Dynamic Decisions Podcast

Coreatá Houser directs the City of Birmingham's Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity, overseeing economic development, workforce development, real estate, and small business support across all 99 city neighborhoods. 

In this conversation, he explains why civic education, not just funding, is often the real bottleneck to inclusive growth, and breaks down how his team rebuilt Birmingham's $6.2M BOLD grant program from the ground up.

• Why Coreata's first 30 days in city government, right before COVID hit, exposed how little most residents and business owners actually understand about how city government works

• How BOLD evolved from a $6.2M fund for 66 organizations into a 12-month, technical-assistance-backed partnership model instead of a compliance program

• Why Birmingham deliberately maps funding and investment across all 99 neighborhoods instead of concentrating it downtown

• The results of Coreata's live Decision Style Persona Assessment, showing exactly how he weighs values, data, risk, and long-term strategy when allocating public dollars

This is what economic development looks like when equity is a mapped result, not a talking point.