Brookings: Experts - Bruce Katz

The Metropolitan Revolution : How Cities and Metros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy

Jennifer Bradley and Bruce Katz — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Brookings Institution Press 2013 300pp.

Synopsis:

A revolution is stirring in America. Across the nation cities and metropolitan areas, and the networks of pragmatic leaders who govern them, are taking on the big issues that Washington won’t, or can’t, solve. They are reshaping our economy and fixing our broken political system.

The Metropolitan Revolution is a national movement, and the book describes how it is taking root in New York City, where efforts are under way to diversify the city’s vast economy; in Portland, Oregon, which is selling the “sustainability” solutions it has perfected to other cities around the world; in Northeast Ohio, where groups are using industrial-age skills to invent new twenty-first-century materials, tools, and processes; in Houston, where a modern settlement house helps immigrants climb the employment ladder; in Miami, where innovators are forging strong ties with Brazil and other nations; in Denver and Los Angeles, where leaders are breaking political barriers and building world-class metropolises; and in Boston and Detroit, where innovation districts are hatching ideas to power these economies for the next century.

Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley highlight these success stories and the people behind them in order to share lessons and catalyze action. This revolution is happening, and every community in the country can benefit.

The Tour:

The Metropolitan Revolution is going on the road. Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley will appear with metropolitan leaders across the country to discuss the book and local innovations underway in each place. The tour will include stops in Berkeley, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Washington, DC and more.

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Praise for The Metropolitan Revolution:

“The Metropolitan Revolution upends conventional wisdom and makes the case for how our cities and metros are leading American change and progress: they are transforming our national economy, political conversation, and collective destiny from the bottom up like never before. A must-read for anyone working toward a brighter future for our cities and our nation.”
—Mayor Cory Booker

“The Metropolitan Revolution builds on twenty years of studying metropolitan areas and hundreds of thousands of miles traveling to them around the globe, and the result is an exciting guide to the new world economy - urban, networked, innovative, collaborative, and driven by human potential.”
—Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Henry G. Cisneros

“Being mayor of Chicago is the best job I’ve ever had in public life. Katz and Bradley totally get it: the real power to change America lies in our cities and metros.”
—Mayor Rahm Emanuel

“With paralysis in Washington, public policy solutions will come from successful metropolitan regions, the clinical trials of our future. We are well into this journey, but never has it been explained with such insight and analysis until The Metropolitan Revolution.”
—Governor Jon Huntsman

“Just when ‘by the people, for the people’ seems like an anachronism, cities are giving it new meaning, fueled by twenty-first century technology. Every citizen needs to understand the metropolitan revolution. If we change cities, we change the country.”
—Jennifer Pahlka, Founder and Executive Director, Code for America

“This book captures the energy and excitement bubbling up in cities across America. This is ‘do it yourself’ urbanism of the highest order, and it is altering our landscape and our country.”
—Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner, New York City Department of Transportation

“Through real-world examples, The Metropolitan Revolution brings to life how America's cities and suburbs drive innovation to solve problems and seize opportunities. This book is a call to action beyond Washington, where metro leaders join together and simply get stuff done.”
—Mayor Scott Smith

“The Metropolitan Revolution is compelling reading on how our federal system is a powerful advantage in global competitiveness. This book is indispensable for business and elected leaders on realizing the economic potential of metropolitan areas for their citizens and the country.”
—Treasury Secretary, Robert E. Rubin

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jennifer Bradley

Bruce Katz

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After the Crisis: The Metropolitan Revolution

Bruce Katz — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Editor's Note: Bruce Katz delivered the following speech before the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency Spatial Planning Conference on May 21, 2013.

Thank you Maarten for that introduction and for the invitation to speak at this conference. I think the topic of this gathering could not be more timely or relevant.

We are living in a disruptive period which is fundamentally altering the form and function of cities and metropolitan areas. Large, sweeping forces—new market dynamics, fiscal constraints, energy transitions, demographic tumult, technological advances, and climate change—are compelling nations and communities to reshape their economies and remake their places in the service of broader productive, innovative and sustainable goals.

In the United States in addition, something equally profound is happening: the roles and responsibilities of different levels of government, and the private and civic sectors as well, are being irreparably resorted.

I call this The Metropolitan Revolution, the title of a book which is conveniently coming out on June 17.

The thesis is simple and straightforward.

