Robert Lang & Lawrence Levy

Suburbs are key part of Metros

Co-Director, the Metropolitan Institute, Virginia Tech / Executive Director, National Center for Suburban Studies, Hofstra, Mar 31, 09.

Tagged with transportation, cities, planning, suburbs, metro regions, urban policy

American suburbs are increasingly diverse places and the economic engines that drive metropolitan areas, which are the key to the nation’s prosperity. Suburban voters provide the decisive margins in congressional and presidential elections, including for Obama, who won big in the formerly Republican-leaning suburbs outside Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit, Orlando and Washington, DC. And suburban lawmakers, like their constituents, will be the “swing vote” in shaping his national agenda. If he cannot sell it just beyond the city lines, then he cannot sell it, period.

But we should not view the suburbs in political opposition but as part of a larger metropolitan area. That means treating cities and suburbs as seamless, synergistic wholes. As the Brookings Institution has documented in its Blueprint for American Prosperity, focusing more federal resources on metro regions and their considerable assets is essential to the nation’s ability to compete in a global economy.

That is why Obama should ensure that his urban advisors adopt a broader metro focus by creating an advisory council that includes suburban members as partners.

Full story: Message to President Obama: Do Not Forget the Suburbs
Source: Citiwire.net, March 22, 2009

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