Priorities

ReDefining Economic Development NYC

New York City needs a different kind of economic development—the progressive, accountable, sustainable kind.

In July 2005, NY Jobs with Justice, the Brennan Center and the Pratt Center for Community Development decided to reach out to groups working on a range of economic development campaigns and issues in New York to determine what steps we could take together to make this kind of good development the norm in NYC. The idea was to strengthen everyone’s current economic development efforts and at the same time to develop a broader vision and build a stronger base of knowledgeable and active organizations to engage in long-term work around economic development in NYC.

Through our discussions, we suggested four components for Redefining Economic Development NYC:

  1. Networking. Regularly bringing together organizations currently engaged in economic development campaigns/efforts & establishing strategic coordination where possible.
  2. Issue Education & Strategy Sessions. Growing our collective understanding of economic development and generating new strategies and tactics through organized city-wide educational and strategy opportunities with community organizations, labor unions, and other base-building groups.
  3. Message & Communications Development. Creating messages and communication tools adaptable to a variety of campaigns/efforts that will begin to establish a common progressive language, message, and knowledge base for accountable economic development in NYC.
  4. Progressive Economic Development "Blueprint.” Developing progressive economic development principles and a values-driven development agenda for New York City to guide our organizations' campaign/issue work and messaging and to lead eventually to a pro-active progressive vision for economic development in the City.

We expect each of these four core elements of Redefining Economic Development NYC will evolve based on the interests and decisions of the organizations involved. If your organization is interested in being part of one or more of these elements, please contact us and let us know about your work and what interests you.