With helpful feedback from MaryEllen Etienne of Reuse Alliance We are happy to report that it looks like White Street Landfill is not going to be reopened! Through solid community organizing that garnered allies from across the city to the “Keep White Street Closed” side of the fight, plus a sea-change in the make-up of [...]
F4DC's Blog
Promoting a healthy community
F4DC had the privilege of presenting our work around grassroots economy development to our friends in the Peace and Justice Network and Transition Greensboro at this years PJN potluck dinner. Ed spoke about using this moment to build a worker-owned economy that will provide stable jobs rooted in local communities as a response to the [...]
Fish, Pies, the Commons and Economic Development
Since late last year, F4DC has been working with individuals and organizations from across North Carolina to frame a different approach to economic development action plan. Over the last 9 months or so, we been thinking, planning and organizing with cooperative business stalwart Frank Adams, workers in NC cooperative businesses, and leaders from a range [...]
The Problem We’re Trying to Solve
Since late last year, F4DC has been working with individuals and organizations from across North Carolina to frame a different approach to economic development action plan. Over the last 9 months or so, we been thinking, planning and organizing with cooperative business stalwart Frank Adams, workers in NC cooperative businesses, and leaders from a range [...]
OUR MONEY, OUR CITY: How do we make the Greensboro’s annual budgeting process more democratic?
In early May, citizens from across our city heard exciting presentations about a method of public budgeting taking hold in the United States and around the world Participatory budgeting (PB) allows ordinary citizens direct control over how to spend a meaningful portion of their tax dollars in their communities. One Chicago district just completed its [...]
Engaging the public in budget-making processes
In over 1,200 cities, towns and municipalities around the world the public is actively engaged in local budget-making processes. Under the banner of “participatory budgeting”, citizens from South America to the United Kingdom and Toronto to Chicago are creating new methods for financial decision-making in their communities. These efforts are producing amazing results! Chicago’s Ward [...]
BlueGreen Conference Report
Good Jobs are Green Jobs The recent Blue-Green Alliance Conference drew nearly 2,000 people to Washington, DC February 8-10 to hear a number of panels and participate in workshops on the growing relationship between organized labor and the environmental movement. In an effort to undo the friction that had been felt between these two movements—each [...]
Developing our socially responsible investment policy
From a social justice “purist” standpoint, there is only one stance toward investing in stocks and bonds and other capitalist instruments: don’t do it. That approach might appeal to folks who like to claim that they haven’t sullied themselves with capitalism, though I don’t think it’s an honest claim. It’s just not possible to live [...]
