How Prosperous Is Your Community?

Communities can thrive and grow, or they can struggle and decline, but what causes these two outcomes? Attracting and nurturing businesses and organizations is essential to creating vibrant economies, successful communities, and a higher quality of life. Political leaders and average community residents should know about economic and community development; shared knowledge and full participation from everyone will ultimately help communities flourish. In Rebooting Local Economies, the authors use their experience helping domestic and global communities prosper to offer a practical guide for others who want to help communities reach their goals and thrive; each chapter gives real-life examples and suggests concrete actions anyone can take within any community. In a constantly changing environment, communities and even larger regions can attain and maintain prosperity through better jobs, public services, and amenities. Chapter 2 discusses a broader, more holistic definition of prosperity and provides a guide to help attain it. Rather than simply describing the economy, community prosperity should include basic needs, quality of life, and community attachment; an example comparing two fictional cities is given. The idea of a prosperous community is mapped onto Maslow's hierarchy of needs. A strong economy is needed to help a community gain social characteristics its residents want. A roadmap is offered to help explore ideas on how to enhance the prosperity of a community and how to approach community-level decisions. Community budgeting is also discussed, comparing it to companies' investment decisions and providing steps to create an effective budget.