In the aftermath of the Great Recession, U.S. cities and metros are recognizing that with our federal government mired in partisan gridlock and most states adrift, they are essentially on their own to grapple with super-sized economic, social and environmental challenges. The cavalry is not coming. Washington is not riding to the rescue.

Fortunately, cities and metros—and the networks of leaders who govern them—mayors for sure but also business, civic, community, business, labor and environmental leaders—are responding with pragmatism, energy and ambition to, as we say in America, “get stuff done.”

These leaders are stepping up and doing the hard work to grow jobs and restructure the economy for the long haul. Lacking any choice, they are innovating on the big stuff: policies and practices that drive the wealth-generating, trade-able sectors of the economy. And they are doing this in a way that leverages their distinct assets and advantages in the global economy.

In Denver and Los Angeles, they are investing in transformative infrastructure, like state of the art transit to ensure mobility and the expansion ports and airports and broadband to enhance connectivity.

In Cleveland and Youngstown, they are making manufacturing a priority again and creating tight ecosystems of firms, business associations, labor, universities, and new intermediaries.

In Portland and Minneapolis St Paul, they are devising export plans, connecting small businesses to global markets and forging strong relationships with trading partners in mature and rising economies alike.

In Houston and Chicago, they are integrating immigrants and giving workers the skills they need.

In Detroit and Cambridge, they are creating vibrant innovation districts around anchor institutions like universities and medical campuses.

And in New York City, economic development has fundamentally shifted from subsidizing sports stadia to attracting world-class technology universities to provide a platform for generations of growth.

America is remaking itself from the bottom up.

This is a revolution fundamentally in tune with the zeitgeist of an Urban Age and Metropolitan Century: crowd sourced rather than close sourced, entrepreneurial rather than bureaucratic, networked rather than hierarchical.

This is a revolution totally aligned with the harsh reality that as national governments become overwhelmed by support for our aging population, cities and metropolitan areas need to step up and step in to compensate for big economy shaping and place making investments—infrastructure, innovation, education.

I look forward to discussing today the extent to which the American experience speaks to the Dutch and European experience.

But first things first: let me start by discussing some of the disruptive dynamics that are driving fundamental change in the United States to provide context for our shared challenges and opportunities.

And that means starting with the economy.

In the wake of the Great Recession, the U.S. needs to create more jobs—more than 10 million by one estimate—to recover those lost during the downturn and to keep pace with population growth and labor market dynamics.

Beyond pure job growth, we need better jobs to grow wages and incomes for lower and middle class workers and reverse the troubling decades-long rise in inequality. In 2000, 81 million Americans were either poor or near poor; by 2010 that number had growth to 107 million people.

Finally, beyond more and better jobs we need accessible jobs. We have 60 years of sprawl, distended metropolitan development, to counteract. A typical metropolitan resident, however, can access only 30 percent of the jobs in their metropolitan area via transit in 90 minutes.

There is no easy fix to achieve these goals.

But two things are clear:

We need to purposefully restructure our economy from one focused inward and characterized by excessive consumption and debt to one globally engaged and driven by production and innovation; and
We need to unleash the places—our cities and metropolitan areas—that are the engines of our economies, the centers of trade and investment and are the vanguard of population growth and demographic change.

At the heart lies the restructuring of the U.S. economy. A new growth model and economic vision is emerging from the rubble of the recession, a next economy where we export more and waste less, innovate in what matters, produce and deploy more of what we invent and build an economy that actually works for working families. In other words, we are moving towards a “next economy” that is fueled by innovation, powered by low carbon, driven by exports, rich with opportunity, and led by America’s largest metropolitan areas.

Let’s unpack that a little so we both understand the broader growth model and the special moment we find ourselves in.

Why innovation? Because resilient growth is spurred through the virtuous interplay of invention, commercialization, manufacturing, and skilled workers.

Over the past two decades, the discussion of innovation in the U.S. narrowed, positioning it as something only conducted in the ivory tower or among exceptional entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs. We forgot something early generations intuitively understood: the inextricable link and virtuous cycle between innovation and manufacturing.

While only about 9 percent of all U.S. jobs are in manufacturing, about 35 percent of all engineers work in manufacturing.

Although the manufacturing sector comprises only 11 percent of GDP, manufacturers account for 68 percent of the spending on R&D that is performed by companies in the United States and are responsible for 90 percent of all patents in the United States.

Going forward, we will innovate less if we do not produce more. We must make things again. And we must do so in a way that connects and leverages the innovation ecosystems—not just firms but also the supportive research and skilling institutions.

