• Feb 18, 2017

Helping Cities Like Detroit

By Pamela Lewis, Huffington Post

February 18, 2017

In this post, the newly appointed director of the New Economy Initiative describes the program’s NEIdeas challenge, designed to provide support for existing businesses. Not just glamorous “start-ups,” but what the author refers to as “been ups.” Writes Lewis:

To help cities like Detroit, we need to support small businesses that have toughed it out for decades, paid taxes, employed residents, and held on to their corner lots. Encouraging new entrepreneurs and industries like health care, advanced manufacturing and information technology is undeniably important. But such growth has greater impact when it is is shared alongside business development focused on neighborhoods.

The program provides $10,000 awards to businesses with annual sales under $1 million a year.

Read Article