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Presentation to the
Joint Conference on
Regionalism Below the State-Level in
Germany and the United States
Speyer, Germany
March 31 - April 2, 1998
Janis Purdy
Senior Policy Fellow
The Maxine Goodman Levin
College of Urban Affairs
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Americans expect their government to play a role in many areas
of public life, including transportation, social welfare,
and environmental protection. Many citizens and politicians,
however, heartily disagree about government involvement in
our "free market" economy. Among all the public
policy debates in the United States, there are few that are
more fundamental than the one about how much government should
be involved in the marketplace, especially when the impact
of economic policies affects groups differently. How the federal
government should intervene in regional markets and economic
development is a question now receiving considerable attention
in policy circles.
U.S. government for centuries has been willing to put the
people's purse behind economic development. Long before the
United States became a nation, the Mayflower Compact, which
defined the settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, contained
incentives for building the first iron smelter in the colonies.
Since then, scattered throughout U.S. history, is evidence
of government action to achieve regional economic goals:
In the early 19th Century,
President Thomas Jefferson made federal funds available
to Lewis and Clark to explore the Northwest Territories,
and to identify both barriers to settlement and natural
resources for economic development.
Private companies built the Transcontinental
Railroad on federal land and, in turn, were granted some
of the property on either side of the tracks to use for
settlements at strategic locations or sell to pioneers moving
West.
New Deal programs, initiated during
the Great Depression of the 1930s, tested Constitutional
limits of public sector participation in the private market
with far reaching activities such as banking and securities
regulation, which changed forever Americans' expectations
about government involvement in their economic lives.
Foreign trade zones and enterprise
zones, created in more recent years, target economic development
to areas requiring additional incentives to spur business
development or economic revitalization.
These and other government initiatives refute observations frequently
made that intervention in economic development is "new,"
a notion often heard during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Those were particularly dynamic times for experimentation with
public incentives for economic development because of severe
economic recession that hit manufacturing areas in older central
cities and the "rust belt" of the Midwest. Government
involvement approached a level of activity not encountered since
the New Deal solutions of the 1930s.
The economics and the politics of the 1970s and 1980s demanded
action and paved the way for new programs. Public expectations
that government should "Do something!" to solve economic
problems resulted in creative solutions like Community Development
Block Grants, Urban Development Action Grants, and tax and regulatory
relief programs. Public sector and private sector partnership
arrangements made many new financing tools and techniques more
legally and politically acceptable. These experiments succeeded
to a sufficient extent to raise public acceptance for government
involvement in economic development activities. These programs,
however, were primarily designed to address local economic problems
such as blighted neighborhoods and downtowns, not the needs
of larger geographic regions.
In the 1990s, the larger scale metropolitan region demands attention,
but in most regions of the United States, the tools, administrative
agencies, and political jurisdictions are not properly aligned
to meet the needs or development objectives of the growing metropolitan
regions. Policymakers and public administrators continually
work to apply lessons of the past to present day problems by
adapting old tools and techniques to new realities.
What follows is a summary of the economic development programs
that would be found today in many U.S. regions, along with a
description of how they might be organized. This summary proves
that current efforts at government stimulus to achieve economic
goals are sophisticated, targeted, and dynamic. The examples
are often focused on the state or local level problems, but
economic development activity is slowly shifting to address
regional issues, much to the relief of advocates for regional
excellence.
Economic development is a dynamic process by which growth in
the level of business output is achieved within a defined geographical
area. Whether the area of concern is the nation, state, city,
or region, economic development is the process by which individuals
and governments enhance the quality of life by creating new
wealth.
Economic development is envisioned, planned, and implemented
by public sector, private sector, and community participants
through a selected set of policies and related programs. There
is no single successful strategy, policy, or program for achieving
economic development objectives. Communities face unique challenges
because each differs in its geographic attributes, social organization,
resources, performance expectations, and the capacity of their
political institutions. Policies and programs, therefore, must
be tailored to fit local needs.
