A MassINC– and Brookings Institution-led group of Massachusetts "gateway cities" met privately yesterday in Westborough at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. The cities involved are spoken for by Holyoke Mayor Michael Sullivan and Fall River Mayor Edward Lambert. The think tanks plan to yield a report by the end of the month, tentatively called, "Plugging In: Linking Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities to the 21st Century Knowledge Community."
Another think tank in the state, the Pioneer Institute, hosts a gathering in Boston this morning, bringing together representatives of Massachusetts weak-market "middle cities" to examine efforts to revitalize, like those in Springfield toward reform.
The upcoming report’s mention of the "knowledge community" lends itself to thinking of our region’s "knowledge corridor," which includes a longitudinal connection southward. Yet the cities talking at yesterday’s meeting are apparently all from Massachusetts: Brockton, Fall River, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, Pittsfield, Springfield and Worcester.
On November 30 last year, Bruce Katz of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program offered the keynote address (PDF) at the Benchmarking Connecticut 2006 conference hosted by the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, Inc. The topic: "Taking the urban road to Connecticut’s future." In the talk, and perhaps applicable to any northeastern city’s economic conditions, Katz said that "four new rules now drive prosperity." Those rules, edited:
Rules driving prosperity today:
Innovate. The pace and shape of economic growth is shaped by how you stimulate, support and sustain innovation.
Educate. Community prosperity and family earning power is affected by what you know.
Leverage density and affordable housing. How you grow physically (right amount of supply, strategic locations) impacts how you grow economically.
Think regionally. A changing economy demands regional cohesion and government efficiency over time, through political and market cycles.
In May last year, Katz delivered a presentation (PDF) to the Council on Foundations called "Revitalizing Weak Market Cities in the U.S.," a likely resource for all three of the city-focused think tanks to consider. It highlights Springfield as a weak market city in an economically weak MSA, in contrast to Hartford, for example, which is classified as a weak market city in an economically moderate MSA. Katz lays out a "preliminary framework for policy reform":
Policy reform for weak market cities:
Build on economic strengths: make plans, focus on new economic niches, promote entrepreneurs).
Fix the basics: improve city infrastructure, modify tax system, streamline government regulation, create marketable sites for development, improve K-12 schools, improve transparency).
Transform the physical landscape to catalyze new development: revitalize the waterfront, reinvent downtown, remove obsolte freeways.
Grow the middle class: improve access to skills training, reduce costs of being poor, help low-wage workers build income.
Create neighborhoods of choice: support mixed-income housing, grow inner-city markets, transform neighborhood schools, create neighborhoods that serve families with a broad range of incomes.
This being a presentation for foundations in particular, Katz addresses how the prospects for policy reform might bear on foundations, which are comprised of "respected civic leaders and investors," and are "uniquely situated to have a major impact on public policy discourse." From the presentation:
What can foundations do for weak market cities?
Build networks of researchers who identify trends and ask the right questions, which lays the intellectual foundation for reform.
Support organizations and campaigns that advocate for urban revitalization, which creates the institutional infrastructure for reform.
Support task forces, blue ribbon commissions, and retreats, which assists government with its own policy evaluation processes.
Bring together diverse constituencies of researchers, advocates, and others through public forums and private roundtables.
Of all these many ideas, what is the Springfield region already doing? What can it do better?
For more on that thought, check in with a panel of area mayors in part two of WGBY’s "Saving Our Cities: a State We’re In Special," focusing on cities as economic engines, airing Friday, February 9 at 7:30 pm and again Sunday, February 11 at 10:30 am.
