As local governments around the country decide how to make the best use of the billions in fiscal recovery funds that became available when President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law, the way we practice mainstream local economic development needs a reset. We have to decisively reject the idea that once we secure growth at the top, benefits for communities will trickle down. Instead, we need to use economic development money in the service of racial, social, economic and ecological justice, with greater democratic and community ownership as the foundation for true economic transformation. Community wealth building is the emergent development paradigm for making that happen.