It has been noted that the absence of an economic development
strategy is a strategy nonetheless. Increasingly, political
jurisdictions are aggressively adopting explicit strategic approaches
to guide their economic futures. These strategies are designed
to meet a number of commonly held objectives including promoting
business, increasing the base for tax collection, creating jobs,
making the best use of natural resources, generating personal
income, and raising the standard of living.
Business Retention and Expansion -- Business retention
and expansion are primary economic development objectives. Expanding
businesses create new jobs, attract other similar businesses,
and are instrumental in stimulating supplier industries. Business
retention and expansion efforts encourage companies to stay
in the area or help protect them from going out of business.
Assisting a company often requires helping it gain access to
credit and capital, finding needed workers, and creating business
networks.
Business Attraction -- Business attraction efforts are
the most visible activities in economic development portfolios,
often encouraging businesses to move into a community with the
lure of financial incentives. While this is a risky approach
and its value has been widely questioned, securing one large
firm with its hundreds of jobs is generally treated as a major
victory for local development officials. Local officials use
sophisticated market research, incentives, and marketing pitches
to interest and attract firms. The downside for development
officials, however, can come a few years later when the jobs
don't materialize or the firm hits an economic downturn and
closes.
Encouraging Entrepreneurship -- Aid to entrepreneurs
is gaining a prominent place as an economic development objective.
This kind of business development goal might be chosen if the
interest is to diversify the local economy, stimulate certain
industry clusters, take advantage of a nearby university research
base, or reduce the rate of small business failures. Typical
strategies include programs that provide guidance on basics
such as accounting and financing. Training programs include
classroom training, workshops, speakers, or counseling.
Job Creation -- One of the core objectives of
regional economic development is job creation. A strong link
exists between employment levels and the overall health of the
local economy. Job creation is not just about increasing the
number of jobs but also about improving the quality of jobs.
While every new job contributes to a family's income and the
local tax base, there is a difference between simply creating
work and creating jobs that provide a good standard of living
and an opportunity for advancement.
Targeting -- Economic downturns in selected industries
often prompt a government response targeted to specific industries
and industrial clusters. Targeting economic development for
disadvantaged population groups in specific geographic areas
has also become an acceptable objective for public and private
action.
The federal government creates the economic and political environment
in which local, state, and regional economies function. The
influence of national government policies is broad and significant.
It includes setting fiscal policies that create the general
framework or structure of the economy; raising taxes to provide
public funding for economic development and job creation; stabilizing
the nation's financial, legal, and banking systems; providing
access to national and global markets; and building physical
infrastructure.
Fiscal Policy -- Fiscal or budget policy structures the
national government's use of public revenues and expenditures
to achieve policy goals. The balance between spending and revenues
affects the amount of government borrowing and thereby the overall
demand for loan funds and the interest rates that must be paid
to loans. Public revenues include tax and non-tax income, including
all forms of tax revenues, fees, and domestic borrowing. Tax
money pays for infrastructure, education, and police -- all
essential services for business prosperity. The nature of the
spending also affects economic activity and growth in specific
industries and regions (see below for further discussion of
taxation and infrastructure spending).
Monetary Policy -- Monetary policy is the governmental
regulation of the amount of money in circulation. The government
uses monetary policy to achieve maximum employment, stabilize
prices, and moderate interest rates. It has the ability, too,
to minimize dramatic shifts in the business cycle.
Banking System --Government maintenance of a stable banking
system is a key component in establishing the business climate.
Banks provide the finances that businesses use to start and
to grow. Access to capital drives economic growth. Banks play
a central role in determining the parameters of economic development.
The banking system helps stabilize economic activity by setting
interest rates and controlling the money supply in response
to changes in production, employment, and inflation.
Legal Structure -- The federal government establishes
and enforces the nation's legal structure. This rule of law
provides the foundation to protect property rights and enforce
contracts. Business needs to know that a contract can be enforced
when it enters into a business deal. Government establishes
corporate and business regulation to protect reasonable competition.
