Entrepreneurial neighborhood initiatives: Political capital in community development

Community-based organizations are struggling to find alternative strategies to successfully leverage assistance and resources to improve their neighbo rhoods. This article offers a three-pronged formula for sustainable communi ty development based on an entrepreneurial approach to undertake neighborho od initiatives. Economic, social, and political capital are necessary ingre dients to generate independent community-based strategies that residents an d investors can manage over the long term to achieve financial and social s uccesses. Two community organization cases are compared to determine whethe r different approaches to local government for community development progra ms and funding represent different strategies and, ultimately, different le vels of success.