By: Roberta Brandes Gratz
Via: The Atlantic Cities


Unproven theories abound as to how cities with a diminished population might “shrink” their footprint to ease the financial burden of maintaining an infrastructure created to serve a larger city. By moving the few remaining residents out of the most diminished neighborhoods and into under-utilized spaces in healthy areas, the theory goes, the now-smaller city saves money, strengthens neighborhoods worth saving and prepares for a better future.

‘Unproven’ is the operative word here. History makes plain that if you plan for shrinkage, a city will continue to shrink, not grow stronger.

American cities started losing population after World War II with the creation of suburbs. “Planned Shrinkage,” no different than today’s shrinkage strategies, was New York’s solution to a South Bronx that looked like Dresden after the war and other failing neighborhoods. Fire houses, police stations, schools closed, garbage ignored, streets unrepaired. But residents citywide fought back fiercely, refused to leave, took over vacant buildings, fixed them up on their own, stuck it out with minimum city services and with mottos like “improve don’t move” set about on a sweat equity path that was the catalyst for a slow, incremental citywide rebound. Developers followed the residents’ lead. That is why New York grew again, instead of shrank.

The same pattern of regeneration took hold in small doses slowly in Savannah, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, San Antonio and more. Now, similar pockets of re-growth can be found in Buffalo, Detroit, Syracuse, Muncie, South Bend and elsewhere.

Today, one community exemplifies both the consequences and costs of shrinkage and the regeneration path of incremental but veritable re-growth.

That singular place is the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, skeptics assumed the worst. Officially, the city did not turn its back on the working-class neighborhood of the Lower Ninth, but few dollars and little energy have been expended there. Residents will tell you that there was not much in the way of city services to shrink.

A recent New York Times Magazine article, “Jungleland,” offered an exaggerated look at what’s happened since to the acres of vacant land in the once heavily populated working class neighborhood. The impression is one of an almost primeval forest taking over. The author ignored blocks of rebuilt houses and clusters of homes scattered among the overgrown lots. But he did highlight the inevitable consequences of the removal of city services: piles of broken up concrete and construction debris, discarded sofas, bags of garbage, toilets, a burnt car and lots of tires are randomly dumped, costs that are inevitable in even a semi-shrunk area. Considerable acreage is reverting to unkempt nature.

But the Lower Ninth Ward is also growing again slowly. Residents have defied expectations and expert predictions and are re-staking their claim. Emptiness still dominates the landscape once filled with homes but clusters of rebuilt houses and new construction are not hard to find. The sound of the hammer or buzzsaw is ubiquitous.

Officials too often assume shrinkage is inevitable. But do they ever inquire of the diehard hold-outs why they stay? The answers are clues to regeneration instead of assumptions of continued loss.

Last year, I asked Josephine Short Butler, 89, if she wasn’t a little nervous returning to such an empty neighborhood when her Lower Ninth home was rebuilt soon after Katrina in one of the bleakest corners of the area. She was one of the first back and the landscape then defined desolate. “Honey,” she said to me leaning forward in her chair, “when we moved here in 1948, this was farmland, the streets were paths of oyster shells and it was a 45-minute walk to church.”

Mrs. Butler came back. Her best friend and neighbor followed next door. And so did her two granddaughters who live around the block. Others followed. That corner of the neighborhood now has dozens of rebuilt homes in a few square blocks. Residents will tell you that they never received more than a minimum of city services. Yet, this 65 percent homeowner neighborhood paid plenty in taxes.

Let’s call people like Mrs. Butler “magnet residents.” Magnet residents exist in every city’s derelict neighborhoods. Often they are owners of mortgage-free homes that can’t be replicated elsewhere, or else something equally compelling is keeping them in place. Magnet residents are easier to find now in the Lower Ninth Ward than the reported wildlife, although residents will tell you they always had snakes and abandoned houses.

The Lower Ninth is growing back, much more than expected. When New York was shrinking in the 1970s, planners predicted it would shrink further; thus the need to “plan” for shrinkage.

All shrinking cities exhibited similar patterns: departure of resident population for the suburbs starting in the ‘50s and ‘60s and departure of factories and corporations either for overseas or, in the case of New Orleans, for Houston. They all lost much of their local economy. Neither New York nor New Orleans is a special case; only the particulars are different.

