ARIZONA
South Phoenix
Heat-ready homes and local capacity
South Phoenix already sits inside City repair, weatherization, contractor, utility and heat-response systems. The opportunity is to connect high-risk households with permanent cooling, electrical, roof, insulation and related improvements faster - while recurring work builds locally retained contractor and resident capacity.
Tucson / Pima County
Home repair throughput and local capacity
Tucson and Pima County already operate repair and weatherization programs and are entering a period of larger housing investment, while long waits and a large stock of older homes show a major production gap. The opportunity is to determine what actually limits completed repair production before new capital enters the same bottlenecks.
ILLINOIS
Decatur
Industrial investment to local capacity
Decatur already has major industrial investment, manufacturing demand, workforce systems, contractor development, clean-energy production and logistics infrastructure. The opportunity is to identify where that activity can leave durable productive capacity with residents and locally based firms without interfering with the production creating the demand.
East St. Louis
Community energy to local capacity
East St. Louis already has a live community-solar project, an ownership-transfer concept, paid subscriber outreach, a Clean Jobs Workforce Hub, utility solar and battery infrastructure, and a City energy-planning process. The opportunity is to make sure the current transition leaves residents, firms and the City with usable operating and ownership capacity as well as new infrastructure.
INDIANA
Gary
Land, housing and neighborhood rebuild capacity
Gary already has demolition, publicly controlled land, housing production, homebuyer tools, paid work-based learning and active neighborhood reinvestment. The opportunity is to determine where the path from cleared or repair-needing property to completed housing still breaks - and whether each project can leave stronger resident and locally rooted business capacity behind.
Indianapolis
Repair to weatherization
Indianapolis already has weatherization, public and nonprofit repair resources, emergency repair capacity and contractors performing housing work. The opportunity is to connect those pieces when roofs, electrical conditions, mold or other health-and-safety repairs stop an otherwise eligible home from reaching energy improvements.
KANSAS
Quindaro Boulevard / Northeast Kansas City
Food, local ownership and neighborhood capacity
Northeast Grocers and Groundwork NRG already provide a community-led food-system and local-ownership anchor on Quindaro Boulevard, alongside Green workforce and neighborhood capacity. The opportunity is to connect food recovery, kitchens, transportation, workforce and purchasing around one practical test that reduces waste, improves food access and leaves more value locally.
Liberal
Advanced-energy manufacturing to local capacity
Liberal has attracted new advanced-energy manufacturing and already has business-development, technical-education, workforce, housing, transportation and local-finance systems. The opportunity is to connect actual manufacturer purchasing to local firms and workers before supplier relationships become fixed elsewhere.
Wichita
Capital spending to durable local productive capacity
Wichita already has unusually large public and institutional spending plus procurement access, finance, apprenticeship, technical education and shared productive infrastructure. The opportunity is to test what happens after first access: whether firms and workers progress into repeat contracts, productive assets, operating knowledge and greater economic agency.
MARYLAND
Baltimore
Vacant property to local capacity
Baltimore is already committing major public, philanthropic and private resources to return vacant properties to productive use, while local hiring, small-business, finance, workforce and homeownership systems are already in place. The opportunity is to follow actual properties and determine where redevelopment spending stops becoming durable resident, business and ownership capacity.
Prince George's County
Homeownership preservation
Prince George's County already finances home repair, accessibility, energy improvements and homeownership and has strengthened local procurement preferences. The opportunity is to connect these systems into a practical homeowner-preservation pathway while recurring project spending expands capable local firms.
NEW YORK
Buffalo
Property preservation and productive capacity
Buffalo is prioritizing stabilization before demolition, moving infill projects, seeking rehabilitation contractors and using land-bank and State tools to return property to use. The opportunity is to determine whether preservation and homeownership work lets capable residents, contractors and smaller developers build lasting productive value as properties are restored.
Syracuse / Central New York
Growth to participation to retained capacity
Micron and regional growth are creating long-duration demand while Central New York expands housing, childcare, transportation, workforce and small-business infrastructure. The opportunity is to connect residents and locally rooted firms to real recurring demand from the capabilities they already possess rather than routing everyone through generic preparation.
OHIO
Toledo
Healthy homes to local productive capacity
Toledo already has funded lead and Healthy Homes work, repair and weatherization systems, recurring lead-safe compliance demand, workforce training, licensed contractors and business-finance tools. The opportunity is to connect those pieces around actual homes so safer and more efficient housing also builds durable worker and business capacity.
Youngstown
Repair to weatherization and local capacity
Youngstown has extensive older housing plus City, nonprofit, County and community-action repair, lead, Healthy Homes, weatherization and rehabilitation systems. The opportunity is to connect those systems when prerequisite repairs stop a home from reaching weatherization or health-and-safety improvements.
OKLAHOMA
Tulsa
Resident priorities to local productive capacity
Tulsa already has an active resident-led economic forum and Assembly through FREE, a participatory-budgeting experiment, small-business and lending infrastructure, procurement pathways, public capital and Greenwood-focused institutions. The opportunity is not to create another organization; it is to connect a locally selected priority to real funded demand, paid work and durable productive value.
Muskogee
Industrial and digital growth to local capacity
Muskogee is receiving hyperscale data-center development, expansion of high-density computing and reinvestment by established manufacturers while local training, procurement, business-support and industrial infrastructure already exist. The opportunity is to identify which recurring functions can become durable Muskogee business, worker and community capacity.
TENNESSEE
Memphis
Green housing repair to weatherization
Memphis already has repair, weatherization, utility efficiency, contractor training and housing systems, and it has documented that repair conditions can block homes from efficiency work. The opportunity is to identify the current bottleneck so existing housing spending moves more homes through the full pathway while building stronger local operating capacity.
Nashville
Affordable housing capacity to production
Nashville already has housing plans, training, technical assistance, project demand and multiple financing tools, including newer mechanisms aimed at emerging developers and contractors. The opportunity is to determine whether those pieces now form a functioning progression from preparation and capital to first and repeat housing production.
TEXAS
San Antonio
Unlocking weatherization through home repair
San Antonio already knows a major failure point: CPS Energy says roughly 30% of homes seeking Casa Verde weatherization are disqualified because repairs must happen first. The City, CPS Energy and local contractors already operate much of the repair and weatherization system; the opportunity is to make it continuous.
Fort Worth / Tarrant County
Home repair backlog to local contractor capacity
Fort Worth already has long waits for critical repair and weatherization, annual utility funding constraints, neighborhood investment, small-business procurement policy and training capacity. The opportunity is to convert visible household demand into a predictable pipeline of paid work that expands delivery capacity without creating another stand-alone program.
ABOUT THE APPLIED WORK
These public briefs are the public edge of deeper place-based economic analysis. Geoff Barrett is a Place-Based Community & Economic Development Strategist. The professional work applies the same method to a specific place, institution, or economic problem: determine what the local economy can already do with the people, resources, institutions, spending, assets, and opportunities present; identify the missing or disconnected function; determine who can carry that function temporarily; and turn the resulting connection into an executable path toward paid work, productive capacity, enterprise, ownership where appropriate, and value that remains locally.
For professional or institutional inquiries: connect@sevenyearsofchange.org