A Community Return on Investment (CROI) concept for Atlanta's lower-income communities
"This is a Black Stream of Thought"
Vol: 3b, March 2022
Atlanta Proud
A Different Approach to an Environment of Value Absence:
Atlanta Proud is a personal, business, and community improvement idea based upon the outcomes of Monopoly. The idea to create an opportunity for Black persons left from the road to personal enrichment and family wealth through the wealth-building tools of real estate and intergenerational transfer and savings. A community investment strategy acknowledges the current economic situation within our Black neighborhood communities. It offers a design to build upon it. Atlanta Proud is built upon a Community Return on Investment (ROI) thinking. It is also a way for businesses to pay our city an economic rent for their Proud in being here. And finally, because lower-income persons have little investment resources, they have less opportunity to gain any ROI, let alone a Community ROI! It also recognizes a value for all our community assets!
Summary:
In Monopoly, all persons start with $1,500 and can succeed. If successful, they can buy other properties, appreciate their property, purchase utilities or railroads, pay rents, and contribute through philanthropy. At the starting point of their lives, some people have zero dollars or not much more to begin their life journey in our communities. Given this circumstance, they have almost no opportunity to own property, even Baltic Place, let alone Broadway! Additionally, they begin their life pursuits with a lesser education and practically no legacy of any type to pass on. They are also attacked by the person desirous of buying up their communities, upgrading the property, and causing dislocation. They may still reside as renters but receive no benefit from any current upgrades; usually, they must leave the property. As in Monopoly, you almost immediately will fail without an investment state!
Atlanta Proud provides a road to wealth growth no matter the initial income. And combats income to no longer inhibit the path to wealth enhancement. As in Monopoly, when they own a Baltic place, they can grow from their appreciation of that property, such as property improvement and neighborhood improvement, all of which underpin a community return on investment (CROI). CROI is an opportunity not presently evident to a person of lower-income.
This is a programmatic idea for Atlanta businesses, large, small, and all ethnicities, to create an investment in Atlanta fund designed to support and build a community asset return for the city as the Lodestar of cities in America. Our businesses provide a funding method that enables persons in Atlanta's lower-income communities to own homes, repair homes, and seed the first subscriptions to their wealth generation.
Premise: To mollify the financial marginalization within Black neighborhood communities
To provide a mechanism through which persons and businesses located within our lower-income communities can begin to improve their environment and make their communities more valuable over time. This effort addresses the need to let people be on the economic trail and utilize that factor to help them move upward. Also, to use the potential appreciation of real estate to encourage further personal, siblings, and ultimately intergenerational transfer. There are three steps to 1) increasing personal wealth, 2) decreasing the wealth gap between whites and blacks, and 3) demonstrating a communal approach to demonstrating Atlanta's ability to support all its citizens through a return-on-investment strategy. A strategy that brings overall return caused by the asset appreciation will benefit all citizenry over time provided by property ownership and business.
Atlanta Proud takes persons where they are! In much of our lower-income communities, the persons there have less education, lower wages, fewer savings, and almost no property, but they have value. The basic idea is to create a method to take this undervalued community where they are and develop a strategy to build upon the current base rather than outside aspirations. Atlanta Proud provides our communities a path to a place where Black people can Live, Work, Play, Educate, Worship, and Shop while enjoying the other fruits of their lives and bringing about the lifestyles of the past and the current suburbs.
Why:
We want to involve the lower-income communities and persons in an opportunity to increase in value any property and personages they possess. Suppose we can give these communities a tool that permits persons who rent to buy homes and businesses to be established that employ, pay taxes, increase opportunities to create wealth, and stabilize their community for regeneration over time. We encourage them to begin on a path of wealth creation, with the foundation being real property. This idea would curb the push toward gentrification within these communities and create a way for those whose income in the current time does not permit them to own anything but cause them to rent.
Atlanta finds itself a co-conspirator in exploiting lower-income communities by agreeing to various self-serving designs to revitalize through profit schemes. The lower-income suffers against the practices of many, including middle class and aspiring Blacks who contribute to these persons and communities' continued status. These communities are imprisoned by their impoverishment and by an embodiment of a lack of perceived value consistent with the way businesses and people evaluate whether to reside in the area thus ignored until seen to benefit from being an Atlanta resident—such as the Olympics or Superbowl, or significant convention.