Why low carbon? Because we have the potential to ignite a global green revolution, as powerful in scale as the technological revolution underway since the inception of the Internet.

This is not a shift to a green economy, but a greening of the broader economy which will change everything: the energy we use, the infrastructure we build, the products we buy, even the homes we live and the office and retail buildings we frequent.

It is already happening—both with the growth of renewable energy and with the innovative exploration of shale gas and other lower carbon fuels.

Why exports? Because we have crossed an economic Rubicon. Brazil, India, China—the BICs— are expected to account for about one fifth of the global gross domestic product in 2010, surpassing the United States for the first time. This will grow to more than 25 percent by 2015.

Growth in the BICs—and in their bursting cities and rapidly expanding middle class—means new fertile markets for Western goods and services, particularly sustainable products and services. So let’s visualize an economy where more firms in more sectors trade more goods and services seamlessly with the world. As a great trading nation, the Netherlands understands this imperative more than just about any country in the world.

Why opportunity rich? Because the next economy offers the best chance to grow jobs that pay decent wages and provide decent benefits. The prior economy drove income inequities in this nation; the next economy must drive economic inclusion, social mobility and social cohesion.

This is a macro model. But it comes to ground in the major cities and metropolitan areas that shape, determine and deliver the economy.

The real heart of the American economy lies in 100 metropolitan areas that after decades of growth take up only 12 percent of our land mass, but harbor two-thirds of our population, generate 75 percent of our gross domestic product and, on every single indicator that matters—innovation, human capital, infrastructure—punch above their weight at dizzying levels.

This is the power of concentration and agglomeration: the network effect of firms, universities, institutions fertilizing ideas, sharing workers, extending innovation, enhancing competitiveness and catalyzing growth.

This is the synergy between the enterprise and the ecosystem.

Bottom line: there is no national American economy or American society. Rather, the U.S. economy and society is a network of powerful metropolitan economies and metropolitan communities.

And these places, empowered by their economic strength and demographic dynamism, are positioning themselves at the cutting edge of reform, investment, and innovation.

In theory, a restructuring of the economy as profound as the one I have described would be led by national governments. They would set the platform for a new kind of growth through smart investments, smart rules and smart signals.

That is not happening in my country. Washington, for all intents and purposes, has left the building. So it is up to metros to not only be the engines of the economy but to be the vanguard of change.

Fortunately, they are stepping up.

Signs of the revolution can be witnessed all across our country. It can be found in grand, economy shaping gestures: an Applied Sciences District in NYC, an Infrastructure Trust in Chicago, large scale transit investments in Denver and Los Angeles, modernization of port and freight infrastructure in Miami and Jacksonville and Dallas.

But it can also be discovered in smart structural interventions: an intermediary in North East Ohio that helps manufacturing firms retool their factories for new demand; a Regional Export Council in Los Angeles that helps small businesses access global markets; and a network of Neighborhood Centers in Houston that gives new immigrants access to low cost banking, education, child care and health care.

Second point: The Metro Revolution has profound implications for the topic of this conference, spatial planning and the built environment.

Growing an innovation economy requires not only the generation of cutting edge ideas at advanced universities and research labs and companies but the creation of large scale, wired innovation districts that combine these institutions and their workers in close proximity and the mixed use facilities and mixed income housing that make up quality communities.

Growing a low carbon economy requires not only the invention of new technologies but the construction of renewable energy facilities, the infrastructure to store and transport such energy and service new sustainable products like electric vehicles and the construction and retrofit of buildings to radically reduce energy use.

Growing an export economy requires that metros not only help their small and medium size firms trade more abroad but also that they build and retool the next generation of advanced production facilities and the underlying infrastructure to move people, goods and ideas quickly and efficiently and sustainably by air, rail, sea and land.

Growing an opportunity economy requires metros not only to upgrade workers skills and education but to develop in spatially efficient ways—less low-density sprawl, more high-density nodes—so that workers can live closer to work and actually get to work in reasonable time via multiple modes.

Restructuring the economy requires us in essence to remake the form of cities and metros—for a productive rather than a consumption economy, for a sustainable rather than wasteful society.

I would like to focus on one emerging trend that I think has enormous resonance for the Netherlands: the rise of “innovation districts” in the cores of our cities and metropolitan areas.

Innovation Districts cluster and connect leading edge anchor institutions and cutting edge companies with smaller entrepreneurial firms, mixed-use housing, office and retail and 21^st century amenities and transport.