Regulation and Taxes -- The government in Washington,
DC, sets the national regulatory and tax structure. High taxes
and regulations place heavy burdens on businesses, especially
smaller ones. Taxes compete directly with corporate efforts
to retain funds that a business would use to reinvest in the
company. Reinvestment creates jobs and increases the tax base
through increased production and increased revenues. The impact
of taxation and regulatory issues points to the basic need for
dialogue and coordination between the federal government and
the states and regions.
Physical Infrastructure -- The federal government also
provides money and administrative mechanisms to design and build
major projects, particularly projects that cut across state
lines. National investment in public infrastructure has a significant
impact on business health and the ability to move goods across
the nation and to global markets. The St. Lawrence Seaway and
the Interstate Highway System are two examples of major federal
infrastructure projects, along with hundreds of other smaller
and large projects.
Although economic development objectives are effected by national
government policies, economic development programs are most
frequently managed at lower levels of government because local
agencies can design programs to meet the precise needs of local
business. Economic development activities in the United States
are usually implemented through programs sanctioned by the states.
Local governments are the primary implementation agents for
economic development. They address a variety of economic development
objectives through a wide range of "tools" or "instruments."
This does not mean that all 50 states have different tools in
the toolbox. National professional associations and federal
government programs encourage a certain degree of uniformity
across the nation. The tools described below can be found in
most states today.
Developing Knowledge - Data about local businesses, their
patterns of change, and their markets are a fundamental component
of an economic development agency's toolbox. Cluster studies
of regional business markets have replaced econometric modeling
efforts of the 1980s. They are being used to design very sophisticated
strategic actions.
Case studies of "best practices" in development strategies
and programs are being gathered and shared among professionals
in the economic development field. Regional profiles, like those
being developed by the National Association of Regional Councils,
provide information about regions across the country in order
for comparisons about success to be shared.
Benchmarking, a corporate management technique, is now being
adapted for use by several regions. Benchmarking compares a
group of competitors on a range of economic indicators to allow
for the identification of "best in class." Business
leaders and public officials use this information to devise
strategies for their region to "close the gap" between
their position and the best performing region.
Strategic Planning - Strategic planning is a systematic
process by which communities can imagine their future and create
the appropriate steps to achieve that future. Strategic planning
is a continuous process used to ensure that existing policies
and programs meet the economic development needs of a community
within local resource constraints. It involves realistic appraisal
of available resources, constraints, and opportunities; development
of achievable goals; and formulation and implementation of project
action plans to reach those goals. An effective strategic plan
organizes responsibilities, tasks, and timelines; guides staff
and others involved in executing the plan; provides management
controls; and designs systems for monitoring and evaluating
results.
Expanding Markets - Trade missions are important means
to expand business opportunities, especially for opening foreign
markets. State governors and mayors of major cities frequently
lead trade mission as an important investment in a region's
future. Private money, secured through Chambers of Commerce,
is often used to support these activities. Seattle is frequently
held out as the "best practice" example for use of
this tool. Its annual business trips are designed to learn from
other countries, as well as to share business pride in Seattle
and its potential for economic development.
Tax and regulatory relief - Relief from prevailing regulations
and taxes are both tools used by local and state governments
to assist firms, through specific actions to ease the burdens
of government policies that would otherwise apply. Requirements
for building code compliance, zoning code compliance, and operating
permits can add up to a heavy burden for business, especially
small business. Many local governments set up a "one stop
shop" to help business owners resolve these issues within
a minimum amount of time. Environmental protection regulations
can be costly, too. Creative solutions, like creating a market
to trade pollution credits and debits, are experiments at compromise
worth watching.
Land Use Planning -- Techniques like instituting
"smart growth" measures or establishing urban growth
boundaries are relatively new regional development concepts
in the United States. U.S. traditions provide for local land
use control with little or no interference from county, state,
or federal levels of government. This has led to inefficiencies
in resource allocation and costly patterns of urban sprawl.
Some state governments and regional utility agencies are beginning
to stretch their powers and withhold services to developers
of outlying areas as an indirect means of land use control.
