Community-Managed assets or organizations are those that are owned and controlled through some

representative Representative may refer to: Politics *Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people *House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities *Legislator, someon ...

mechanisms that allow a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

to influence their operation or use and to enjoy the benefits arising. Benefits of ownership in

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

projects such as dams and

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

are claimed to include increased responsiveness to needs of that community and the community valuing the projects more highly.

Community land buyouts

Communities can sometimes buy the land they live on and manage them through locally-run trusts. There are many examples of this in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

including Eigg, Assynt and

Ulva Ulva (; gd, Ulbha) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, off the west coast of Mull. It is separated from Mull by a narrow strait, and connected to the neighbouring island of Gometra by a bridge. Much of the island is formed from ...

Community owned enterprises

In Saranac Lake, New York, after the local

Ames Department Store Ames Department Stores Inc. was an American chain of discount stores based in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, United States. The company was founded in 1958 with a store in Southbridge, Massachusetts, and at its peak operated 700 stores in 20 states, i ...

closed due to bankruptcy and residents were forced to travel 50 miles to

Plattsburgh Plattsburgh ( moh, Tsi ietsénhtha) is a city in, and the seat of, Clinton County, New York, United States, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 19,841 at the 2020 census. The population of the surrounding ...

for staples, the town was approached by

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

which offered to build a 250,000 square foot

supercenter A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The te ...

, but it was felt by the community that Walmart would negatively impact local business and increase traffic. As an alternative a community-owned store was organized and shares were sold to community residents. $500,000 was raised by about 600 residents who made an average investment of $800. goal last spring. The store, Saranac Lake Community Store, opened in October 29, 2011 in remodeled facilities in downtown Saranac Lake. Powell, Wyoming, also has a community store established in 2002 under similar circumstances. In both instances the securities were intrastate offerings registered under less onerous state securities laws rather than

federal law Federal law is the body of law created by the federal government of a country. A federal government is formed when a group of political units, such as states or provinces join in a federation, delegating their individual sovereignty and many po ...

. Funds were raised in a similar way for an

independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, cl ...

in Brooklyn, a

coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...

in Oakland, and restaurants in

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the town of Greenburgh in the state of New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of midtown Manha ...

"Love a local business? Buy a share
Sometimes it takes a village to fund a company." by Helaine Olen on CNN Money, September 10, 2009 and Hardwick, Vermont. In Hardwick two enterprises were created, one which operates a restaurant which prepares meals using locally grown food, another which bought and equipped the location as a restaurant. The New Rules Project of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance a nonprofit corporation has worked to make financing of community owned business less onerous. H.R.2930, the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Ac

, would relax securities law requirements making it easier for a community to raise money for community owned enterprises.

Examples

WindShare The ExPlace Wind Turbine is a tall wind turbine located on the grounds of the Exhibition Place co-owned by the WindShare for-profit co-operative and Toronto Hydro. It is the first wind turbine installed in a major North American urban city centre ...

(community owned wind power co-operative) * Community wind energy *

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

* Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Notes

{{reflist

External links and further reading

*Bryden, J and Geisler, C (2007) Land Reform and Community - a ‘new wave’ land reform? ''Land Use Policy''
Community Owned Business
This article by the American Independent Business Alliance explains the distinctions between community-owned and cooperative businesses and indexes many examples of community-owned enterprises in different business sectors.
"Love a Local Business? Advise it to be careful about selling shares!"
blog post by Katovich Law Group
"Local Stock Exchanges and National Stimulus"
by Michael H. Shuman, originally published in the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Community Development Investment Review Volume 5, Issue 2, 2009

Volume 5, Issue 2, 2009, foreword by David Erickson, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Full review
*
Could “Small Is Beautiful” Replace “Too Big to Fail?”
Don Shaffer, RSF Social Finance
New move over land reform
BBC News Online, 19 August 2003 Anarchist theory Cooperatives Socialism

Community land buyouts

Community owned enterprises

Examples

See also

Notes

External links and further reading