This is a seismic shift in how we build our major cities and metros both in the United States and abroad.

In the 19^th century and early 20^th century—in Manchester, in Torino, in the Ruhr Valley, in our Industrial Midwest—we built industrial districts, characterized by a high concentration of industrial enterprises commonly engaging in similar or complimentary work.

In the mid and late 20^th century—in Raleigh-Durham, in Silicon Valley, in suburban Washington, Boston, and Seattle—we built science and research parks and corporate campuses. Spatially isolated, accessible only by car, these parks put little emphasis on the quality of place or on integrating work, housing and recreation.

Something else is afoot today.

The downtowns and midtowns of cities like Cambridge and Detroit, Houston and Atlanta are seeing a growth in startups as well as residential and commercial growth around

the existing base of advanced research universities, medical complexes, research institutions and clusters of tech and creative firms.

Older industrial underutilized areas in Boston and Seattle are being re-imagined and remade, leveraging their enviable location near waterfronts and downtowns and along transit lines.

And even traditional exurban science parks like Research Triangle Park in Raleigh-Durham are scrambling to urbanize to keep pace with the preference of their workers for walkable communities and the preference of their firms to be near other firms and collaborative opportunities.

What’s happening?

Innovation districts reflect a new vision of where innovative firms want to locate, creative and talented workers want to live and work and how ideas happen. They respect the growing penchant for companies in leading edge sectors to practice “open innovation” and collaborate with networks of firms, universities and supporting institutions. They provide the physical and social platform for entrepreneurial growth—incubator space, collaborative venues, social networking, product competitions, technical support and mentoring. They are both competitive places (respecting the dramatic impact that innovative, traded sectors have on broader metropolitan economies) and “cool” spaces (reflecting the growing preference of young workers for livability, walkability and authenticity in neighborhood design).

This is a virtuous cycle of worker preference and firm demand. Young talented individuals and firms in a growing number of sectors are simultaneously, for distinct but reinforcing reasons, embracing those very attributes of urbanism—what Saskia Sassen calls “cityness”—that were denigrated and often destroyed in the 20th century.[1] Complexity. Density. Diversity of people and cultures. The convergence of the physical environment at multiple scales. The messy intersection of activities. A variance of distinctive designs. The layering of the old and the new. An integration rather than segregation of uses and activities. If this trend continues and deepens, we could be on the verge of a profound, structural shift in the physical landscape of work and living.

The early rise of Innovation Districts in the U.S. reflects not only a paradigmatic shift in development patterns but the manner in which they are delivered. In some cases, one entity is driving redevelopment: the local government, a real estate developer, the manager of the research park. There is a guiding hand, perhaps even a master plan. In other cases like Detroit, a passionate network of visionary and stubborn CEOs of companies, universities, hospitals, philanthropies and non-profit organizations is catalyzing the market. This is organic place-making as jigsaw puzzle, assembled through the simultaneous and iterative actions of dozens of players. In all cases, however, what is clear is that Innovation Districts are being driven from the ground up primarily through the actions of local actors. There is no federal or state program stamping out innovation districts across the country or multi-national corporations doing the same. Rather the federal and state governments are followers, serving rather than setting the vision of renewal.

So, questions for our discussion:

Where are Holland’s innovation zones?

How are they being created, nurtured, leveraged?

Can they be centers not just of sustainable growth, urban regeneration but also economic promise, even in areas like small batch manufacturing?

This leads to my final point: The Metropolitan Revolution is fundamentally altering the locus and focus of power and leadership in the U.S.

I focus on innovation districts as an example of the Metropolitan Revolution—profound economy shaping and place making that is happening from the bottom up.

Power and leadership is shifting downwards, away from national government and even state capitols to cities and metropolitan areas.

Our cities and metros are already the engines of our economy.

They are the centers of trade and investment.

They are on the front lines of demographic change and population growth.

And now they are the vanguard of national progress and prosperity.

When I am in the United States I tell every metropolis that it has what it takes to start its own revolution.

And here’s the roadmap for change I offer:

First, form a network of leaders and citizens who take ownership and responsibility for economic and social progress. In some places your mayor or county executive or governor can convene the network. But if they don’t or won’t then you can step in. Take a look around your metropolis. There are leaders everywhere—in companies and philanthropies; in universities and unions; in civic, environmental and community groups. Convene yourselves. Collaborate to compete. Do grand things together.