Top image: Josephine Short Butler’s house in the Lower Ninth Ward.

By: Brent Rasmussen
Via: Harvard Business Review

We often hear from job seekers: “If I have the necessary skills and experience, why am I not hearing back from more companies?”

It’s a fair question, especially for the more than five million workers who’ve been unemployed for six months or longer (more than 40 percent of all unemployed job seekers). Struggling to get a foot in the door doesn’t mean this group is unqualified or lacks what it takes to do the job. With hundreds of applications submitted for a single open position, it’s indicative of a fiercely competitive labor market.

So how does someone who’s among the long-term unemployed stand out? Will employers even look past their employment gap — the time that’s elapsed since their last day on the job?

New research from CareerBuilder found that 85 percent of hiring managers and human resource managers are more understanding of employment gaps now than they were pre-recession. While that’s refreshing news, it comes with an important caveat: This group still needs to go another step to draw attention to their resumes.

Companies are still looking carefully at how unemployed job seekers have spent their time. There’s a notion is that if you’ve been out of work for an extended period of time, you begin to lose an edge on previously acquired skills. Whether or not you buy into the concept of skills erosion, it’s safe to assume that hiring managers are more likely to look past employment gaps for applicants who’ve stayed active in the interim.

So what do hiring managers recommend?

In the same survey, 61 percent said taking a class or going back to school is a great start. This can be as simple as taking a certification course (e.g., IT workers), attending professional seminars, or enrolling in community college courses. If the subject matter expands your skill set or can be applied in the next job, that’s information that should be featured prominently on your resume or in your cover letter.

Sixty percent of hiring managers said volunteering increases the candidate’s marketability. Volunteerism is a testament to a person’s character and work ethic. However, many job seekers are not doing the best job of promoting that experience on their resumes and cover letters. It can’t be an isolated bullet point buried on the page. Job seekers should choose volunteer work that can be woven organically into their existing professional narratives — and then be ready to sell it no differently than the rest of their work history. Ask yourself: What skills did I learn or hone? Can I quantify my impact or speak to how my efforts contributed to the organizations’ successes?

Seventy-nine percent said taking a temporary or contract assignment is advisable. Temp or contract work is not just for entry-level workers and young professionals. Opportunities are available across job types, experience levels, and salary ranges. If becoming a permanent freelancer isn’t in your plans, note that about one in four employers plan to transition some temporary workers into full-time, permanent employees in quarter two of 2012.

Fewer employers felt that the ambitious task of starting your own business (28 percent) or writing a professional blog (11 percent) were good ways to improve your marketability, but if those activities showcase your potential value, they certainly can’t hurt.

Say a job seeker has done all this and still isn’t faring any better? There are two job search tactics that are vastly underutilized, according to our research and conversations with employers: follow-through and presenting customized ideas to your prospective employer.

Two-thirds of workers don’t follow up with the employer after submitting their resume for consideration. If the hiring manager provides contact information, sending an email a week or two after submission can prompt a closer look (or maybe even a second look) at your resume. And when the interview opportunity arrives, it’s best not to focus solely on the past. Employers want candidates who have researched their company rigorously, and have prepared concrete ideas for what they’ll bring to the role.

A competitive labor market requires a dynamic job search. Regardless of how unemployed job seekers spend their time, the common denominator is to continue your professional development and show potential employers how you can help them.

By: Kate Galbraith
Via: The New York Times

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Of all the types of energy embraced by the green community, “combined heat and power” probably has the clunkiest name. But proponents hope that C.H.P. systems, which can be installed in homes, will one day compete with better-known technologies like solar panels.

The idea is to capture two forms of energy at once, namely heat and electrical power (which is why the technology is sometimes called cogeneration). Large systems exist on college campuses like the University of Warwick in England and also at hospitals, chemical factories and even airports. These systems use the heat left over from generating electricity to produce either hot water, which circulates through pipes to nearby buildings to provide heat, or steam, which can be used for industrial purposes.

