Why Many Cities are seen as the Deadbeat Uncle in their Regions
As the then deputy secretary of DOT told me early in Obama's presidency, the President checked personally that the departmental silos open up to collaboration in the Sustainable Communities Partnership he had initiated between the departments of housing (HUD), transportation (DOT) and environment (EPA). (White House blog). The strange bedfellows were forced together based on the insight of the former community organizer that sustainable communities cannot be achieved by individual departments without looking at a bigger interconnected picture. The grant was described in these words:
With these requirements the grant program recognized that cities and regions are intertwined, that problems do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries and that it is time to resolve urban issue on the regional scale.
Christopher Alexander, in his seminal 1977 book "A Pattern Language", had arrived at a similar conclusion. He organized the entire global built environment based on people formations from family and work groups, to neighborhoods, communities, cities to regions. To him the region was the largest entity that could be properly governed.
The stipulation to include a regional entity (typically a Metropolitan Planning Organization, MPO, definition see here) although logical, also presented a considerable albatross around the neck of innovation.
"Nimble MPO" is an oxymoron, just like "creative metropolitan government". Such is the reality of organizations like the Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC) that put community activists, planners and urbanists asleep when it comes to their actions. The BMC may be best known for its library and maps, but its vision plans and regional transportation plans typically elicited little more than yawns.
Across the US regional formations have little impact on how the individual member jurisdictions conduct their business. The heads of the regional jurisdictions that make up MPOs like the BMC typically sit comfortably in the caboose and not in the engine. There they ensure that nothing truly regional happens that would interfere with local preferences. Like in the European Union, in spite of all the lip service about the advantages of coordination, nobody wants to give up an iota of sovereignty. The currently popular anti-government propaganda certainly doesn't help either.
Therefore, Baltimore's initial lackluster performance under the grant was not surprising. But like magic and possibly thanks to non conventional partners, such as the Anne E. Casey Foundation, the grant team dubbed Opportunity Collaborative gained steam and came to life. After three years of activity it had gained actual momentum which became evident a few weeks ago when the final report was presented to a fully packed hall at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. The audience sat among artefacts of Baltimore's industrial past but had a clear view of a very present day unloading of a freight ship at the adjacent sugar refinery, a reminder that not all industry is history yet and industrial jobs still happen, even in a city.
If the full house made it look as if regionalism had all of a sudden advanced to being the sexiest topic in town, what really brought folks out in droves was Baltimore's recent national and international notoriety in the area of uprising and unrest.
A regional look at housing, workforce development, "opportunities" and transportation seemed to be just what the doctor had ordered. With nearly everybody in this region having their thinking cap on in search of what can be done about disparities, persistent poverty and inequity the BMC's "Opportunity Collaborative's" report promised answers, or at least the right data to describe the problem.
Where are the "opportunity areas", where do people live, where can they find work that matches there skills, what transportation is available that could get them there, how long are the commutes? Questions that usually trigger only mild interest even from policy wonks were suddenly on everybody's mind. And so was the awareness, that no city can tackle those issue alone.
Of course, this not being a fairy tale, the story did not immediately resolve in a "happily ever after," regional government did not become the flavor du jour overnight and surrounding jurisdictions did not rush to the aid of the ailing center city. Any such hopes were promptly dashed by none else than the Maryland Governor himself.
As regular readers of this blog can already guess, I will mention once again the cancellation of the planned Baltimore transit line that had "opportunity" written all over it on and addressed many of the Opportunity Collaborative's findings about the geographical disconnects between jobs and skills, long commutes, access, equity and housing.
The message that Maryland's Governor sent was not that a community of jurisdictions, (the MPO), should collaborate and support the biggest, oldest and ultimately most promising member in their midst. As noted in last week's essay, the message instead was , "Drop dead Baltimore". Just what the German secretary of finance would like to tell Greece, except that Greece is hardly as important for Europe as Baltimore is for Maryland, (even though Greece kind of is the cradle of Europe).
So then, what role do US cities play in their regions? Did Obama's initiative for regional collaboration result in better governance for those loose regional associations likes we see them in MPO's? At a show and tell conference where grantees exchanged their plan experiences the response was yes. A summary report issued by those who had coordinated the initiative unsurprisingly responds with yes as well.