Second, declare your distinctive vision, one that is rooted in sound economic thinking and local data and evidence. This requires a little homework because the defining essence of metropolitan economies—your city’s special advantages, its unique offer—differs from place to place. What makes Phoenix competitive on the world stage is different than what propels Pittsburgh. And building on those differences rather than trying to be like everyone else is the key to 21C success. Dolly Parton put it best: “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”

Third, find your game changer. Discover and deliver the intervention that alters the trajectory of your economy, changes your image or identity and re-makes the form and shape of your community. In New York City the game changer was attracting a world class university. In Los Angeles, it was financing and building a world-class transit system. In Cleveland it was repurposing their incomparable industrial heritage. What’s yours? What will put your city on the global map as a community with imagination and aspiration and the resolve to get stuff done? What will be your gift that keeps on giving?

I fundamentally believe this is how we renew America, from the bottom up.

I fundamentally believe this is how we remake our politics, by practicing pragmatism rather than partisanship and elevating collaboration over conflict.

Does this apply to the Netherlands and Europe?

I believe so.

Before you were a nation, you were a powerful collection of cities like Utrecht and Harleem and Amsterdam.

Before you were a network of nation-states, you were a network of trading cities.

You grew because your cities were strong and resilient and creative.

You powered the world because your cities were rich in leadership and resources.

I look at Europe and see the power of cities, not the hierarchy of bureaucracies or parliaments.

And so I end with this hopefully helpful provocation: Embrace the Metropolitan Revolution.

Enable, empower, nurture, leverage, catalyze, inspire it.

Thank you.

[1] Saskia Sassen, “Cityness in the Urban Age,” Urban Age Bulletin 2, Autumn 2005.

Authors

Bruce Katz

Going Global: Boosting Dallas-Fort Worth’s Economic Future

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:00 -0400

Event Information

May 16, 2013
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT

As the United States emerges from the Great Recession, it is clear that the nation’s economy must be purposefully restructured from one focused inward and characterized by excessive consumption and debt to one that is globally engaged and driven by production and innovation. A growing chorus of leaders is calling for a new growth model, one that creates more and better jobs by engaging rising global demand and attracting global talent and capital. These leaders recognize that only by harnessing the power of cities and metropolitan areas can the country hope to foster job growth in the near term and restructure the economy for the long haul.

On May 16, the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and JPMorgan Chase hosted a forum in Dallas, Texas, “Going Global: Boosting Dallas-Fort Worth's Economic Future,” the third in a series of domestic and international forums being convened this year by the Global Cities Initiative. This is the second year of the five-year initiative. The forum explored how metropolitan-led economic growth—including global trade and investment—are important for job creation, and how Dallas-Fort Worth can leverage its position in the global market.

Speakers and panels provided context on the region’s position in the global marketplace and offered insight into how area leaders can work together with international partners to expand global trade and enhance Dallas-Fort Worth's economic prosperity.

Join the conversation on Twitter with hashtag #GlobalCities.

Event Materials

Participants

Panelists

Bruce Katz

Vice President and Director, Metropolitan Policy Program
The Adeline M. and Alfred I. Johnson Chair in Urban and Metropolitan Policy

GCI Houston: Greater Houston and the Next Economy

Bruce Katz — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Editor's Note: On May 15, 2013, Brookings vice president Bruce Katz spoke at the Houston convening of the Global Cities Initiative, a joint project of Brookings and JPMorgan Chase to catalyze high-level discussions of metropolitan leadership in the world economy and the actions metro leaders can take to improve trade relationships with cities in mature and rising markets. Hosted by Rice University, the forum brought together distinguished regional, national, and international leaders from the business, civic, government, and philanthropic communities to explore how the greater Houston area can enhance its ability to compete globally.

Bruce Katz - Global Cities Initiative

View the agenda »

Authors

Bruce Katz

Going Global: Greater Houston’s Economic Future

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:30:00 -0400

Event Information

May 15, 2013
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM CDT

Baker Hall
Rice University, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
6100 Main Street
Houston, TX 77005

On May 15, the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and JPMorgan Chase hosted a forum at Rice University, “Going Global: Greater Houston’s Economic Future,” the second in a series of domestic and international forums being convened this year by the Global Cities Initiative. This is the second year of the five-year initiative. The forum explores how metropolitan-led economic growth—including global trade and investment—are important for job creation, and how Metropolitan Houston can leverage its position in the global market.