Because the process of making electricity wastes a lot of energy, combining heat and power generation leads to greater efficiencies, said Jürgen Weiss, head of the climate practice at the Brattle Group, a consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“The idea of C.H.P. is to make electricity and not waste the heat that gets generated in the process, but rather to use it for something useful,” Mr. Weiss said. That means lower utility bills and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

In recent years, engineers have started designing more residential-scale systems. These may be about the size of a refrigerator and can fit into a basement. In Britain, a system run by a Stirling engine may cost more than £6,000, or $9,500, including installation, and in Germany — where heating systems are generally more expensive — a C.H.P. system may run from €15,000 to €20,000, or $19,800 to $26,400, according to Delta Energy & Environment, a research company based in Edinburgh. Delta said it would often take homeowners 10 years to make back the cost, in the form of lower utility bills. Getting prices down will be critical, experts say.

The small systems work best in cold climates, where homes need plenty of heat. They are often fueled by natural gas and make a bit of noise, but the extra electricity they produce can be sold into the power grid. Big-name automakers like Honda Motor and Volkswagen have applied their technology to help develop small-scale systems, sometimes known as micro C.H.P.

Small systems are gaining traction in Japan after the nuclear disaster last year, which led officials to order that nearly all of the country’s reactors be taken offline. Orders have “increased dramatically” since that event and are likely to rise even more sharply in the future, according to a recent report by Pike Research, a research and consulting group in Boulder, Colorado. Honda has sold micro-C.H.P. systems in Japan since 2003 and said last year that about 108,000 households were using its units, called the Ecowill.

The home systems in Japan tend to be much smaller than those in Germany or the United States, according to Kerry-Ann Adamson, a research director for smart energy who is based in London for Pike.

Elsewhere in the world, the picture is mixed. In the United States, a basic obstacle is lack of knowledge, said Daniel Bullock, director of the Gulf Coast Clean Energy Application Center, a U.S. Department of Energy group based in a Houston suburb that promotes C.H.P. and related sources of energy.

“Most people don’t even know about C.H.P.,” Mr. Bullock said. As a result, he added, “People are willing to pay a lot more money for solar panels than what a C.H.P. system would cost.”

The low price of natural gas in the United States — a result of the plentiful supplies created by the hydraulic fracturing boom — may make the systems more appealing, Mr. Bullock said, though homeowners, lacking the negotiating power of large industrial users, may not reap the full benefit of the lower gas prices.

In Europe, Delta Energy & Environment forecasts that 40,000 to 70,000 units a year will be sold by 2015, but “an outcome with substantially lower sales is possible,” said Jon Slowe, a director for the company, adding that Britain and Germany are using incentives to push the hardest for micro-C.H.P. technology.

Germany has a target of getting 25 percent of its power from C.H.P. systems of all sizes by 2020. A draft proposal now under consideration would increase incentives for the systems, although Ulrich Fikar, a spokesman for the industry group Cogen Europe, said it was “not ambitious enough for micro-C.H.P.”

The Netherlands used to be a promising market, but the new government sharply cut spending and incentives, according to Mr. Slowe. Belgium, too, is cutting spending.

“It’s a really tough time in Europe, with governments trying to tighten their belts,” Mr. Slowe said.

The United States has even fewer incentives for micro-C.H.P., as it does for most alternative energy sources.

“Look at the difference between the U.S. and, say, Germany,” Mr. Bullock said. In Germany, “you’ve got feed-in tariffs, a much more active regulatory environment, you have programs that support financing and implementation.”

At least one U.S. company has struggled to introduce the technology. Freewatt, a micro-C.H.P. unit developed by ECR International in Utica, New York, was installed by some U.S. customers. But “it’s unavailable commercially right now,” said Maggie Reed, a representative for the company.

Nonetheless, some analysts view the United States, with its large number of buildings and potential for energy-efficiency gains, as a sleeper market.

“The Japanese market is a given,” said Ms. Adamson, the researcher for Pike. “What will change the face of the residential C.H.P. market is if the U.S. wakes up to this.”

By: Eric Westervelt
Via: NPR

Waltraud Grubitzsch/DPA/Landov

Metal-working apprentices train in Leipzig, Germany, in 2010. Germany has Europe’s lowest youth unemployment rate, thanks in part to its ancient apprentice system, which trains about 1.5 million people each year.