But as the Atlantic Cities ("CityLab") recently observed, the stars are not aligned for more regional government, even though two of the most successful metro regions in the country have it: The twin cities of Minneapolis/Saint Paul and Portland, Oregon.
Still logic and good case studies don't count for much as long as suburban jurisdictions continue to profit from shutting out the poor, from siphoning the better educated folks out of cities, from building far flung subdivisions and luring employers to locate in their single use office parks.
Those are the powerful forces fueled by still existing federal policies such as subsidized car driving or home-ownership tax write-offs. The Sustainable Community grants hardly makes a dent in this well-established regime which we have seen dominate for more than half a century now. The grants also lack forceful follow-up to ensure implementation of the plans the grants helped create, even though certain pilots were included in the funding.
But for anybody who can see further than to the boundary of their local fiefdom and beyond the next election, the signs should be clear: Metro regions are the engines that propel global economies. The world is becoming more urbanized, employees and highly mobile residents look for a comprehensive set of quality of life indicators that cannot be satisfied by lawns and parking lots.
Innovation needs rubbing shoulders; none of the festering problems of the US metro areas from congestion to inequality can be solved with provincial, myopic silo thinking. The Sustainable Community grants provide the opportunity for our local leaders to move from the caboose to the engine so they can drive the entire metropolitan train into the next age without leaving any of its wagons behind.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
edited by Ben Groff, J.D.
Related articles on this blog:
Full Steam Backwards - Conservatives, Baltimore and the Urban Question
The "Real Question" for Baltimore and the American City
Aspirations of the two Baltimores
How does the Republican Mid-term Victory Square with the Age of Cities?
From Buildings to Communities to Systems - the Bigger Picture
Links to the topic:
Better Plans - Better Places (Report about the Sustainable Communities Grant Program)
Sustainable Community Development Group, Studies and Reports
Regionalism and Equity. Cleveland Report
Minneapolis-St Paul Green Line Affordable Housing Report
The Only Elected Regional Government in the U.S.
The Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program will support metropolitan and multijurisdictional planning efforts that integrate housing, land use, economic and workforce development, transportation, and infrastructure investments in a manner that empowers jurisdictions to consider the interdependent challenges of: (1) economic competitiveness and revitalization; (2) social equity, inclusion, and access to opportunity; (3) energy use and climate change; and (4) public health and environmental impact.This partnership came up with a $165 million grant program to be awarded to various applicant cities to do regional planning of a kind not seen in a while. But just as the grantors had to collaborate, so did grantees: To receive money a proposal had to be truly regional and it needed to include partnerships, the more unconventional the better.
Sustainable Communities Partnership between HUD, DOT and EPA
With these requirements the grant program recognized that cities and regions are intertwined, that problems do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries and that it is time to resolve urban issue on the regional scale.
Christopher Alexander, in his seminal 1977 book "A Pattern Language", had arrived at a similar conclusion. He organized the entire global built environment based on people formations from family and work groups, to neighborhoods, communities, cities to regions. To him the region was the largest entity that could be properly governed.
Wherever possible, work toward the evolution of independent regions in the world; each with a population between 2 and 10 million; each with its own natural and geographic boundaries; each with its own economy; each one autonomous and self-governing; each with a seat in a world government, without the intervening power of larger states or countries.Back to the Sustainable Communities grant: 74 metro areas or about 10% of all applicants received grant money. One of the awardees was Baltimore which was awarded $3.5 million in the second round in 2011, one of the larger grant amounts.
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| Regional Councils of Governments in the US |
The stipulation to include a regional entity (typically a Metropolitan Planning Organization, MPO, definition see here) although logical, also presented a considerable albatross around the neck of innovation.
"Nimble MPO" is an oxymoron, just like "creative metropolitan government". Such is the reality of organizations like the Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC) that put community activists, planners and urbanists asleep when it comes to their actions. The BMC may be best known for its library and maps, but its vision plans and regional transportation plans typically elicited little more than yawns.
