Neal Peirce

Metros to take center stage?

Washington Post Writer's Group, Mar 22, 09, Mar 23, 09.

Tagged with economy, metro regions, urban policy

Can the new White House Office of Urban Affairs live up to grand expectations?

Instead of primary focus on tired (and waning) subsidies for troubled inner cities, advocates for the new office are hoping for a radical shift to a federal partnership that focuses on entire metropolitan regions and their potential to produce innovation and restoke the American economy.

The president recognized metros during his presidential campaign, saying Washington has been “wedded to an outdated ‘urban’ agenda” mired in antipoverty policy alone–that it’s time “to stop seeing our cities as the problem and start seeing them as the solution.”

Now he’s taken action with an Executive Order creating a White House Office of Urban Policy specifically focused on entire metros, not just cities. The office’s director will be given wide powers to work across federal departmental lines to reshape programs and approaches, making the federal government an aware and responsible partner for metropolitan America.

Today’s 363 metro regions encompass broad swaths of multiple center cities, downtowns, suburbs and exurbs. The top 100 are an economic marvel: alone they account for 92 percent of air passenger boardings, two-thirds of major research universities, 75 percent of workers with graduate degrees, 78 percent of all patents.

All that activity–ideas and projects ricocheting across metro regions–are said to have multiplier effects that foster broad prosperity.

A companion argument is raised by Robert Weissbourd, who led Obama’s election and transition urban affairs task forces: the more smartly the metros invest in the untapped assets of their older neighborhoods and hard-pressed working class people, both in center cities and suburbs, the brighter the future of regions (and the nation) will be.

Weissbourd even advocates inviting civic and government leaders of individual metros to develop customized plans to connect their infrastructure, workforce, housing, transportation and business challenges, and then getting the new White House office to clear the way for positive cross-departmental federal response.

Full story: Hope for Metro Regions In New White House Office?
Source: citiwire.net

More Commentary