Join the conversation on Twitter with hashtag #GlobalCities. Photos courtesy of John Everett.

Roundtable Presentations:

View Bruce Katz's presentation on Houston's next economy »
Download Marek Gotman’s presentation on workforce development (PDF) »
Download Amy Liu's presentation on regional export planning (PDF) »

Bruce Katz, Brookings Vice President & Founding Director, Metropolitan Policy Program

Gina Luna, Chairman of JPMorgan Chase for Houston

Bruce Katz, Brookings Vice President & Founding Director, Metropolitan Policy Program

Video

Event Materials

Participants

Moderator

Amy Liu

Co-Director and Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program

Panelists

Bruce Katz

Vice President and Director, Metropolitan Policy Program
The Adeline M. and Alfred I. Johnson Chair in Urban and Metropolitan Policy

Honorable Peter Ammon

Ambassador

Honorable Richard M. Daley

Former Mayor of Chicago
Chairman

Dr. David Leebron

President

Gina Luna

Houston Market President

Amy Liu

Co-Director and Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program

David McClanahan

President and CEO

Atlanta Can Flourish in Global Economy

Richard M. Daley and Bruce Katz — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:00:00 -0400

"The economic foundation of cities is trade," proclaimed the great urbanist Jane Jacobs in her book, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." Jacobs’ statement remains just as – if not more – relevant for cities and metropolitan areas as it was a half-century ago.

The Great Recession revealed the limitations of an inward-focused, debt-fueled U.S. economy. It coincided with a structural shift in the global economic order towards rapidly industrializing and urbanizing nations like Brazil, India and China. By 2012, a majority of the 50 top performing metropolitan economies worldwide were in developing Asia-Pacific countries. U.S. metros must take advantage of growing demand abroad by developing export and engagement strategies that build on their special assets in the global economy.

Atlanta is well positioned to thrive in a more export-oriented economy. Metro Atlanta – the 13th largest metro exporter in the United States – sent $20 billion worth of goods and services abroad in 2010, which supported nearly 152,000 jobs in the region. It houses many multi-national corporations such as Home Depot, Coca-Cola and UPS; innovative small and medium-sized firms; and several world-class research universities, and it maintains a strong international brand from its hosting of the 1996 Summer Olympics. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and the Port of Savannah form an important U.S. logistics hub and a gateway to world markets.

How can Atlanta build on its unique assets and strengths to maintain and expand its position in markets abroad?

The region has already taken the first step. Two weeks ago, Mayor Kasim Reed announced the launch of an Atlanta Metropolitan Export Plan that will be developed in collaboration with some of the region’s key business, political, university and non-profit leaders. The next step will be to conduct a market assessment of regional industries, identify the metro’s strengths and weaknesses, and determine what policies and investments are necessary to grow exports.

It is critical for Atlanta to progress beyond a place through which goods and people flow by doubling down on becoming more of a center for advanced production and services. This transformation, from port to production or from airport to aerospace, will not just happen. It will require smart and strategic investments in areas such as advanced research and development, education and infrastructure.

A clear option would be to better leverage and commercialize the advanced research conducted at its major universities. One success story is Suniva Inc., a manufacturer of high-efficiency solar cells and high power solar modules, which spun out of Georgia Tech’s University Center of Excellence in Photovoltaics. Three years after its founding, the company was named “Renewable Energy Exporter of the Year” in 2010 by the U.S. Export-Import Bank after selling more than 90 percent of its products abroad in 2009.

The Atlanta region has the tools to flourish in the global economy. It’s time for its leaders to take the steps necessary for the region to realize its full potential.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on April 10, 2013.

Authors

Richard M. Daley
Bruce Katz

GCI Atlanta: Greater Atlanta and the Next Economy

Bruce Katz — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Editor's Note: On March 20, 2013, Brookings vice president Bruce Katz spoke at the Metro Atlanta convening of the Global Cities Initiative, a joint project of Brookings and JPMorgan Chase to catalyze high-level discussions of metropolitan leadership in the world economy and the actions metro leaders can take to improve trade relationships with cities in mature and rising markets. Hosted by the Georgia Institute of Technology, the forum brought together distinguished regional, national, and international leaders from the business, civic, government, and philanthropic communities to explore how the Atlanta metropolitan area can enhance its ability to compete globally.

