 2005.

Study Sees Obstacles to Minority Business Growth. Minority owners tend to cap growth after self-sufficiency, report finds. Mina Azodi. Inc.com. July 7, 2005

A special, in-depth report on economic development in Milwaukee. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. December 4, 2004

Hit by global train - An analysis of a half-century of data for the nation's largest cities shows that no urban center fell as far, as fast, as hard as Milwaukee from the upheaval of a globalizing economy. Nor was any city's black work force less prepared for the shift from unskilled labor.
A dream derailed - The Milwaukee Road literally encircled the perimeter of Milwaukee's black community, defining where they lived and worked. When it derailed, so did the dreams of a whole community. But now, there are signs the urban core is getting back on track.
Emerging markets - A new generation of leaders is advancing market-driven 21st-century solutions for poor neighborhoods. Promise is seen in the city's central location, low transportation costs, cheap land and proximity to universities and the ideas they incubate.

State of the Inner City Economies. Michael E. Porter, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC). November 15, 2004.

Retailers shop for profit in inner cities. Data show surprising spending power in urban areas. Garrett Glaser. CNBC. January 14, 2005

Michael Porter: Inner Cities are Where the Money is. BusinessWeek, December 27, 2004.

Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) - Research & Publications

An Economic Approach to Inner-City Revitalization. ICIC-Boston

The Future of Inner Cities: Who Owns Success?. Inner City 100 Magazine.

The New York City Investment Fund: An Emerging Model For Corporate Engagement in Urban Development. Capital Xchange, October 2001. Kathryn Wylde, President and CEO, New York City Investment Fund. Peter Plastrik, Author and former President, Michigan Strategic Fund.

The New York City Investment Fund: A New Model for Doing Good. Eleanor Foa Dienstag. Hermes (Columbia Business School). Spring 1998

More companies tap location, location, location of inner cities. Del Jones, USA TODAY. August 31, 2004.

Creating Capital, Jobs and Wealth in Emerging Domestic Markets: Financial Technology Transfer to Low-Income Communities. Glenn Yago, Betsy Zeidman, and Bill Schmidt. The Milken Institute, January 2003.

Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Black Progress: Harnessing Black Financial Power Through a National Venture Capital Fund. Michael J. Isimbabi. Capital Researchers LLC.

Open for Business in the Black Metropolis: Race, Disadvantage, and Entrepreneurial Activity in Chicago's Inner City. Cedric Herring. Forthcoming. The Review of Black Political Economy.

Inner City Entrepreneurship: Is Self-Employment a Cure for Poverty? Cedric Herring, Hayward Derrick Horton, and Melvin Thomas. 2002. In The New Politics of Race: From Du Bois to The 21st Century. Marlese Durr (ed.). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

The Black Church and Community Economic Development. Shondrah Nash and Cedric Herring. Forthcoming. In Cecilia Conrad, John Whitehead, Patrick Mason, and James Stewart (eds.). African Americans in the United States Economy, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

The Ties that Bind: America’s Inner Cities, Business Development and the Next Frontier of Research. Jeffrey Robinson, Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Argues that inner city business and economic development research has a greater potential to impact the lives of African Americans than any other research area and is THE civil rights issue of the 21st century.

Empowerment Zones, Enterprise Communities, Black Business, and Unemployment. Wilton Hyman. Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law. Analyzes the federal Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZ/ECs) program with a focus on its potential impact on the black business community and the employment of inner-city minority residents.

An Inner-City Renaissance. The nation's ghettos are making surprising strides. Will the gains last? BusinessWeek Online, October 27, 2003.

Pitting Markets vs. Poverty. Harvard's Michael Porter talks about some surprising strengths in inner cities and how capitalist forces can help improve their lot. BusinessWeek Online, October 27, 2003.