Building Infrastructure -- Public infrastructure expansion
and maintenance are required to meet the infrastructure needs
of new, expanding, or relocating firms. Providing these basic
services is a function of available money and likely to be successful
only if the multiple governments with some responsibility for
the planning, building, maintaining, and financing infrastructure
development can be coordinated. Federal initiatives in recent
years through the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency
Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and its successor, the Transportation Efficiency
Act of 1998 (TEA-21), have helped in this regard.
Workforce Development -- Workforce development
programs focus on education, training, and recruitment of workers.
They typically concentrate on improving the skill base and job
placement of the local labor pool. Training programs sponsored
by government are sometimes tailored to the specifications of
businesses. Another critical need for matching prospective employees
to the available jobs -- getting urban workers to suburban areas
where new jobs are being created -- is being addressed by regional
transportation agencies, sometimes with federal, state, or private
sector funds.
Financial Incentives - During the 1970s and 1980s,
new programs provided substantial federal dollars to state and
local governments for economic development. Urban Development
Action Grants (UDAG) provided large subsidies to support catalytic
development projects in distressed areas, usually central business
districts. This program is no longer active. Community Development
Block Grants (CDBG) continue to provide money for a broad range
of revitalization activities, but not in the high amounts of
previous decades. Federal loans for small business support local
economies. Federal mortgage subsidies add fuel to local housing
markets, supporting homeownership and stable neighborhoods.
Opportunity Events -- Frequently an event can be the
catalyst to target resources and rally people and programs to
stimulate development. The 1996 Olympic games in Atlantic, Georgia,
led to a massive construction project involving housing as well
as sports and entertainment facilities. Another common opportunity
might be a decision to mark an anniversary, such as the celebration
of the bicentennial of Cleveland, Ohio. Millions of dollars
were raised in the preparations for that occasion and channeled
into housing redevelopment and lakefront development projects.
Catalytic Projects - Industrial parks, designed to provide
businesses with services and support structures, are being built
on inner city sites by local governments to compete with suburban
office parks. They create a setting for office, manufacturing,
and research and development facilities by combining beauty
and function in a campus-like setting with quality architecture,
landscaping, and services.
Business incubators buildings, frequently old recycled manufacturing
facilities, are a mechanism used to encourage and support young
companies until they become viable. They provide new firms with
affordable space, assist them with technical and management
support, help them to secure equity and long-term debt financing,
and find qualified employees.
Large scale projects like sports stadiums, strategic retail
malls, "halls of fame," convention centers and museums
are changing American cities. Though controversial because of
their high price tags, they have repeatedly proved to be agents
of downtown revitalization and magnets for tourist dollars.
Local traditions and circumstances define the response to each
area's economic development toolbox, but in all parts of the
United States, a visitor to a region is likely to find the public,
civic, and private sectors working together in organizations
to solve problems. This is especially true at the regional level,
where private sector organizations are often playing a leadership
role to address problems for which no single unit of government
has responsibility. In most regions there is an organizational
array that contains a mix of public, private, and partnership
organizations, but in no two U.S. regions will the mix look
or act the same. The leadership equation includes individuals
and institutions.
Business Organizations -- The private sector, usually
working through a Chamber of Commerce, acts as a partner in
designing, financing, and implementing economic development
programs. Projects or programs can be long term or short term
efforts. Businesses learn best from other businesses. They teach
each other valuable lessons about mistakes they have made or
successful ventures they have taken. This exchange of knowledge
occurs through networking and basic teaching methods, such as
mentoring. By interacting in various ways, businesses are able
to learn what to do and what not to do.
Regional Councils and Development Agencies --These are
independent agencies initiated by state government or municipalities
throughout a region. Most importantly, they serve as a coordinating
body, bringing together stakeholders and ensuring appropriate
developmental projects and infrastructure systems are funded.
Many advocates of regional solutions believe these organizations
should be empowered through greater authority or more funding
in order to support growing regions.
Community Development Corporations -- These non-profit
organizations take a long-term and comprehensive approach to
economic development, usually at the neighborhood level. They
provide full-time professional staffs and at least some planning
capacity. The key to a successful CDC is that they are flexible.
