Virginia Beach, Virginia:  Standard & Poor's recently raised the City's bond rating to AA-plus --"the highest in  the city's history and second highest rating possible."  "This distinction is expected to save the city millions of dollars."  One of the reasons given by Standard & Poor's for this upgrade is the City's "thoroughly planned economic development strategy."  Thomas Point Associates completed this economic development strategy in 2000.   --The Virginian-Pilot, Thursday, May 31, 2001.

Bladensburg, Maryland: TPA is part of a consulting team recently selected to plan the redevelopment of "downtown" Bladensburg, along with HRG Associates and Paradigm Design.

Ontario County, New York:  TPA is working with Clark Patterson of Rochester, New York on an economic analysis of Ontario County.  The leading jurisdiction is Canandaigua.  This Finger Lakes region is a popular tourism center and one of the fastest-growing areas of New York State.

Frederick County, Maryland: TPA was featured in the January 2001 issue of Frederick: The Magazine for Mid-Maryland, for its work on the Frederick County economic development vision for the year 2020 and beyond.

Tom Flynn, President of TPA, serves on the Board of Directors of the newly formed International Economic Development Council (IEDC).  The  organization, formed by the unification of the Council for Urban Economic Development (CUED) and the American Economic Development Council (AEDC) is the world’s largest association of its kind, with over 5,000 members.  Tom recently participated in the IEDC International Conference in Montreal (June, 2003).  He is looking forward to the annual conference in Cincinnati in September, 2003.

Tom recently spent two weeks in Havana, Cuba on vacation studying music and dance.  If you want a full report on this trip, contact him for the summary that includes photographs. Naturally he had many observations about the economy as well as the music scene, in case you are interested in that area.