Cornell's ILR School will co-sponsor the conference, "The High Road Runs Through the City: Advocating for Economic Justice at the Local Level," at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Buffalo, Sept. 27-28. Environmentalist Bill McKibben, author of "The End of Nature" and "Deep Economy," will be the keynote speaker.

The conference will examine how economic development can create living wage jobs, protect the natural environment, reduce poverty and inequality, and proceed with transparency as opposed to back room bargaining, said Lou Jean Fleron, director of Cornell's Workforce Industry and Economic Development program (WEID).

"What better site for this conference than Buffalo, a city with huge, but still largely untapped, potential for revitalization," Fleron said. "It is also a city with lively, ongoing debates about living wage policies, waterfront redevelopment and the power of nonelected authorities over the local economy."

Conference partners include The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, University at Buffalo Law School and the Coalition for Economic Justice.

For more information, see http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/wied/highroadrunsthroughthecity, or call the WIED officer at (716) 852-4191.