Inside Homewood’s Economic Development: 1950s - 1990s pt. 6

Looking Forward

Image Credit: Homewoodbiz.org

What can we learn from the history of Homewood’s development? Several lessons suggest themselves: Developers, contractors, and business owners argue that many young people and adults should prepare for the rigorous requirements for certification in the trades as electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, auto repair technicians, and carpenters. Other young people should continue to prepare for white collar professional and paraprofessional work in legal services, medicine, health care, dentistry, accounting, etc. Meaningful and sustainable economic development cannot take place without creating an environment in which residents have access to good jobs with good wages and residents have the commensurate job skills and experience to gain employment.

Administrators for city government and program officers for private foundations argue that it is also necessary to pursue development strategies that emphasize the economic integration of neighborhoods that now have high concentrations of poverty and that are socially isolated from opportunities to enter the economic mainstream. In addition to designing neighborhoods where there will be an integrated mix of subsidized and market-rate housing, it will be necessary to protect neighborhoods such as Homewood from over-concentration of transitional housing for those who are being eased out of mental health or correctional institutions. Typically, low-income neighborhoods have become the "dumping grounds" for such housing because residents lack the political clout to prevent this from happening. Such housing should be spread out so that there will not be an excessive burden on a few vulnerable neighborhoods.

I would add that it is necessary to develop a national strategy for re-industrialization of the United States along with rebuilding and upgrading U.S. infrastructure, including ports, locks, dams, public drinking water, rail systems, power generation and electricity transmission lines. Rebuilding public infrastructure on a massive scale would create jobs, raise the standard of living and increase the nation’s productive capacity. These “external” factors are inseparable from sustainable community economic development at the neighborhood level.