Akeem Dixon, corridor manager of the 52nd St commercial district and Philly native, maintains a delicate balancing act in his work with the Enterprise Center, a LISC partner. He helps residents spark business growth while keeping the potential downsides of revitalization, like high rents, in check. His strategy lies largely in forging bona fide collaboration—rather than playing the expert.
The excerpt below is from:
(Urban Innovator Profile) "Akeem Dixon, The Enterprise Center"
By Nicole Rupersberg (as reposted in Pop City)
Current dialogue in economic development refers to the differences between "doing to," "doing for," and "doing with." Historically, the technocratic approach has dominated development thought, a decades-long insistence that development problems are merely technical problems with technical solutions, and are the purview of the "experts" and not the people.
In other words, the development practices of "doing to" and "doing for."
Successful current economic development strategies focus instead of "doing with," bringing together government, community development corporations, neighborhood organizations, community business owners, and community residents to work together on development strategies, giving the non-government, non-"expert" community members a sense of ownership in their own communities.
"Things are more likely to be sustainable if you're doing them with people rather than to or for people," says Akeem Dixon, 52nd Street Corridor Manager for Philadelphia's Enterprise Center.
The Enterprise Center's overarching mission is to cultivate and invest in minority entrepreneurs; catalyze benefits for businesses and residents that spark community revitalization in distressed, low-income neighborhoods; and provide debt and equity capital that businesses need to start, grow, and succeed. It has been serving West Philadelphia since 1989.
Dixon's position is, on paper, a community and economic development one. But really, Dixon's job is people. Continued[+]...