Across the US regional formations have little impact on how the individual member jurisdictions conduct their business. The heads of the regional jurisdictions that make up MPOs like the BMC typically sit comfortably in the caboose and not in the engine. There they ensure that nothing truly regional happens that would interfere with local preferences. Like in the European Union, in spite of all the lip service about the advantages of coordination, nobody wants to give up an iota of sovereignty. The currently popular anti-government propaganda certainly doesn't help either.
 |
| The Seattle region was one of the grant recipients |
Therefore, Baltimore's initial lackluster performance under the grant was not surprising. But like magic and possibly thanks to non conventional partners, such as the Anne E. Casey Foundation, the grant team dubbed Opportunity Collaborative gained steam and came to life. After three years of activity it had gained actual momentum which became evident a few weeks ago when the final report was presented to a fully packed hall at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. The audience sat among artefacts of Baltimore's industrial past but had a clear view of a very present day unloading of a freight ship at the adjacent sugar refinery, a reminder that not all industry is history yet and industrial jobs still happen, even in a city.
If the full house made it look as if regionalism had all of a sudden advanced to being the sexiest topic in town, what really brought folks out in droves was Baltimore's recent national and international notoriety in the area of uprising and unrest.
 |
| A view of the Baltimore region indicating job concentrations in darker shades |
Where are the "opportunity areas", where do people live, where can they find work that matches there skills, what transportation is available that could get them there, how long are the commutes? Questions that usually trigger only mild interest even from policy wonks were suddenly on everybody's mind. And so was the awareness, that no city can tackle those issue alone.
Of course, this not being a fairy tale, the story did not immediately resolve in a "happily ever after," regional government did not become the flavor du jour overnight and surrounding jurisdictions did not rush to the aid of the ailing center city. Any such hopes were promptly dashed by none else than the Maryland Governor himself.
As regular readers of this blog can already guess, I will mention once again the cancellation of the planned Baltimore transit line that had "opportunity" written all over it on and addressed many of the Opportunity Collaborative's findings about the geographical disconnects between jobs and skills, long commutes, access, equity and housing.
The message that Maryland's Governor sent was not that a community of jurisdictions, (the MPO), should collaborate and support the biggest, oldest and ultimately most promising member in their midst. As noted in last week's essay, the message instead was , "Drop dead Baltimore". Just what the German secretary of finance would like to tell Greece, except that Greece is hardly as important for Europe as Baltimore is for Maryland, (even though Greece kind of is the cradle of Europe).
So then, what role do US cities play in their regions? Did Obama's initiative for regional collaboration result in better governance for those loose regional associations likes we see them in MPO's? At a show and tell conference where grantees exchanged their plan experiences the response was yes. A summary report issued by those who had coordinated the initiative unsurprisingly responds with yes as well.
But as the Atlantic Cities ("CityLab") recently observed, the stars are not aligned for more regional government, even though two of the most successful metro regions in the country have it: The twin cities of Minneapolis/Saint Paul and Portland, Oregon.
“How is it that you can have these two models who apparently sit atop two very successful metropolitan regions, where costs have been managed more efficiently than other places, where they’ve gotten their regional act together – why doesn’t that spread? Why isn’t it imitated?”Curious, indeed, especially when an affordable housing crisis, persistent joblessness, ongoing sprawl, decaying infrastructure and increasing congestion demand more and not less collaboration. The Twin Cities, indeed, represent a success story. Not only did they receive a Sustainable Communities grant, they came up with a concise "corridor study" and implemented their transit expansions including the accompanying TOD and affordable housing strategies.
 |
| Illustration from the Twin City regional Green Line Corridor study |
Still logic and good case studies don't count for much as long as suburban jurisdictions continue to profit from shutting out the poor, from siphoning the better educated folks out of cities, from building far flung subdivisions and luring employers to locate in their single use office parks.
Those are the powerful forces fueled by still existing federal policies such as subsidized car driving or home-ownership tax write-offs. The Sustainable Community grants hardly makes a dent in this well-established regime which we have seen dominate for more than half a century now. The grants also lack forceful follow-up to ensure implementation of the plans the grants helped create, even though certain pilots were included in the funding.