CDCs use private development techniques for public purposes;
target benefits to communities in need; work directly with small
business; use incentives to operate programs efficiently; reinvest
resources in the community; and link planning to implementation.
Media Outlets -- Regional media markets have the potential
to become effective partners in regional development. Newspapers
can provide information that informs citizens about change in
the region. Most metropolitan daily papers are looking for ways
to expand their marker so the focus on news of the region is
logical and good business, too. Major papers in Atlanta and
Cleveland are rising to the challenge, with increased regional
reporting. Regional or "city" magazines also help
focus attention on regional issues and can be a catalyst for
change. Northern Ohio Live has developed a quarterly
feature about the regional agenda and has served as a convenor
of regional leaders to discuss regional development priorities.
Universities - Universities are providing research and
community service activities that recognize the new opportunities
and problems associated with our rapidly growing regions. While
most stop short of advocating specific measures, their work
can give legislators and public officials the facts they need
to accomplish legislative change. They also can contribute directly
to economic development, through their own construction projects
involving university facilities including housing and sports
facilities, and through their partnership with other public
and private interests to develop research laboratories and related
technical and development enterprises.
During the first half of 1998, healthy regional economies are
supporting a vibrant national economy. Times are good. Government
revenue is strong and public budgets are in good shape. There
is little reason to propose a flurry of new economic development
programs. Americans expect less from the federal government
than a decade ago and it is "politically incorrect"
to talk about new federal spending for regional economic development.
At the regional level, public officials give more attention
to designing effective partnerships, or creating effective government
processes and structures, than they do to project subsidies
or tax relief.
The extent of government involvement in economic development
is especially sensitive to the economy's performance and the
politics of the times. Today, although a Democrat holds the
presidency, general conservatism and Republican legislative
power prevail. The economy has soared and support for government
intervention has declined. The late 1990s are not a time of
significant experimentation at either the federal or local levels,
but this is a time for innovation at the regional level.
Regional solutions are not coming from Washington, DC, but from
state capitals or regional planning organizations and citizens
groups. Considerable experimentation is going on but most of
the knowledge about national examples and best practices is
still anecdotal. Where the economy is good, regional officials
are debating the question of government's role in economic development.
Significant regional economic development activity, likely to
be in the form of catalytic projects, will probably be undertaken
by the private sector through voluntary organizations and not-for-profit
development organizations.
With few exceptions, there are no formal government jurisdictions
with substantial political power between the states and the
counties or cities in most U.S. metropolitan regions. Regional
Councils, the administrative vehicle for federal transportation
planning and financial distribution, are the best hope, but
they are frequently kept weak by state legislatures and municipal
officials concerned about giving up any power they now hold.
Without strong political jurisdictions at the regional level,
those interested in regional economic development are concentrating
on refining a variety of voluntary, cooperative, or collaborative
approaches or legal mechanisms to achieve regional goals.
"Do something!" is the cry when some group or some
place is faced with a problem that needs remedial action. It
was heard when the coal markets disappeared, exacerbating enormous
poverty in the Appalachian Mountains -- a problem addressed
by creating the Appalachia Regional Commission which spanned
several states with economic development programs.
The cry for regional solutions today is coming from citizens
all across the United States who are concerned with the negative
impact of sprawling regional development and the absence of
land use planning and controls at the county or state level.
Business executives, many of whom have located facilities in
distant suburbs and been unable to find workers, are beginning
to be alarmed by unplanned growth, too.
Regions have become a new focal point for economic development
efforts. The regional context offers challenges and opportunities
to area governments and citizen leaders. They are borrowing
tools and organizational arrangements created in the 1970s and
1980s to solve local problems and adapting them to the regional
problems of the 1990s. The region is no longer being ignored
and is becoming an important arena for making political decisions
and designing economic development programs because it is the
real economic geography in which Americans will live during
the next century.
1730 K Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 223-4735
(http://www.cued.org)
CUED is a nonprofit membership organization committed to the
economic development and revitalization of cities around the
world. It is recognized as the premier economic development
organization serving local economic development professionals
from both the public and private sectors.
