Daily equity news

“A First Lady Who Demands Substance,” - Washington Post
Michelle Obama Wants to Be Part of Events That Have Purpose And a Message — and That Parallel the President’s Agenda.

For weeks, Michelle Obama had been telling her staff and closest confidantes that she wasn’t having the impact she wanted. She is a woman of substance, with a background in law, public policy and management, who found herself relegated to role model in chief. The West Wing of the White House — the fulcrum of power and policy — had not fully integrated her into its agenda. She wanted more.

So, earlier this month, she changed her chief of staff, and now she’s changing her role.

“When jobs go, so do a city’s people,” - MSNBC.COM (Newsvine.com)

REDMOND, Wash. - For a cautionary tale, communities hard-hit by the current recession don’t have to look much further than Youngstown, Ohio.

Like many other manufacturing-dependent cities struggling in this recession, Youngstown’s economy was once booming mainly because of the success of one dominant industry. And also like those cities, Youngstown saw its fortunes fall fast and hard when that industry suddenly bottomed out, leaving many of its residents jobless and unsure what to do next.

“Unemployed Hit the Road to Find Jobs,”  - The Wall Street Journal

LINCOLN, N.H. — After seven months without a paycheck, Tim Ryan turned into a werewolf.

Laid off from a construction job, Mr. Ryan finally found work last month playing the wolfman at Clark’s Trading Post, a tourist attraction in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. For $12 an hour, about half what he made before, he dons furry rags, a coonskin cap and an eye patch and jumps out of the woods when the Trading Post’s steam train chugs by, snarling and growling at passengers.

Are the nation’s smaller industrial cities — places like Youngstown, Ohio; Scranton, PA; and Schenectady, NY — poised for a comeback? A new PolicyLink report released today shows how smart, targeted and equitable investments are helping lead some of these cities toward a more just and fair renewal.

The report, “To Be Strong Again: Renewing the Promise of Smaller Industrial Cities,” lays out how the more than150 smaller, older industrial cities in America can create a path toward equitable revitalization.

Home to nearly 7.5 million people – more than Los Angeles and Chicago combined – these cities have many of the assets and amenities to capitalize on the national re-urbanization trend: walkable downtowns, historic architecture, unparalleled waterfronts and parks, colleges and universities, and grand cultural institutions.

In an op-ed in Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mayor Jay Williams of Youngstown and Mayor Chris Doherty of Scranton wrote that cities like theirs are ready for renewal: “We can be strong again — and we know what it will take to get us there. We are blessed with rich legacies and the urban infrastructure that comes with it.”

Smart and bold local leadership in smaller cities have made them incubators of some of the nation’s most innovative public policy ideas, bringing opportunity and hope to all their residents. Unlike fast-gentrifying cities like San Francisco, New York and Washington, these cities are well-positioned to be places of shared prosperity for families of all income levels.

During the coming weeks, EquityBlog will be highlighting some of the success stories and innovative policy approaches happening in these cities.