We are defining the lack of investment in the reputation of Atlanta and the benefit to be gained by actively and formerly investing in this reputation to be gained by the corporate community, Black businesses, and lower-income communities
How by Mollifying Financial Marginalization:
Create an investment strategy borne on Atlanta's reputation as always creating a way to overcome civic problems---"The Atlanta Way." Atlanta Proud, an update of "The Atlanta Way," would start an opportunity for the black and white business community to lead in a strategy to revitalize and grow all Atlanta neighborhoods. A unique mutual design would make Atlanta a national leader in community redevelopment.
The overall benefit to the entire City of Atlanta is to position our city as demonstrating concern for ALL its citizens and a desire to ensure any Atlanta community's marketability. It would place Atlanta in a competitive position to continue to attract people and enterprises to our area.
Atlanta Proud would allow our businesses to show their Proud in Atlanta by providing a source of funds that will enable persons and businesses located in lower-income communities to begin a path to wealth creation built upon where they are. It is an investment in why people can identify there over other places and decide to grow their businesses in Atlanta with a desire for their investment to cause the location to grow and develop. For this to happen, we must ensure that all of Atlanta is worthy of investments and the expectations of a personal return offered to the lower-income, middle, and upper-income economic individuals.
The investors are investing in the growth and betterment of Atlanta. They make investments that stimulate an increase in the value of their people and places.
What is an Atlanta Proud Investment?
Atlanta businesses would contribute to a central fund designed to underwrite the effort. It would include large and small firms, Black and white, in some stratified formula form of cash investment. Businesses large and small would be offered an opportunity to invest in Atlanta! There would be no actual cash return on this investment but betterment and vision of our city by our businesses and resident and America's balance. The city would gain an ROI through a better overall environmental market for products and people and enhanced real estate appreciation. Outside investors in any local Atlanta community would be required to offer a plan that reinvests local resources (people and property) in the location before any extractions.
Keys: (To be flushed out)
Persons currently earning minimum wage and poverty standard wages would be offered to own their homes or business. Communities would encourage persons to remain in their communities and create economic activities that benefit and city. As owners, they would be responsible for the upkeep and improvement of their properties. This upkeep and improvement would enhance the value of the community. The effort should also incorporate all property owners, absentee and local, in some fashion.
Conclusion:
This is but one idea behind the concept of Atlanta Proud! We can further flush out this model to accomplish other local neighborhood needs. The point of this treatise is to suggest that the Atlanta business community, Black and white, must come together to ensure the region's future. We can no longer afford to discount the Black business community favors the majority business community. We can no longer offer the Black community sacrifice to the corporate community's benefit without requiring them to reinvest in the city! We cannot allow the Black business community to escape responsibility to the city for their successes. We must begin to demonstrate the necessity of the entire business community to come together to make Atlanta an even better place.
The Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce would partner with similar Black business organizations such as the Atlanta Businesses League to headline and stimulate the investments into the program and create a management council to oversee its direction.
Atlanta Proud should be adopted as a philosophy. Just as during the Jackson through Franklin administrations, businesses wishing to benefit from other local resources understood we had a unique way of doing business in Atlanta through defined partnerships with Black companies. It used to be a joint venture that put Atlanta on the map! Atlanta Proud offers a new way to describe the "Atlanta Way."
Finally, with Atlanta Proud:
We are talking about OUR MONEY supporting all of Atlanta as A MARKET!!
These are Our BUSINESSES, RESIDENTS, CONSUMERS, and INSTITUTIONS!!
This is NOT A Set-Aside or Privileged Market or gifting effort!!
This is NOT A SOCIAL PROGRAM or ENTITLEMENT!!
There We DON'T NEED PERMISSION!!
Why Because We are Using our ASSETS to Help the Black and the Entire Community!!
We expect to position Atlanta for a Return on Our Investment in Atlanta!!
And, We will be Stepping up to the Table to PAY OUR SHARE of the ECONOMIC RENT in Atlanta in a NEW WAY!!
However, if YOU take this on, IT will not be EASY nor INSTANT!
An Affirmation Atlanta's Black Community is Historic, Resilient, Resourceful