By Manuel Hall, Community Division Organizer, Common Good Bank

Fall 2009 – Think of common good banks as being like your local cooperative grocery store or worker owned business. They will be integrated into the social and economic fabric of communities whose members lay the groundwork to have their own bank divisions. Thirty community division organizers including myself are working right now in towns and cities in thirteen states across the US to create the infrastructure, gain the support and build partnerships for common good bank divisions. read more

By Mel Gravely, Ph.D., Managing Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking

Winter 2007 – The minority business development industry has been talking for years about going to the next level. There is no real definition or clear explanation nor a burning motivation about the next level. The industry really does not know what the next level is except it has everything we are not doing right now. Well at least the motivation is becoming clear. The landscape for minority business is shifting and shifting rapidly. read more

By Dave Nielsen, CEO, Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland

Winter 2007 – Locally, the gap between minority homeownership rates and the white ownership rate is as bad or worse. According to the most recent figures from the HUD Oregon office, the overall ownership rate in Portland is 56 percent. The African American homeownership rate in Portland trails the white rate 38 percent to 59 percent. The Hispanic rate is even worse: 30 percent. The only minority group that is close to the white ownership rate in Portland is Asian/Pacific Islanders at 55 percent. read more