PLATFORM : Keep Dollars in the Community

What I would do is take advantage of a tremendous opportunity to support entrepreneurship. Take it way back to the concept of community and the concept of neighborhood.

What people need to realize is that when we talk about empowerment, what we need to do is to stop talking in generalities. People need to have some belief that their lives matter and that their communities matter. A dollar needs to turn around in that community more than once.

If the people that are disenfranchised aren’t made part of the solution, then it’s just a short-term solution to a much deeper problem.

I would slow the process down for things to be going in place. Let’s stop and do some neighborhood planning. Let’s plan what kind of businesses we want and where they should be; ask what kind of homes (the community wants)?

Let’s really take it down to the grass-roots level and take that neighborhood process as far as possible.