Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2012 Bringing together strangers, often through social media, the events aim to support locally owned merchants. The upshot: stores get a windfall, and ‘mobsters’ learn more about their city and meet new friends. The crowd stood at the corner of San Pedro and Boyd streets, a bustling shopping area near… Continue reading

New York Times, April 13, 2012 An environmentalist in Bentonville sounds like the premise for a low-budget reality show, but Wal-Mart has been courting environmental groups and seeking their input on its policies in the seven years since it first announced a sustainability program. The company, the nation’s biggest retailer, has met some environmental goals… Continue reading

Neighborhood Notes, April 2, 2012 Are multi-million dollar public investments to woo corporations to our city in the best interest of our local economy? Who is responsible for job creation? The president, local government, entrepreneurial business people? As we expressed last month in the first installment in our Thinking Local series, you don’t have to… Continue reading

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 28, 2012 Chris Dilla figures somebody must like the posters she puts up in the bathrooms of her Bocktown Beer and Grill restaurant in Robinson, because a few have disappeared. Rock star images? Andy Warhol prints? No. Just marketing materials from The 3/50 Project, a low-key effort to get consumers to think… Continue reading

Minnesota Public Radio, March 26, 2012 When the city of Monticello started providing broadband service in late 2010, advocates hailed it as a model for bringing new technology to an underserved region. Fiber optic lines were making Internet access as fast as anywhere in the state.  ILSR’s Christopher Mitchell comments on the issue of overall… Continue reading