Cooperatives Lauded As ‘Trailblazers’ In Community Solar

Looking for community solar? Your best bet is in electric cooperative territory. “In terms of the number of community solar programs, cooperative utilities have been trailblazers,” states a new report from the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA). The report finds 160 co-ops have a program, ... Read more

What Happened After 17 Employees Took Over A Beloved Maine Business

ROCKLAND, Maine — For the last two months, patrons of Rock City Coffee might not have noticed any changes when they stopped at the busy downtown cafe for their regular order. That’s exactly what the new owners — the people behind the counter — want. Two months ago, Rock City ... Read more

Taking Steps Toward Public Options For Banking

It’s been an interesting few weeks for the idea of public banking — establishing banks owned by government entities as a values-based alternative to ‘Wall Street’ banks. In San Francisco, where the city has charged a task force with exploring how to set up a city-owned bank, that task force is now ... Read more

The Criminalization Of Poverty And What To Do About It

In August 2016, the United States Department of Justice issued a report following its investigation into the policies and practices of the Baltimore Police Department. The report was in response to the 2015 police-involved death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray and the subsequent unrest ... Read more

Philly Neighborhood Achieves Inclusive Development And Control Through Community Land Trust

In Philadelphia, the Community Justice Land Trust is helping preserve a community in the face of rising land values and speculation in the city’s Eastern North section, near Temple University, reports Patrick Sisson in Curbed. Sisson notes that a decade ... Read more

Turning Health Care Into Community Wealth In Cleveland

For 14 years, Olga Jebbison has processed laundry at a plant in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood, on the eastern edge of the city, between the railyards and Lake Erie. She’s one of over a hundred currently employed at the facility, which currently processes 12 million pounds of laundry a ... Read more

San Francisco Should Have A Public Bank To Leverage The Power Of Its Own Money

San Francisco’s Municipal Bank Feasibility Task Force comes under pressure to provide a truly ethical and full-powered alternative — a Public Bank — in an article by Zac Townsend in the San Francisco Chronicle. He calls on the public to take a stand: “There already ... Read more

A Labor Movement For The New Guilded Age

When Ronald Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987, he not only invoked the rising supremacy of the United States by demanding “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”, he ushered in a new era of individualism focused on the “freedom”(Bruner, 1989) that was libertarian in nature and ... Read more

Co-Op Broadband Brightens Future Of Rural Alabama

The future of tiny Brilliant, Alabama, just got brighter with a clear path to broadband. Thanks to Tombigbee Electric Cooperative, state leadership and funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, residents of a rural community beset by persistent poverty will soon have the fastest internet ... Read more

Tax Luxury Housing to Fund Social Housing

I’ve traveled in a lot of major US cities in the last year outside of my hometown of Boston, Mass. Most of them are experiencing gentrification as wealthy newcomers drive up the cost of housing and displace long-time residents. But there’s an additional disruptive force — a sort of globally supercharged ... Read more