Building Power,Losing Power: The Rise and Fall of a Prominent Community Economic Development Coalition

Abstract

This article examines the neighborhood economic development movement in Chicago from the late 1970s through summer 2002, with a focus on changes since the middle 1980s, when Harold Washington’s progressive regime provided much hope for those promoting community-based development approaches and reforms. More specifically, it analyzes the growth, struggles, and eventual collapse of the city’s longstanding and nationally recognized coalition of neighborhood economic development organizations, the Chicago Association of Neighborhood Development Organizations (CANDO). CANDO’s rise and fall showcases the changing fortunes of the community-based development movement in large cities. The group’s experience is important for understanding the relationship between the movement and local government in general and for suggesting the best ways for community-based development organizations to gain and keep power in the face of changing environments

Keywords

neighborhood development community development economic development urban regime nonprofit associations

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