The Power of Place: An Analysis of Chicago's Neighborhood Opportunity Funds

To address growing inequalities, cities across the nation have turned to place-based funding strategies. In Chicago, the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (NOF) provides grants to fund startup activity of local entrepreneurs in disinvested areas. Many of the contemporary challenges of cities today reflect the neoliberal assumptions of late twentieth-century policies. These solutions claim that market-driven processes, and not state intervention, are sufficient to promote positive, socially neutral development and growth. As one of the most segregated cities in the United States, Chicago stands as an example that these neoliberal policies exacerbate inequalities and actively exclude low-income, communities of color. With widespread neoliberal urban development, this paper seeks to show why municipal governments must consider realigning efforts to better empower local communities with the substantive tools and power to address neighborhood needs by using place-based strategies as a start to addressing racial inequalities.