For as long as he can remember, German teenager Robin Dittmar has been obsessed with airplanes. As a little boy, the sound of a plane overhead would send him into the backyard to peer into the sky. Toys had to have wings. Even today, Dittmar sees his car as a kind of ersatz Boeing.

“I’ve got the number 747 as the number plate of my car. I’m really in love with this airplane,” the 18-year-old says.

Less-than-perfect school grades dashed Dittmar’s dream of becoming a commercial pilot. But they were good enough to earn him a coveted apprenticeship slot with Lufthansa Technik, the technical arm of Europe’s largest airline, responsible for aircraft maintenance and repair across the globe.

One-third of the way through his three-and-a-half years of training at Lufthansa technical headquarters in Hamburg, Dittmar is honing the skills required to become an aircraft mechanic — and all-but-guaranteeing himself a job.

The protracted European debt crisis and austerity measures have made career prospects for many of the continent’s youth bleaker than ever. In Spain and Greece, nearly half of all those under age 25 are unemployed.

But as Dittmar’s experience illustrates, that’s not the case in Germany. In stark contrast, Germany’s youth employment is the highest in Europe, with only a 7.8 percent jobless rate. At the heart of that success is a learn-on-the-job apprenticeship system that has its roots in the Middle Ages but is thriving today in Germany’s modern, export-oriented economy.

On-The-Job Training

A brightly lit Lufthansa workshop in Hamburg is part of that apprenticeship system. Teenagers like Dittmar, many dressed in the company’s navy blue shirts and overalls, are busy learning the basics: drilling, filing, soldering and manipulating sheet metal.

Dittmar’s apprenticeship is part of Germany’s well-established and successful “dual system,” so-called because training is done both in-house at a company and partly at local vocational colleges.

About two-thirds of his time is spent on the job at Lufthansa — split between workshops and classrooms, and actually working on real aircraft and engines supervised by an experienced full-time mechanic, a “training buddy.”

“[The training buddies] are taking the apprentice with them in their work. They are integrating them in their work and they are making real training on the job,” says Hans-Peter Meinhold, Lufthansa’s head of vocational training. “So it’s a one-to-one situation.”

For an aviation buff like Dittmar, getting to work on real machines so soon is not only a sign that his employers see potential in him, but also fuels his passion for planes.

“I could work anyplace in the world. I like the system here,” the teenager says. “I know that I will be a good aircraft mechanic when I’m out of the apprenticeship, so that’s very cool to know.”

Eric Westervelt/NPR

Apprentices are trained at the Lufthansa Technik training center in Hamburg last month. About 60 percent of German high school students opt for vocational training over further academic education

Long-Term Benefits

About 60 percent of German high school graduates travel the same path as Dittmar, choosing vocational over academic education. Throughout his training, Lufthansa pays Dittmar the equivalent of $1,000 a month, one-third of the starting wage a qualified mechanic would get. That’s part of the system that some foreign visitors can’t comprehend, director Meinhold says.

“I tell them [the apprentices] don’t pay anything for it, they get paid by the companies. They get money for their training,” Meinhold says. “‘You are training them and you are paying them for that?’ They can’t understand this.”

Once qualified, these skilled aeronautical and engine mechanics feed into a fairly robust European aviation industry, either directly at Lufthansa or at one of its subsidiaries or competitors.

For many, the potential of being hired permanently is the key attraction. Germany’s industry still offers a majority of skilled workers the elusive “job for life,” a long-gone legend in many other Western countries.

Meinhold believes that despite the costs, the apprentice system is an investment vital to the ongoing success of Germany’s export-dependent economy by creating loyal, well-trained employees.

“It’s a quite expensive way we go,” he says. “The benefit we get from the system later, that’s a great benefit and makes everything economical.”

A Model For The Rest Of Europe?

Germany’s dual system trains 1.5 million people annually. Across the board, from bakers and car mechanics to carpenters and violin-makers, about 90 percent of apprentices successfully complete their training, German government figures show. The apprenticeships vary in length, between two and three-and-a-half years. The average training “allowance” is 680 euros a month (approximately $900), and about half of the apprentices stay on in the company that trained them.