1700 K Street, NW, Suite 1300
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 457-0710
(http://www.narc.org)
NARC is the non-governmental organization that advocates for
regional councils and metropolitan planning agencies in the
United States. As regional issues become more important, NARC
is expanding its services to members as well as its advocacy
on their behalf.
777 North Capitol Street, NE, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 289-4262
(http://www.icma.org)
ICMA is the professional and educational association for more
than 8,000 appointed administrators and assistant administrators
serving cities, counties, and other local governments and regional
entities around the world. Its purpose is to enhance the quality
of local government through professional management and to support
and assist local government administration.
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State
University
1737 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115
(216) 687-2134
(http://urban.csuohio.edu/~ucweb/)
The Urban Center is the flagship of the Ohio Urban University
Program. Its mission is to investigate issues and challenges
facing urban communities and to apply its resources to solutions.
During the past two decades, it has expanded its research and
outreach capacity, and is now a recognized source of expertise
to address a broad range of public policy and regional issues.
The heyday for economic development in the United States was
probably the period when heavy industry, particularly steelmaking,
was developing in the great cities of the upper Midwest. Since
that time of "chasing smokestacks," the nation or
at least the public officials in many cities and regions seemed
to have lost the vocabulary and the ability to communicate about
economic development needs and opportunities. While citizens
and businesses expected government to be involved in transportation,
sewer and water service, education, and social welfare, some
of the most intense political and economic debates in the country
concerned whether and to what extent government should be involved
in private markets.
The 1970s and 1980s were a vigorous and creative period for
economic development. "Rust Belt" cities such as Cleveland
were experiencing many economic changes, perhaps parallel to
those faced by many European cities today, and were trying to
make a transition to a different pattern of economic activity.
The Cleveland example illustrates several common patterns:
1) Usually economic development efforts have been triggered
by a crisis of some kind, such as the default of the municipal
government in the city of Cleveland - the first instance of
local government bankruptcy since the days of the Great Depression.
2) Sometimes a positive event can trigger major development,
in the case of the Cleveland bicentennial, which led public
and private forces to regroup and come together in revitalizing
the city.
Though the issue of economic development was of strong interest
to federal, state, and local governments, most of the development
efforts were carried out by the private sector with little federal
participation. It is rare, however, for economic development
to be led entirely by the public sector. Often development initiatives
begins with the private sector and are picked up by the government,
which shaped programs to meet the needs of the private sector.
In the case of Cleveland, the Chamber of Commerce was involved,
but two other important forces were:
1) Cleveland Tomorrow, a private group of 52 Chief Executive
Officers in the area
They joined together to work toward a healthier economic future
because the nature and extent of economic activity - and the
survival of the city and the region - matter to them. This group
is not democratic and not inclusive; citizen voices often are
not heard. For example, when they developed their "downtown
implementation plan," they did not allow for significant
citizen input except through a handful of public forums convened
after coverage of the plan by local media began to create pressure
to open up the process.
2) Cleveland Citizens League, also a private group but open
to anyone
The Citizens League generally chooses a few issues each year
to focus on, such as education for the future. It has been a
major force in sharing "best practices." In the past
several years while I was Executive Director of the Citizens'
League, we canvassed several dozen local organizations to identify
their interests and priorities, and we divided our attention
between marketing and "fix it" programs for the region.
Many public-private partnerships are also involved in local
economic development efforts. For example, Build Up Greater
Cleveland brings together the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce
and local governments for the common purpose of stimulating
and strengthening economic activity in the region. The group
came together for the first time in 1979. In a county of 1.5
million people, there are 66 government entities and prior to
formation of the partnership, there was no coordination for
infrastructure planning, construction, or maintenance. The Chamber
agreed to provide advocacy and lobbying for projects the members
identified as priorities, while philanthropic organizations
provided the money to pay for an initial inventory of public
and private sector programs affecting economic development opportunities
in the region.
