You may be interested in a new Brookings Institution report, "Restoring Prosperity", that makes the case for the state's role in the revitalization of older industrial cities -- indicating that parks were used in the past to shape cities, and can be used to help remake them today. Here's an excerpt:


To read the entire report or an executive summary, see the link : http://www.brook.edu/metro/pubs/20070520_oic.htm

Now this is a great example of a 'deficiency led' approach to regeneration. The underlying belief is that


The logic is, on the surface at least, almost sound. This thinking results in large scale investment and visible improvements in the city (which developers and politicians like). Along with the great office space, modernised railway station, growing airport and the investment in parks may also come a half dozen or more lap-dancing clubs and a night club and bar scene that is at best a 'mixed blessing' but well that is the price of prosperity in a modern city.However the money does not trickle downwards and outwards. Local people on the whole do not benefit from the jobs created - certainly not the well paid ones - and the gap between the rich and the poor in the city continues to widen.
Now supposing that we had made some different assumptions?
That local people have passion, skill and aspirations?
That if we develop a process that enables local people to explore and develop their own skills and passions, and use them to make a living doing work that they love - then who knows what they might achieve?
This model of development assumes that all of the resources that a community has for its own sustainable development are already there. They just need to be harnessed.
This is based on an assumption of sufficiency. And it can work.

I have been a pretty passive member of Zaadz for a while now.  I am still uncertain as to the role this site and its members can play in helping me to achieve my full potential.  But I am willing to try it out.

I am at heart an educator. I love helping people to learn things that make a real difference.  At the moment my work has two main focuses.  The first is working with communities to help them set up social systems that enable them to encourage and support every single person in the community that wants to make something happen - but does not now how.  This is the core of my work with the Sirolli Institute Using Enterprise Facilitation communities learn how to find and respond to local people who have a dream that they want to explore.  The dream usually involves them in finding their passion in life, developing their skills and then using both the passion and the skill to make a living.

The second focus is on providing management education to managers in organisations that are 'purpose driven' - social enterprises - whether for profit or not.  We  run the Progressive Managers' Network which enables progressive managers to network. At the local level this is done face to face at training sessions and drop in sessions.  We also facilitate networking nationally and internationaly through a blog and online forums My passion here is in providing really practical management tools that help to build the relationships which provide the foundations on which organisations can do extraordinary things.  Most of this stuff is quite prosaic (121s, feedback, coaching, delegation, effective meetings etc etc) - but it works.  By focusing on management action rather than theory we find that we can help members to accelerate change and learning.  Importantly we can help them to make a transition from fire-fighting and crisis management to a more pro-active progressive management style.