British Prime Minister David Cameron recently called for his country to emulate parts of the German system by reinvigorating British apprenticeships with higher-level training.

“I think what we are going to see with the expansion of the higher level apprenticeships is many people going into them as they leave school, spending time doing that and then going on and doing a university degree linked to their apprenticeship skill,” Cameron said. “That is what has happened for years in Germany and it is going to be happening much more in Britain.”

But Rolf von Luede, an economic sociologist at the University of Hamburg, isn’t so sure the German system would translate well to other parts of Europe. He notes that German industry and its powerful trade unions have a unique relationship marked by what he calls “antagonistic cooperation,” a far cry, he says, from the more confrontational policies pursued by unions in Spain and Britain.

“One of the crucial aspects of the German dual system is that it is created by a cooperation of the employers and the trade unions,” von Luede says. “[It is] really a model that ensures that the qualifications that are needed within the industry are supported by this apprenticeship.”

Eric Westervelt/NPR

Apprentices are trained at the Lufthansa Technik training center in Hamburg last month. About 60 percent of German high school students opt for vocational training over further academic education

Not Enough Skilled Workers

Today Germany has a problem that Britain, Spain and other European countries can only dream of: It doesn’t have enough skilled workers to meet the demands of its economy. Almost one-third of German companies could not fill open jobs in 2011. And some 30,000 apprenticeship placements went unfilled — or about 2 percent.

According to von Luede, this deficit is the result of a dramatic demographic shift. Birth rates are falling across Europe, but the effect is pronounced in what was once East Germany: There are half as many high school graduates in the East as there were only five years ago. Von Luede believes the solution is for Germany to relax its immigration policies because Germany’s population is shrinking.

“Migration has to be orientated at people who are qualified or who may be qualified in the future by the educational system of Germany,” he says.

But while 30,000 apprenticeships went unfilled, 85,000 high school graduates failed to find a placement. The reason for this mismatch, a recent study by the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training found, is that the education system is failing to adequately prepare the children of recent immigrants for the job market.

Analyst von Leude agrees, adding that many school districts still divide children into blue- or white-collar career tracks while in elementary school.

To address the mismatch between jobs and the labor market, the German government just made it a little easier for skilled foreign workers outside the EU to come to Germany by lowering the income requirement — to about $60,000 from $88,000.

Under the rules change, non-EU workers who meet the new requirement will be able to stay in Germany permanently after a three-year period, if they are still employed. People with particularly good German language skills will be allowed to stay after a two-year period.

Deloitte returns as NCCDC sponsor to help support the demand for skilled cyber professionals

By: Deloitte
Via: PR Newswire

SAN ANTONIO, April 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) today announced that the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) is returning to San Antonio for the seventh consecutive year. Sponsored by Deloitte, one of the largest professional services organizations in the United States, the three-day national championship will kick off on April 20th at the St. Anthony Hotel.

Modeled from real world scenarios and obstacles, this one-of-a-kind competition will feature the top 10 champions of the regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition from universities across the country. The national event will serve as an additional training ground for future cyber defenders. It also provides the best and brightest collegiate students an opportunity to shine on a national stage and connect with the top cyber security firms in the country.

The threat of cyber attacks targeting the United States is a serious issue at the highest levels of government. President Obama recently noted “cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.” Moreover, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently announced that the Department of Homeland Security faces a barrage – thousands – of cyber-attacks every 45 minutes. In line with the United States’ commitment to cyber defense, Secretary of Department of Defense Leon Panetta announced in his 10-year budget forecast that cyber security is one of a few select areas that will receive additional investment and resources, even as the Department of Defense readies to scale back $487 billion in spending in other areas.

“Our nation is under constant attack from various cyber criminals, from individuals stealing personal financial information to sophisticated terrorist networks seeking to hack into our electrical grid and be a detriment to our way of life,” said General Harry Raduege, Deloitte Services LP and chairman of Deloitte’s Center for Cyber Innovation. “Our nation continues to seek out and employ the best and brightest to combat cyber crimes. Competitions such as the NCCDC help refine the skills necessary to man our new front lines.”

NCCDC provides higher education institutions with information assurance and computer security programs in a competitive environment.

