Small Town Economic Development ─ Reports on Growth Strategies in Practice

We tend to associate small town economic development with the decline of the rural United States—empty houses, shuttered shops and rusting factories. A common diagnosis of sluggish small town recovery is their lack of lifestyle amenities that attract new residents and businesses. Yet many small towns have shown progress and potential in recent years. Some millennials are coming back and big cities maintain symbiotic relationships with smaller communities. This collection of recent articles by experts presents stories of small-town America’s struggle and describes innovations and practices behind successful revivals.

Joaquin Jay Gonzalez III, Ph.D., is the Mayor George Christopher Professor of Government and Russell T. Sharpe Professor of Business at Golden Gate University. He has worked on privatization, nonprofit/NGO, and governance reform projects with the World Bank, the Institute on Governance, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Philippine Presidential Commission on Government Reorganization. Roger L. Kemp, Ph.D., has been a city manager on both the East and West coasts for more than 25 years and holds International City/County Management Association credentials. He has taught at the University of California, Rutgers University, the University of New Haven, and the University of Connecticut. He is a distinguished adjunct professor in the Executive MPA Program at Golden Gate University. Jonathan Rosenthal has more than 35 years of experience in economic development serving Syracuse and Onondaga County, the City of Des Moines, the City of New Haven, and the City of Bristol. Jonathan has built and filled business parks and assisted hundreds of business that have created thousands of good jobs, and invested hundreds of millions of dollars, in the communities that he has worked in during his public service career.