California Opportunity Zone Partnership
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, along with other state leaders, has announced a new partnership aimed at helping small- and medium-sized California cities take full advantage of the Investment in Opportunity Act, more commonly known as the Opportunity Zone (OZ) program. Organized by Accelerator for America, partners include the State of California, Energy Foundation, and the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles. (Click here to learn more about the OZ program.)
During Phase 1 of the partnership, grants will be given to three small-to- medium-sized California cities to help them attract inclusive investments into their Opportunity Zones. In addition, experts from the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Los Angeles will provide support to the cities awarded the grants. During Phase 2, lessons-learned in these grant cities will be used to inform state policy and legislation to help cities of all sizes across the state maximize Opportunity Zone investments while avoiding the negative impacts of gentrification and displacement. Read the full news article here.
Accelerator for America, a nonprofit providing support to local initiatives associated with the OZ program, has supported several city investor prospectuses— available on their site— for cities in Oklahoma, Indiana, and Kentucky. Written by New Localism Advisors, these prospectuses offer a citywide strategy to help cities market OZs to investors, organize assts for maximum impact, and organize stakeholders around a common vision for inclusive growth. Accelerator for America also received a grant from Rockefeller Foundation in August.