Bruce Katz - Global Cities Initiative

View the roundtable agenda »

Authors

Bruce Katz

Going Global: Boosting Metro Atlanta's Economic Future

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:30:00 -0400

Event Information

March 20, 2013
11:30 AM - 2:00 PM EDT

Historic Academy of Medicine
Georgia Institute of Technology
875 West Peachtree Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30309

On March 19, the Metropolitan Policy program at Brookings and JPMorgan Chase hosted a forum at the Georgia Institute of Technology, “Going Global: Boosting Metro Atlanta’s Economic Future,” the first in a series of domestic and international forums being convened this year by the Global Cities Initiative. This is the second year of the five-year initiative. The forum explored how metropolitan-led economic growth—including global trade and investment—are important for job creation, and how Metropolitan Atlanta can leverage its position in the global market.

Roundtable Presentations:
View Bruce Katz's presentation on Atlanta's next economy »
View Adie Tomer's presentation on global aviation »
View Amy Liu's presentation on global trade »

Other Resources:
For more information on the Global Cities Initiative, please visit the project's homepage.

Read the forum's press release » (PDF)
Read the forum's program » (PDF)

Video

Participants

Panelists

David Balos

Market Manager, Middle Market Banking

The U.S. Must ‘Race to the Shop’ to Spur Economic Growth

Bruce Katz and Peter Hamp — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Editor's Note: Bruce Katz and Peter Hamp outline investment opportunities for the U.S. economy as President Obama embarks on his annual State of the Union address. This article was originally published for Ideas Laboratory on February 12, 2013.

At the State of the Union, President Obama should move past fiscal gridlock and refocus attention on job creation and economic growth.

We all know the major challenges facing our country: sluggish GDP growth, a jobs deficit of 10.3 million, and a growing opportunity gap, with the number of people that are poor or near poor in America rising from 81 million in 2000 to 107 million in 2011.

We should all know the solution: invest in a smart, targeted way in growing the productive and innovative sectors of our economy, such as advanced manufacturing.

A confluence of highly disruptive dynamics – rising wages in China, America’s emerging energy independence, the shifting location of production facilities and supply chains, the continued evolution and application of information technology, and new breakthroughs in production technology like 3D imaging and digital fabrication – is fueling a resurgence in advanced manufacturing and raising confidence about America’s economic future.

After thirty years of being told that the U.S. was resigned to be a post-industrial economy, we are suddenly realizing that our future lies in the interplay of production and innovation and of domestic markets and global demand. Manufacturing is an important source of quality, well-paying jobs that offer a significant wage premium – nearly 20 percent higher average weekly earnings that non-manufacturing jobs – and are more likely to provide health care and retirement benefits. Manufacturing also accounts for the lion’s share of the country’s R&D and innovation activity. While the sector comprises only 9 percent of all U.S. jobs and 11 percent of total GDP, it employs 35 percent of engineers, represents 68 percent of private-sector R&D spending, and produces 90 percent of all patents generated in the United States. Further, it generates about 65 percent of all U.S. trade (both imports and exports), making manufacturing a critical component of any strategy to reduce America’s growing trade deficit. In short, a strong manufacturing sector is crucial for America’s ability to compete in the global economy.

Despite the resurgence of manufacturing activity post-recession, the U.S. faces a number of challenges that must be addressed in order for this sector to be a viable engine of long-term growth. Among the most important is the inadequate supply of young workers with the necessary skills for advanced production jobs.

An October 2012 study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that the current gap between high-skilled manufacturing job openings (e.g., machinists, technicians, etc) and workers with skills necessary to fill them is only about 80,000 to 100,000 unfilled positions – less than 1 percent of the total U.S. manufacturing workforce. Yet, with the average age of high-skilled production workers in the U.S. being 56 years old, BCG estimates that this gap could rise to 875,000 by 2020 as a growing share of the “baby 1 boomer” generation reaches retirement age.

The problem, of course, is that the U.S. education system is not producing enough graduates with the credentials and skills required for many advanced manufacturing jobs. In recent decades, the federal government and many state governments have de-emphasized and under-funded vocational education, sending a clear signal that it is an unequal alternative to the path towards a four-year college degree.

In FY 2011, the federal government spent only $1.1 billion on career and technical education – just 1.7 percent of the Department of Education’s total discretionary budget authority that year and less than 0.2 percent of total non-defense discretionary spending in FY 2011. Further, the money that Washington does invest in career and technical education and workforce development is often too prescriptive and inflexible to meet the disparate demands of state and regional labor markets.