“San Antonio boasts one of our nation’s largest military contingents,” said Dr. Gregory White, director, UTSA Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security. “Students who participate in these kinds of competitions are at the forefront of the war on terror. Cyber terrorism is very real. Each day, our federal government and commercial sectors are at risk. Our competition provides the necessary foundation for students to implement what they’ve learned to serve a higher calling as key defenders against cyber terrorism and maintain the security of our networks.”

The attention from government and business leaders now focused on cyber security has also brought an added benefit for those who compete in the NCCDC – job opportunities. In previous years, for those with proven skills in the field the NCCDC has fostered hundreds of employment opportunities for participants over the last six years.

About the NCCDC
The NCCDC consists of qualifying and regional events with the winners of each regional event advancing to the National Championship. The winners of the 10 regional CCDC events are: At-Large Regional: University of Alaska Fairbanks; Mid-Atlantic Regional: Towson University; Midwest Regional: St. Cloud State University; Northeast Regional: Rochester Institute of Technology; North Central Regional: University of Wyoming; Pacific Rim Regional: University of Washington; Rocky Mountain Regional: United States Air Force Academy; Southeast Regional: University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Southwest Regional: Texas A&M University; Western Regional: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. To learn more about the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition click here.

About Deloitte Federal Government Services
Federal agencies turn to Deloitte for their most meaningful and challenging problems. With a mix of public sector experience and private sector perspective, Deloitte’s diverse capabilities across consulting, financial advisory, audit and enterprise risk, and tax services help clients address issues from many dimensions. Learn more about the Deloitte Federal U.S. Government practice

About Deloitte’s Center for Cyber Innovation
The Deloitte Center for Cyber Innovation (Center) develops cyber solutions for clients in the public and private sectors who are seeking to improve information sharing, collaboration and performance by harnessing the power of increasingly interdependent networks. Located in Arlington, Virginia, the Center helps clients plan for, execute and manage an integrated cyber business strategy to enhance operations, mitigate risks, empower personnel and strengthen customer support. Learn more about the Center.

About Deloitte’s Security & Privacy Services
Security, privacy and operational resilience are critical issues facing both public and private organizations today. Security & Privacy (S&P) services help organizations in their management of information and technology risks by delivering end-to-end solutions, using demonstrated methodologies and tools in a consistent manner. Our services help organizations address timely and pervasive issues such as identity theft, data security breaches, data leakage, cyber security and system outages across organizations of various sizes and industries, with the goal of enabling ongoing, secure and reliable operations across the enterprise. For deeper insights and new research on information security and privacy, visit our new innovation center, the Center for Security and Privacy Solutions.

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

By: J. Katie McConnell
Via: CitiesSpeak.org

There’s been no shortage of interest and commentary about the importance of entrepreneurs and small business to the nation’s recovery. Almost daily, economists and policy wonks engage in a seemingly never-ending discussion on what the “right” businesses are to create jobs. And while these conversations have utility and value, they have not produced many actionable strategies for cities where entrepreneurs and small businesses actually exist. In response, NLC released Supporting Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses: A Tool Kit for Local Leaders.

Almost universally, city leaders understand the value of all shapes and sizes of entrepreneurs and small businesses. These businesses create jobs, employ local residents, and help define a community’s sense of place. What is often unclear, however, is how city leaders can foster an environment that encourages entrepreneurs and small businesses.

The tool kit profiles efforts in cities of all sizes to support entrepreneurship and small businesses. These efforts range from knowledge focused in Boston’s Innovation District, governance focused in Seattle, Wash., export focused in Wichita, Kan., or regulatory focused in Rockhill, S.C.

The tool kit’s core message is that cities need to look to the things they can actually control. This includes providing a supportive political leadership; channels of communication between business and government; and reasonable, transparent regulations with accessible interfaces.

Additionally, given the shaky track record of some government-led entrepreneurship efforts, as cities strive to provide more sophisticated services to spur entrepreneurship, partnerships with necessary expertise are essential along with sufficient levels of resources and realistic expectations and time-frames.

It is our hope that this new tool kit shines additional light on the role that local government plays in business development and helps city leaders create a more supportive environment for their local entrepreneurs and small businesses. To download Supporting Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses: A Tool Kit for Local Leaders, click here.