📅 Thursday, May 28, 2026
🕛 Time: 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM
📍 Location: University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD (Exact location details coming soon)

 

About the Day

The 3rd Annual Neighborhood Economics Lab is a space to step back, reflect, and engage with what is truly shaping our neighborhood economies.
In a moment of shifting policies, rising costs, and growing uncertainty, this gathering brings together residents, entrepreneurs, public sector leaders, philanthropy, and community partners to explore the forces that influence
how neighborhoods grow, stabilize, or struggle, especially in historically Black communities navigating persistent racial wealth gaps.

Throughout the day, participants will move between grounding conversations, practitioner-led dialogue, and interactive sessions designed to surface both challenges and possibilities. From public safety and business transitions to informal entrepreneurship and the cost of capital, the Lab focuses on the dynamics that often sit just outside traditional economic development conversations, but deeply impact everyday life. This is not a typical conference. It is a working space, designed for listening, questioning, and engaging acrossperspectives.

 

• Gain a deeper understanding of the realities shaping neighborhood economies.
• Hear from leaders and practitioners working at the intersection of these issues.
• Engage in thoughtful dialogue with others across sectors and lived experiences.
• Leave with new insights, connections, and a clearer sense of what it takes to build more resilient andequitable communities.

 

At its core, the Neighborhood Economics Lab is about creating the conditions for more honest conversations and more intentional action toward building economies that work for everyone

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Lunch & Networking
Connect with others across neighborhoods, sectors, and experiences while sharing a meal before the day’s sessions.

 

Featured Conversations

 

1:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Fireside Chat with Comptroller Brooke Lierman:
The State of the Economy—From the Ground Up

Join us for a lunch fireside chat to start the day, translating economic signals and data into what they actually mean for households, small businesses, and neighborhoods right now, and setting the stage for the conversations ahead.

 

2:45 PM – 3:30 PM
Who Owns the Block
Power, policy, and control in neighborhood spaces

 

A focused conversation on ownership, control, and decision-making at the neighborhood level. This discussion explores who holds power in shaping local places, how ownership impacts community outcomes, and what it means to build pathways that keep value rooted in neighborhoods.

The Hidden Economy: Power, Precarity, and Possibility
From solo entrepreneurs to informal businesses, much of the economy operates in plain sight but outside traditional systems. This session uncovers how these actors sustain neighborhoods, and what it means to recognize and support them more intentionally.

 

The Debt Trap: How Capital Drains Our Communities
Access to capital should build wealth, but too often, it does the opposite. This session explores how high-cost debt and misaligned financial systems impact small businesses and households, and what it would take to create capital that truly supports communities.

 

The Silver Tsunami: Who Will Own Our Neighborhood Businesses?
A generation of small business owners is preparing to step away, many without a plan. This session dives into the urgent challenge and opportunity of business transitions, and what it will take to preserve neighborhood assets, jobs, and community wealth.

 

Public Safety & Neighborhood Economies
The city has made real progress in public safety, but what comes next? This session explores how those gains translate into lasting economic opportunity, and what it takes for safer neighborhoods to become stronger, more vibrant local economies.

To view full session details, speakers, and facilitators, click here.