Local government and business programs frequently have specific
targets or goals. For example, some are aimed at assisting unemployed
or dislocated workers, while some are intended to move people
from public welfare to work. Other programs are designed to
bolster particular industries. In Cleveland, we have attempted
to project where manufacturing is going or if the region will
even have manufacturing. One futurist has predicted that the
regional economy would have only services, while another said
it would be based entirely on manufacturing. A number of recent
programs such as the urban empowerment zones target distressed
areas, including the former sites of steel mills, auto plants,
and other heavy industries like those that were previously located
on the waterfront in Cleveland.
Most of these areas are also covered by federal programs. Some
federal programs still offer cash incentives for specific types
of development activities, though the extent of that funding
is nothing like it was under revenue sharing in the 1970s with
the large federal Urban Development Action Grants and the Economic
Development Administration planning grants. There are still
federal Small Business Administration loans available, as well
as community development block grants. Those programs are directed
primarily to counties, however; no federal economic development
grants are aimed at the region as a whole.
Some research in this area is still supported by government
programs. The state of Ohio has recently granted $400,000 to
Cleveland State University to support economic-development related
research, including evaluation and measurement of various tools
and techniques.
One primary force driving economic revitalization in Cleveland
has been the local political leadership, particularly the leadership
of former mayor now governor George Voinovich (who has just
been elected to the U.S. Senate from the state of Ohio). He
recognized the needs and the potential represented not only
by the city of Cleveland which he led but also the Cleveland
region as a whole.
Recognizing the importance of regional awareness as well as
strong regional leadership in the private sector, the Cleveland
Chamber of Commerce now offers a leadership training program,
one new element of which is a presentation on the nature and
importance of the region.
The quality of local public education is also getting increasing
emphasis as public and private sector leaders realize that business
and industry pay attention to the education level of the local
labor force and favor regions with larger pools of workers with
a solid secondary school education, as well as technical skills
or more advanced college or university background.
Media and communications also have played an important role
in stimulating and facilitating regional economic development
in the Cleveland area. The state of Ohio has produced a brochure,
"Northwest Ohio," presenting the general characteristics
and opportunities in the area. There is also a quarterly regional
report called "Northern Ohio Live" which draws attention
to economic conditions at the regional level. A supplement entitled
"Cleveland: Is This Heaven?" was printed in the national
Fortune magazine referring to Cleveland as the "most
improved" city in the United States.
The regional magazine in the Cleveland area, Cleveland Tomorrow,
also produces a supplement on the region every year, which it
introduces at an annual conference for regional leaders from
the public and private sectors. It is rare to have a magazine
take this kind of leadership in a region, but the magazine recognized
that as a regional periodical, it can improve its own circulation
- and its prospects for survival -- if it promotes the awareness
and health of the region as an entity. Newspapers are generally
regional in their circulation, and citizens are becoming more
aware that they belong to a region, rather than just a municipality
or a state.
BP America gave the Citizens League a grant to do benchmarking,
to examine the competitive markets and assess how government
can contribute to the region's economic health. We developed
114 possible measures of regional economic health, which we
distilled down to 36. We used those measures to compare Cleveland
to 24 other regions, including trend analysis. The report was
printed by the regional magazine and went to 25,000 people.
Our hope is that community groups can use the data to see how
a particular sector is keeping up with other sectors in contributing
to the region's economic health, and can apply that understanding
to assess what programs and initiatives are likely to be most
effective in achieving more effective economic performance.
Now that local governments don't have the expectation of increased
federal funds for economic development, states and some localities
are becoming better at using the economic development tools
of planning, marketing, tax and regulatory relief, and environmental
programs such as air pollution credits or "emissions trading."
Historically, local government was not really included in the
discussion of economic development, but now with most local
government budgets in balance or surplus, this may continue
to change. For the next century, I expect that in Cleveland
and other regions we will see more public-private partnerships,
more private sector initiatives ("Get the job done!"),
and more use of data, not to construct massive econometric models
of the economy but to look at economic clusters and to identify
best practices for achieving constructive future economic development.
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