A Municipal Policy Blueprint for a More Inclusive Path to Prosperity
Prosperity Now
First published August 2018
America’s cities represent both the idealistic promises of opportunity and the crushing struggle created when those promises are only delivered to a few. Rising financial inequality and a major racial wealth divide have split too many cities into haves and have-nots. Yet, cities are also uniquely well-equipped to deal with these challenges. Their obviously local nature allows them to focus on the specific challenges of their low-income communities and communities of color to work directly with residents most in need of a new opportunity and all too long neglected.
This Municipal Blueprint is designed to guide municipal leaders and advocates toward meaningful, manageable and moveable policy solutions for building financial security within communities of color. We include approaches and strategies that complement both city-level advocacy and the tools and concepts described for racial wealth equity advocacy in our Racial Equity Primer. The policies presented here will not solve every problem, but they can lay the first steps along a pathway to prosperity for all city-dwellers.