But for anybody who can see further than to the boundary of their local fiefdom and beyond the next election, the signs should be clear: Metro regions are the engines that propel global economies. The world is becoming more urbanized, employees and highly mobile residents look for a comprehensive set of quality of life indicators that cannot be satisfied by lawns and parking lots.
 |
| Quote from Twin Cities report |
Innovation needs rubbing shoulders; none of the festering problems of the US metro areas from congestion to inequality can be solved with provincial, myopic silo thinking. The Sustainable Community grants provide the opportunity for our local leaders to move from the caboose to the engine so they can drive the entire metropolitan train into the next age without leaving any of its wagons behind.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
edited by Ben Groff, J.D.
Related articles on this blog:
Full Steam Backwards - Conservatives, Baltimore and the Urban Question
The "Real Question" for Baltimore and the American City
Aspirations of the two Baltimores
How does the Republican Mid-term Victory Square with the Age of Cities?
From Buildings to Communities to Systems - the Bigger Picture
Links to the topic:
Better Plans - Better Places (Report about the Sustainable Communities Grant Program)
Sustainable Community Development Group, Studies and Reports
Regionalism and Equity. Cleveland Report
Minneapolis-St Paul Green Line Affordable Housing Report
The Only Elected Regional Government in the U.S.
The Regional Plan Association (New York)
The Baltimore Regional Plan for Sustainable Development (RPSD)
The "Opportunity Collaborative"was led by Michaell Kelly, director of BMC and co-chairs William H. Cole IV, president and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation, and Scot T. Spencer, of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The Baltimore area Collaborative looked at three topic areas: Workforce, Housing and Transportation for our 2.7 million resident region. The Baltimore Regional Plan for Sustainable Development (RPSD) was released to the public during a gathering at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.
Kelly said that "coordination between the right people is at the core of this plan". The press release for the event promises that [the plan] "will help the Baltimore region coordinate investments in housing, transportation and workforce development to reduce disparities and connect all of our citizens to a prosperous future".
Kelly observed that the plan provides a "comprehensive menu of options" for change. "Resources are shrinking everywhere, which makes it even more important that we coordinate". We need "wrap- around services" and not only solve one problem at a time, not just child care, not just transportation, not just skills but all of the wrapped into one.
A few more details about the Baltimore "Opportunity Collaborative"
The "Opportunity Collaborative"was led by Michaell Kelly, director of BMC and co-chairs William H. Cole IV, president and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation, and Scot T. Spencer, of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
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| Michael Kelly, Scott Spencer and Bill Cole respond to questions about the report. |
Kelly said that "coordination between the right people is at the core of this plan". The press release for the event promises that [the plan] "will help the Baltimore region coordinate investments in housing, transportation and workforce development to reduce disparities and connect all of our citizens to a prosperous future".
Kelly observed that the plan provides a "comprehensive menu of options" for change. "Resources are shrinking everywhere, which makes it even more important that we coordinate". We need "wrap- around services" and not only solve one problem at a time, not just child care, not just transportation, not just skills but all of the wrapped into one.
William Cole who started his work on the board as a city council person before he was appointed to become the CEO of BDC noted that "the areas we need to focus on as a city are not surprisingly the same for the region as well". "We have a hard time getting residents to the job centers under 90 minutes", often times we have "last mile issues". Cole demanded that the regional conversation needs to "create an interconnected public transportation system. Connected places are places where more businesses want to be" he said during the interview.
The full report can be found here.
Links:
BBJ article about the event
This article and many more are also published on the Sustainable Cities Collective website.
State Senator Ferguson commented that we know the problem and asked: "do we have the courage to act?" Towards action some parts of the grant have been award to a total of 15 "demonstration projects" to date.
Harriet Tregoning, Director of the HUD Office of Community Development closed the event with a reminder that it is such a good coincidence that this report with its systemic solutions could be released only six weeks after the Baltimore "events". This program has nurtured leadership and forced HUD to look at community again. She observed that the unrest was not a Sandtown problem and that Sandtown was not an anamoly but could have happened in many other communities. "You have momentum" Tregoning exclaimed, look it as a "commencement event".
The full report can be found here.
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| Speaker Senator Bill Ferguson addresses the crowd in front of the backdrop of Baltimore's "old industries" (Domino Sugar) |
Links:
BBJ article about the event
This article and many more are also published on the Sustainable Cities Collective website.
Here a complete list of Community Architect articles published there.
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