Who is likely to get the Promise Neighborhoods designations? Potential applicants are sorting through their competitive advantages and disadvantages. Those with histories of foundation support and backing have something of a leg up in generating matching dollars, such as the Highline School District in and around Seattle, which boasts a decade of involvement from the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections project. An impending Los Angeles County application boasts the involvement of a funders consortium including the California Endowment and the Annenberg Foundation. For the Dwight neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, long the focus of planning efforts over the years, the presence of Yale as a neighbor constitutes a level of institutional and technical credibility.

Meanwhile, there was plenty of local coverage of specific applicants, including stories, editorials, and letters from Charleston, South Carolina; Rochester, New York; St. Paul, Minnesota; Norwich, Connecticut; Athens, Georgia; Las Vegas; northeast Ohio; and a Native American community in rural Colorado.

And in the Baltimore Messenger, an article on my talk tonight, and on Ari Witkin, the 22-year-old events coordinator who is helping to make it happen:

President Barack Obama has called for the creation of “Promise Neighborhoods” nationwide, based on the HCZ Project.

The hope is that Tough’s talk and the public discussion that follows will lead to the creaton of a similar program in Baltimore, said Claudia Diamond, who chairs the social action committee at Bolton Street Synagogue. Diamond and Amy Myers, head of social outreach at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Charles Village, organized the talk with Witkin’s help.

Witkin said several nonprofit groups are applying for Promise Neighborhoods grants, including Living Classrooms, the Center for Urban Families, Towson University’s School of Education and the University of Maryland School of Social Work. And, 25 nonprofits in the area that work with children have been invited to Tough’s talk, he said.

Next Thursday, I’ll be giving a talk at the Bolton Street Synagogue in Baltimore. The topic: “The Harlem Children’s Zone: Can It Happen in Baltimore?” The event, which is free and open to the public, is being organized by the Greater Homewood Interfaith Alliance. There are more details here, and you can download a flyer here [pdf].

At noon on Thursday, before the talk, I’ll be a guest on Dan Rodrick’s “Midday” show on WYPR, the Baltimore public-radio station.

These are scarce resources and there’s tremendous interest out there. And I think this work has to continue whether schools and neighborhoods and communities get funded or not. But we want to invest in those places that have the capacity to deliver dramatically better results for children. So this is not just about a good idea, it’s not just about good will or good intentions. We want to put lots of dollars, millions and millions of dollars behind those places that have the capacity, the political will, the courage and the plan to dramatically improve student outcomes.

I’m in St. Louis for the reading tonight at Left Bank Books, at 7 p.m.