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As the nation’s affordable housing crisis persists, states and localities are beginning to experiment with new kinds of public institutions to design, finance and deliver housing. The goal of these efforts is to expand the mission and focus of housing institutions from mere implementers of federal programs and purveyors of federal resources to entities that can mobilize capital, ideas and civic energy in new and powerful ways.

One of the most promising institutional trends is the creation of public asset corporations in cities such as Atlanta, Chattanooga and Cincinnati. Modeled after successes in European cities, public asset corporations are structured both to put publicly owned land and buildings in the service of housing production and preservation and to accelerate housing development via powerful financial tools and mechanisms.

Every neighborhood should have a grocery store. Not just a corner store or a dollar store, but a place to buy fresh produce, meat and pantry staples at a fair price: the same kind of baseline amenity as a library branch, a pharmacy, or a transit stop. Governments across the country are stepping up to make that goal a reality. New York City has committed $70 million to open city-backed grocery stores in all five boroughs. Atlanta opened a publicly backed grocery store downtown last fall and has a second under construction. And the idea is far older than either: for more than a century, American cities have used public assets to bring private grocers into neighborhoods the market had abandoned.

Nations today are roiled by regional disparities and the turbulent politics surrounding “places left behind.”  Andy Burnham, Britain’s new Prime Minister, owes his recent ascension in no small part to the long-standing resentment of the radical differences in regional economic performance that have persisted in England, particularly between London and Northern cities.

Something is stirring in Britain, which bears watching on this side of the Atlantic.

On June 29th, Andy Burnham — the former mayor of Greater Manchester and soon-to-be-annointed British Prime Minister — made a remarkable speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester.

The political earthquake in the UK has global reverberations. With the resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Britain is about to have a new prime minister for the 7th time in the past decade. Nothing new there! What’s remarkable is the ascension of Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, as Starmer’s successor.

To move from Metro Mayor to Prime Minister is unusual in any electoral system, but particularly in Britain, which is one of the most financially centralized nations in the developed world.

One of the most rewarding things for me is to reengage with people I’ve worked with decades back.  A few months ago, I received a welcome email from Rey Ramsey.  I first met Rey after he had assumed the presidency in 1994 of (what was then called) the Enterprise Foundation. I was then serving as Chief of Staff to Henry Cisneros, the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

It was clear to me from our initial meeting that Rey was going to be a fellow traveler in the world of housing and cities and metropolitan economies more broadly. He exhibited an affirmative energy that was truly infectious as well as a level of open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity that was greatly appreciated.

Much of the talk about artificial intelligence’s role in the built environment has, unsurprisingly, been about the massive amounts of computing power the new technology requires, and the real estate, construction, and energy that compute requires.

This article was originally published as part of the IEDC Centennial Thought Leader Series on May 26, 2026: Economic Development in a Dangerous World – International Economic Development Council

About a decade ago, Gina Raimondo, the Governor of Rhode Island, placed a call to Bill Haslam, the Governor of Tennessee. Raimondo, a Democrat, was trying to steward a small state in New England that had struggled for decades with deindustrialization and globalization. Haslam, a Republican, was trying to elevate a border state from middle of the pack performance to higher levels of innovation and relevance.

Governor Raimondo was looking to learn from and emulate Governor Haslam. Haslam had done something ambitious and remarkable that intrigued Raimondo. Building on an initiative he had piloted as mayor of Knoxville, Haslam had championed and pushed through legislation to make community college free in the state of Tennessee. Called the Tennessee Promise, the legislation had made community college free to any high school student that meet certain criteria.

Raimondo, seeking to even the playing field for Rhode Island students, liked what she heard, and within several months of the call the Rhode Island Promise emerged as the Ocean State’s adaptation of the Volunteer State’s signature effort. For both states, this investment has exceeded expectations, with measurable and meaningful impacts in both states on the numbers of residents educated, firms recruited, jobs grown and revenues generated.

These remarks were prepared for Accelerator for America’s Spring 2026 gathering in Riverside CA and partially delivered on a panel entitled “Skating to Where the Economic Puck is Going.”  The panel, expertly moderated by Accelerator’s CEO, Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, included Montgomery AL Mayor Steven Reed, Laurel Blatchford of Delivery Associates and Donald Jones of Next Street.