Advancing Neighborhood Goals

Noel Nix has this excellent piece in the CURA Reporter. He discusses the role of geographically based Community Development corporations and how they function in the larger process of neighborhood planning. Nix also demonstrates the Winnipeg project as a case study of how small and larger for profit organizations can work together to create positive change in neighborhoods.

From the article:

In contrast to CDCs, area-wide nonprofit developers typically are not committed to a specific neighborhood or area of a city. These organizations often work in a variety of different communities, and often specialize in a particular area of community-development work, such as housing or business development. An integrated collection of projects such as the Seward Co-op and the Franklin Avenue Vision would lie. Volunteers help to implement test projects developed during the Franklin Avenue Vision process.

These characteristics position areawide developers as outside actors when it comes to planning and designing community-development projects. However, the Winnipeg is an example of how the community relationships, political capital, and entrepreneurial capabilities of CDCs can be paired with the organizational and financial resources of an area-wide developer to move a locally conceived project forward.