To address these challenges and drive long-term growth, the federal government should initiate a Race to the Shop competition to reform workforce education and skills training support for advanced manufacturing. Similar in many ways to the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top program in the education arena, a $150 million per year Race to the Shop competition would challenge states and metropolitan areas to develop long-term plans, investment strategies, and regulatory and administrative reforms to better address the workforce and training needs their top advanced manufacturing sectors.

An inter-agency Race to the Shop Partnership, composed of representatives from the Departments of Commerce, Labor, Education, Defense, and the National Science Foundation, would review submissions and award annual implementation grants (averaging around $15 million over three years) to the five states and five metropolitan areas with the strongest and most comprehensive plans. In addition to receiving federal grant money, each winning state and metropolitan area would be given increased
flexibility to invest existing federal resources (e.g. Workforce Investment Act or career and technical education funding) in the areas most likely to strengthen their top advanced manufacturing sectors; perhaps, for example, by creating a network of manufacturing high schools or by aligning local community college curricula to fit the varying skill demands of their labor markets.

Even at a time of fiscal austerity, the annual cost of a Race to the Shop initiative is only $150 million. How to pay for it: “cut to invest” by reducing spending on federal programs that are outdated and non-performing.

The return on this relatively small federal investment?

More and better jobs at home, and a higher-skilled workforce to boost American competitiveness in the global economy. That’s something both sides of the aisle can stand and applaud.

Authors

Publication: Ideas Laboratory

Envisioning Home

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:00:00 -0500

Event Information

January 30, 2013
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM EST

Falk Auditorium
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

Film Screening and Discussion

During the 1968-1969 tenant strike in St. Louis, Jean King and Richard Baron emerged as agents of social change that transformed and revitalized public housing in the city. The shared vision of Richard, a legal aide-turned-real estate developer, and Jean, a homegrown leader, was to build affordable housing communities, grounded in safe, sustainable neighborhoods.

On January 30, the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and the Urban Institute hosted a screening of the documentary film, “Envisioning Home,” sharing Richard and Jean’s personal memories and conversations illustrating their unique partnership in transforming the face of St. Louis public housing. A panel discussion with Richard and Jean; Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Bruce Katz, vice president and co-director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program; and Susan J. Popkin, senior fellow of the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute, followed the screening.

Bruce Katz, Vice President and Co-Director of The Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, delivers the opening remarks

Bruce Katz, Richard Baron, Shaun Donovan and Susan Popkin lead the panel discussion

Writer and Producer Daniel Blake Smith with Richard Baron, Shaun Donovan, Susan Popkin and Bruce Katz

Washington Must Focus on Growth

Bruce Katz and Mark Muro — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Editor's Note: Bruce Katz and Mark Muro call on the federal government to strengthen the manufacturing sector by suggesting low-cost initiatives to bolster U.S. economic competitiveness. Katz and Muro highlight recent recommendations to create a ‘"Race to the Shop Competition," designate "U.S. Manufacturing Universities," and authorize a national network for 25 advanced industries innovation hubs. Read the full article at cnn.com.

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Bruce Katz: This Could Be a Manufacturing Moment

"Reviving America’s advanced industries is a critical component of building a more productive, sustainable, and inclusive economy. U.S. manufacturing, for instance, provides an important source of quality jobs that pay, on average, nearly 20 percent higher weekly earnings than non-manufacturing jobs, and are more likely to provide employee benefits."

Debt and deficits have dominated our nation’s capital for the last two years. From the near government shutdown over a budget impasse in April 2011 to the debt ceiling crisis and subsequent credit downgrade in August 2011 to the recent brinksmanship to avert a fiscal cliff, it has been “all deficits all the time.

And yet, amidst the fiscal obsession, a slow-moving economic emergency persists. The U.S. faces an overall “jobs deficit” of 11 million to make up the jobs we lost during the Great Recession and account for a wave of new entrants to the labor force. The number of poor and near poor in America skyrocketed from 81 million in 2000 to 107 million in 2011, nearly one-third of the U.S. population.

Given these trends, it is not enough for the federal government to simply get its fiscal house in order. Rather, it’s time for both sides to put aside deep ideological differences and work together to jumpstart economic growth.

Where should they begin? An obvious first step is to invest in growing the productive and innovative “advanced industry” sectors of our economy, such as advanced manufacturing.

Bruce Katz: This Could Be a Manufacturing Moment

Authors

Publication: Global Public Square, CNN