Solar Now Provides Twice As Many Jobs As the Coal Industry, Co.Exist
While the coal industry faces a sharp decline, solar power is growing at record levels — adding jobs at a rate 17 times faster than the overall workforce. The industry is also a more lucrative option for people without higher education. As one advocate puts it, “This is just an incredible example of the opportunities that exist for people that need these opportunities the most.”
Building Trust Cuts Violence. Cash Also Helps. The New York Times
A radical approach to gun violence has helped reduce the homicide rate by nearly 60 percent in Richmond, Calif., formerly one of the nation’s most dangerous cities. Spearheaded by DeVone Boggan, a NationSwell Council member, the program identifies those most likely to be involved in violent crimes and pays them a stipend to turn their lives around. Aside from the cash benefits, participants receive mentoring from “neighborhood change agents” who have come out of lives of crime themselves.
Iceland Knows How to Stop Teen Substance Abuse but the Rest of the World Isn’t Listening, Mosaic Science
In the last two decades, Iceland has implemented an ambitious social program that’s nearly eliminated substance abuse among teens. After research showed that young people were becoming addicted to the changes in brain chemistry brought on by drugs and alcohol, experts decided to “orchestrate a social movement around natural highs,” offering extensive after-school programs in sports, dance, music — anything that could replicate the rush of drugs. This, coupled with stricter laws and closer ties between parents and schools, led to a huge societal makeover. Proponents of the program hope to recreate it in the U.S., but funding and public opinion remain obstacles.
Continue reading “Solar Trumps Coal When It Comes to Jobs, Cash Handouts Deter Crime in California and More”
Tag: job growth
Why the Motor City’s 50-Year Plan Should Be a Blueprint for Other Urban Areas
Detroit is riddled with problems. As the struggling city climbs out of bankruptcy and rethinks a revitalization plan, community leaders and nonprofits are banding together under a 50-year plan to transform the Motor City into the thriving urban area it once was.
Detroit Future City (DFC), which found its inception in city hall, has grown into a local think tank situated downtown with 15 members devoted to putting a strategic framework into place over the next five decades. The plan was born out of the Detroit Works Long-Term Planning initiative, founded by former Mayor Dave Bing. In 2012, after two long years of community meetings and input, the initiative announced a 347-page outline and rebranded itself as DFC.
Through five planning areas including land use, economic growth, neighborhoods, city systems and building assets, the 50-year plan provides a look at how to leverage Detroit’s many assets to reboot the city. But the plan is not just focused on the long-term outlook; it also includes short-term goals to keep the city on track.
For example, DFC created a Carbon Buffering Pilot Program and enlisted the nonprofit Greening of Detroit to run it. The program is focused on planting trees on vacant land near major expressways to absorb carbon dioxide and other pollutions from cars.
While experts have lauded the plan as an “unprecedented effort,” according to Calvin Gladney, a Washington-based urban planner, it underscores a larger trend of public-private partnerships between city governments and nonprofit organizations. Instead of keeping an effort within the walls of city hall or one charity, combining efforts toward one goal brings new perspective and a better chance of success.
“The challenge is that the line of who’s a doer and who’s a thought-leader tends to blur,” Gladney says, “and you want to make sure everyone knows their role.”
MORE: Meet the CEO Who Wants to Bring 50,000 Immigrants to Detroit
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When It Comes to Jobs, These Counties Are Booming
After the recent financial meltdown, many Americans probably know what it’s like to search and wonder where all the jobs are. Recently the Bureau of Labor Statistics provided a little more insight by releasing a report that analyzed the number of employed people in each of the largest 334 counties.
Topping the Bureau’s list is Weld County in Colorado, with 1,864 jobs gained in the year. The Bureau sites major increases in construction as the reason for its success. On the other hand, St. Clair County in Illinois experienced the largest decline.
In order to be considered a “large” county, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that a county needed to have an average annual employment level of at least 75,000 people. The study was conducted December 2012 through December 2013, a period in which the country gained 2.3 million jobs nationally—a 1.8 percent increase to 136.1 million jobs.
Another thing to celebrate: the country’s 10 largest counties all experienced an increase in employed people, particularly King County in Washington, which includes Seattle, with a 3.9 percent increase.
Although these numbers provide more insight into the employment arena, the numbers are not exempt from error. For instance, a county that experienced decreased employment is not necessarily a negative. Unemployment may not be going up, but, rather, more people are retiring. Such is the case with three counties in Virginia – Fairfax, Alexandria and Arlington. For these three counties, the number of employed people dropped, but so did the unemployment rate. Similarly, an increase in employment numbers might be because of a migration of working age people, not necessarily a strict decrease in unemployment.
MORE: Ask the Experts: How Can We Solve the Young Adult Unemployment Crisis?