Ensuring Equitable Access to Career Development through the West San Jose Innovation Zone
The City of San Jose is known as the Capital of Silicon Valley. With a population of just over 1 million, it is the third largest city in California. Given the region’s proximity to cutting-edge technology companies, there is immense potential to offer residents greater exposure to new education and... Read more
Community-Centered Approaches to Expanding Birmingham’s Broadband Infrastructure
In Alabama’s Black Belt, the digital divide has compounded issues related to racial discrimination, high poverty, and limited access to healthcare services. Nine counties in the Black Belt have less than 30% access to broadband, and even in Black Belt cities with established infrastructure, like Birmingham, many residents face cost... Read more
Developing and Implementing a Community-Centered Climate and Equity Plan
As the planet continues to warm, Milwaukee, like many American cities, faces the increasingly catastrophic effects of climate change. Milwaukee also has pronounced racial disparities that are exacerbated by this climate crisis. Confronted with the climate emergency and persistent economic disparities, Milwaukee recognizes an opportunity to simultaneously address both of... Read more
Creating Equitable Pathways to Quality Jobs in Furtherance of L.A.’s Green New Deal
The City of Los Angeles knows that taking immediate action to sustain clean air, water and healthy living conditions is a moral imperative. Building on its initial Sustainable City Plan (2015), the City’s Paris-compatible Green New Deal (2019) laid out ambitious targets to directly address issues ranging from inequitable access... Read more
Increasing Equitable and Affordable Access to Transportation in King County
King County Metro is the largest public transportation agency in the Puget Sound region, delivering more than 130 million rides per year. In 2020, King County was the first in the nation to be impacted by Covid-19, with Metro ridership dropping to 90% below pre-pandemic levels. However, even at the... Read more
Building a Competitive Workforce for a Post-Covid DC
COVID-19 has greatly disrupted the regional economy in Washington D.C., leaving thousands of residents unemployed and forcing many businesses to close or dramatically shift their operations. About 150,000 people have lost jobs in the hard-hit hospitality and leisure industries, creating a critical need for residents to be retrained for jobs... Read more
Building an Inclusive and Resilient Economy by Supporting LA’s Minority & Women-Owned Small Businesses
Small businesses play a critical role in the US economy as employers, sources of innovation, and community centers. But small businesses, particularly those owned by women and people of color, have been uniquely vulnerable to the economic fallouts of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, Los Angeles has been a hotspot... Read more
Reimagining the Right of Way to Support an Equitable Community Recovery
The COVID-19 pandemic threw daily life into a state of upheaval, with lockdowns, social distancing guidelines, travel bans, and digital work becoming a new norm. While these measures largely worked to preserve the health of many Americans, bold actions needed to be taken to curb the economic and social impacts... Read more
Expanding Pathways into High-Quality Jobs by Aligning Workforce Investments
In the Bay Area, COVID-19 has dealt a harsher economic blow to the region than initially estimated. Nearly 5,000 jobs were lost in January 2021 alone. In the City of Oakland, the unemployment rate has spiked to 9.6%, after having been at its lowest rate in decades before the pandemic... Read more
Preparing for the Future of Work in a More Equitable Way
In Houston, the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in one of the highest unemployment rates of any metropolitan area in the nation and has exacerbated economic disparities already felt by residents in many Houston neighborhoods. Before the pandemic, 80 percent – or 36 - of Houston’s 45... Read more