Rutgers Business School's CUEED showcases innovative programs capable of transforming cities

The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development hosted a symposium highlighting how innovative social ventures are effectively addressing long-standing problems for American cities, including economic disparity, unemployment and redevelopment.

The symposium, which was held at Rutgers Business School on June 10, served as a venue to showcase eight existing programs identified in a new report on urban innovation completed by the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. The center, which is known as CUEED and housing at Rutgers Business School, partnered with the Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, the New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute and the New Jersey Urban Mayors Association.

Urban innovation is defined as a break from common practices to develop long-lasting transformation in communities, neighborhoods and cities. – Professor Jeffrey Robinson.

In addition to identifying successful programs and best practices, symposium participants spent the day exploring some of the challenges of implementing innovative programs, including the ability to attract funding.  

"The challenges of urban areas are pretty consistent,” Professor Jeffrey Robinson, who is The CUEED’s co-founder and academic director, said as he opened the symposium. “We’ve been trying things for a long time, but where I see potential is where we put our innovative hats on."

Robinson said the urban innovation report looked at programs with the potential to be scaled up and replicated in other cities. “With a little more support, these innovative solutions could help us achieve equity in urban areas,” he said.

The symposium offered speakers like Clara Brenner, founder of the urban ventures accelerator Tumml, and Crystal German, vice president of Economic Inclusion in Cincinnati, a chance to explain what it takes to put innovative programs into action and the impact they can have. Cincinnati's Minority Business Accelerator was one of the programs CUEED highlighted in the report and during the symposium. Robinson described the Minority Business Accelerator as a "fascinating entity."

The report on urban innovation is an example of the CUEED’s work to combine research, public-private partnerships and government programs to help spur entrepreneurship and urban vitality. Those efforts also reflect a major emphasis of Rutgers University-Newark’s new strategic objectives.

"Every day we think about how to make cities better through economic development and entrepreneurship," CUEED’s Director Lyneir Richardson said. "Today, as we highlight models, as we discuss solutions, we’re looking for entrepreneurial opportunities."

Rutgers Business School Dean Lei Lei and Roland Anglin, an adviser to Rutgers University-Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor and director of theCornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, were on hand to welcome the participants and support CUEED’s work.

"This is an important topic and an important conference," Anglin told the audience. "The theme is central to our strategic objectives at Rutgers University Newark."

"This conference presents some of the best thinking in urban innovation," Anglin said. "We need to hear it, and we need to create it right now."

While the symposium participants shared ideas, insights and best practices, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka gave a keynote address in which he spoke about the potential of his city and the need for new approaches to solve problems in the schools and the neighborhoods.   

"We cannot change 40 years of neglect in six months,” Baraka said. “We don’t just need gentrification. We need transformation. We can make that happen in Newark."

The mayor also issued his own challenge to the group, reinforcing the risk that several speakers acknowledged about developing innovative programs.

"We don’t just need you to be smart. We need you to be courageous," he said. "We need you to do things that other people won’t do.”