New £1m Fund Launched to Boost Inner-city Businesses (London, UK). 28 Feb 2003

Creating a Scorecard for the CRA Service Test: Strengthening Banking Services Under the Community Reinvestment Act. Michael Stegman, Kelly Cochran, and Robert Faris. January 2003. Policy Brief. Brookings Institution

America’s Inner Cities: Wired to Compete. A Report on Inner City Broadband Readiness and E-Business Technology Adoption. A joint study by Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). November 2002.

Building Black Wealth: Entrepreneurship Keeps The Community Anchored; Provides Inner Growth And Stability, Say Local Businesswomen. Domnick Hadley. The Call (Kansas City, MO). September 20, 2002

Banking On Technology: Expanding Financial Markets and Economic Opportunity. Robert Weissbourd. A Report Prepared for The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy The Financial Services Roundtable and The Ford Foundation. June 2002

Rediscovering Inner-City Markets. Capital Connections. Fall 2001. Federal Reserve Board.

Financing the Development of Urban Minority Communities: Lessons of History. Timothy Bates. Wayne State University

Changing Capital Markets and Their Implications for Community Development Finance. Kirsten Moy and Alan Okagaki. July 2001.

Taking Stock: CDFI’s Look Ahead After 25 Years of Community Development Finance. Mark Pinsky. December 2001.

Funding inner-city businesses. Wendy Bowman-Littler. June 22, 2001

Expanding Resources for Community Development. Daniel M. Leibson. Presentation to the Financial Innovations Roundtable (FINIR).

Civic Lesson: How CDFIs Can Apply Market Realities to Poverty Alleviation. March 2001.

Giving a Leg Up to Bootstrap Entrepreneurship: Expanding Economic Opportunity in America’s Urban Centers. Samuel R. Staley, Howard Husock, David J. Bobb, H. Sterling Burnett, Laura Creasy, and Wade Hudson. February 2001. Policy Study No. 277. Reason Public Policy Institute.

Solving the Many Problems with Inner City Jobs. Timothy J. Bartik. Upjohn Institute Staff Working Paper. October 2000

Business flowing into inner city: Seeking a labor pool and new markets, companies locate in once-neglected areas. The Christian Science Monitor, July 6, 2000.

Community Reinvestment and Cities: A Literature Review of CRAs Impact and Future. Susan White Haag. April 2000. Discussion Paper, Neighborhood Markets Research, Brookings Institution

Technology, CDFIs and Community Development Finance. Kirsten Moy. Presentation to the Financial Innovations Roundtable (FINIR).

Inner-City Business Development and Entrepreneurship. Ross Gittell & J. Phillip Thompson. In: Urban Problems and Community Development. Ronald F. Ferguson & William T. Dickens (editors). Brookings Institution Press, 1999.

Growing the Inner City? Tamar Jacoby and Fred Siegel. The New Republic. August 23, 1999

The Market Potential of Inner-City Neighborhoods: Filling the Information Gap (A.K.A. Attracting Business Investment to Neighborhood Markets). Robert Weissbourd. March 1999.

A Private Sector Model for Rebuilding Inner-city Competitiveness: Lessons from MidTown Cleveland. Margaret Murphy. Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution. December 1998

Tax Strategies for Community Economic Development. Paul Pryde, Jr. The Finance Project, Washington, DC. June 1998

Entrepreneurship and Community Development. Raymond W. Smilor. Presented to a conference on Entrepreneurship as a Community Development Strategy: Opportunities for Community Foundations. April 1997

Community Capitalism: Rediscovering the Markets of America's Urban Neighborhoods. Ninety-First American Assembly. The Brookings Institution. April 1997

Can Clinton's urban policies really work? B.E.'s economists weigh the value of empowerment zones and community banks in revitalizing America's cities. Frank McCoy. Black Enterprise. June 1994. ·

The new agenda of the black church: economic development for black America; black churches are flexing their economic muscles to provide much needed jobs. Lloyd Gite. Black Enterprise, December 1993. African American churches are taking charge of programs and business investments to revive economically the urban areas in which they find themselves.

& Capital Researchers LLC