News Americas, WASHINGTON, D.C., Sun. Aug. 25, 2013: As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for jobs and freedom, many have expressed their opinion as to the strides made since then, and how much more work Americans have to do in realizing Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream.
As we look at the current economic conditions of New York City on the eve of the 50th Anniversary of the March On Washington for Jobs and Justice on August 28th, 1963, there’s no question that much needs to be done to achieve the Freedom Budget.
There are also an estimated half million full-time, year-round workers living in poverty in the city. More than 1.6 million New York City residents are classified as living in poverty, which is more than the total population of any county in New York State outside the five boroughs. In addition, federal poverty data for New York City and the rest of the country indicated a troubling trend of growing poverty within the five boroughs, with more than 20% of New York City residents officially classified as living below the federal poverty line, up from 18.2% in 2008.
Economic Development for low income communities should include the development of an infrastructure within the communities that promotes local business development, and job creation. This Economic development strategy should promote active participation in the creation of individual and collective wealth in the community where one lives, participating in the economic revitalization of our own neighborhoods as producers, manufacturers and sellers.
Traditional approaches to economic development have not included an explicit return for residents because they were not seen as active partners, stockholders in the development process. The proposed strategy includes community members as vested partners with the public, private and not for profit sectors in the process of building a strong, healthy community in which they can live and prosper.
According to attorney Robert K. Ranun “ We all want to improve the communities we live in, particularly if we have the opportunity to benefit financially by doing so.”At a time when funding from local, state, and federal governments is spread thin and credit is increasingly harder to come by, crowdfunding has demonstrated that collective and collaborative efforts of individuals can fuel significant change within America’s communities.
Crowdfunding, or raising money through small contributions from a large number of investors, allows smaller enterprises to have access to the capital they need to get new businesses off the ground. However, state securities registration can be prohibitively expensive for the small offerings that crowdfunding facilitates, and the use of crowdfunding for business financing is unnecessarily restricted by state securities laws.
That is the reason I wrote the members of the New York Senate and Assembly to join legislators from Kansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin by sponsoring the New York Jump-Start Our Business Start-ups (NY JOBS) Act to help local small businesses raise capital through Equity crowdfunding!
Crowdfunding Investment is similar to other crowdfunding initiatives, like Kickstarter, but rather than just raising money, equity crowdfunding would give investors shares in the small businesses they invest in. Crowdfunding may be an alternative source of financing to achieve public goals, including more jobs and stronger communities.
José Francisco Ávila is president of the New Horizon Investment Club, which was founded on May 21st, 2000 with the objective of pooling their financial resources to learn how to invest in the stock market and subsequently become active participants in the economic development of their New York City neighborhoods. He may be reached jo*********@ya***.com
