Why Metropolitan Areas Need A New Kind Of Leadership

[M II A II R II K]

Mastering the Metro


5/21/12

By Bruce J. Katz

Read More: http://americancity.org/forefront/vi...ring-the-metro

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In Greater Denver, a coalition of urban and suburban mayors, private sector leaders and grassroots transit advocates helped push through financing for the country’s largest buildout of a public transit system since the Washington, D.C. Metro. In Northeast Ohio, a network of economic development organizations and local governments are helping to retool traditional economic clusters and sectors. Even in Greater Detroit, a metropolis long and deeply divided by race, new collaborations among business incubators and community colleges are working to grow (and prepare workers for) better jobs. Networks like these have been slowly rising for some time, but they have never been better suited to our current political and economic moment. The realities of economic restructuring, global competition, fiscal pressures, environmental imperatives, technological possibilities and a dysfunctional federal government require new models of collaboration within and among metropolitan regions.

- When metropolitan leaders did manage to work together, their efforts were oriented inward: How to allocate public resources fairly across a region, and how to create a level playing field between old jurisdictions and new ones. Over the last few years, the conversation has changed. Local elected officials and others are also looking outward and understanding the metropolitan role in the broader national and global economy. As Colorado Gov. (and former Denver mayor) John Hickenlooper is fond of saying, “Collaboration is the new competition.” That’s true not only because collaboration is replacing competition on important issues in many metros, but also because metros have to collaborate to compete in the global economy. Those metros that have created successful networks have certain characteristics in common. They are smart about their goals and how to measure them; confident enough to resist cookie-cutter strategies; sophisticated about their place in the global economy; clever about balancing short-term wins and long-term aspirations; and open to people representing a spectrum of groups, interests and sectors.

- When you look at global economic performance you’ll see that the top 30 metro performers today are almost exclusively located in Asia and Latin America. The 30 worst metro performers are nearly all located in Europe, the United States and earthquake-ravaged Japan. In 2009, Brazil, India and China (the BICs) accounted for about a fifth of global GDP, surpassing the U.S. for the first time. By 2015, the BIC share will grow to more than 25 percent. These nations are growing because they are urbanizing and industrializing. The locus of economic power in the world is shifting. How will communities in the United States compete — not just for rankings, but for the jobs, people and resources that make them good places to live? They have to go big or go home. Competition with the rising powers and mega cities of the world is prompting a reevaluation of the size and scale at which communities compete. In the face of Mumbai (19.2 million people), Sao Paulo (18.9 million) or Shanghai (16.7 million people), the focus on the differences between suburban municipalities of 25,000 residents seems wasteful, if not absurd. U.S. metro leaders must re-imagine the size, shape, structure and orientation of their economies.

- Metropolitan areas now have no choice but to use networks to recharge their economies and remake their places. With the federal government paralyzed by dysfunction, state legislatures becoming increasingly partisan and state coffers still battered by the recession, metropolitan areas have to innovate, whether they like it or not. No other level of government is going to ride to the rescue. While Washington dithers and delays, metros are innovating in ways that build on their distinctive competitive assets and advantages. With federal innovation funding at risk, metros like New York are making sizable commitments to attract innovative research institutions, commercialize research and grow innovative firms. With the future of federal trade policy unclear, metros like Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul are reorienting their economic development strategies toward exports, foreign direct investment and skilled immigration. Undeterred by a lack of federal energy policy, metros like Seattle and Philadelphia are cementing their niches in energy-efficient technologies. And metros like Jacksonville and Savannah are modernizing their air, rail and sea freight hubs to position themselves for an expansion in global trade.

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