ShareThisBy GARY ROTSTEIN
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Monday, May 21, 2007
States are coming up short in giving help to their struggling cities, according to a new report that suggests many urban areas are ripe to take advantage of any aid.
The study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington research center that often focuses on urban policy, said Rust Belt states are failing to take advantage of their older cities' potential to draw residential and economic development, identifying 65 "distressed" cities nationally in need of help.
Such Northeast-Midwest cities usually have the kind of waterfronts, public transit, walkable streets, historic architecture and educational, medical and cultural centers increasingly desired by both young and old residents, the report noted.
But too often, the analysis said, the municipalities lack the necessary support for tax financing, intergovernmental cooperation, downtown revitalization and neighborhood improvement. Usually, more focus has been placed on what the federal government can do to help cities than on state initiatives.
"The state is central to this -- the cities are just creatures of the state," Bruce Katz, director of Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program, said in a briefing on the report. "States, through their tax and regulatory policy and governance, have a dramatic effect on the ability of cities to build off their assets and strengths."
In its urban strategies, he said, Pennsylvania has been ahead of many counterparts, in no small part because its governor, Ed Rendell, was formerly mayor of Philadelphia. That viewpoint was echoed by municipal advocates around the state, but, like Katz, they also said many city-oriented issues remained to be addressed.
"Whereas the state doesn't need to take care of everything, they need to give localities the tools to make necessary changes," said Kathryn Z. Klaber, executive director of the Pennsylvania Economy League of Southwestern Pennsylvania. She noted one estimate that state action to alter the fragmented municipality-by-municipality tax-collection system could help net $100 million now being lost annually by local governments.
Brookings officials said they aren't calling for governmental mergers, a hot-button topic, but rather more incentives for regional collaboration.
The positive note for mid-sized and large cities, according to the Brookings report, is the lifestyle and amenities they offer that smaller communities can't. The 1990s brought a turnaround in population and economics for many cities elsewhere in the nation, and Rust Belt counterparts may yet be able to catch up.
The report said urban centers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New York and elsewhere were often victims of "benign neglect," in the best cases, or policies such as new road construction that rewarded migration of people and jobs to the metropolitan fringes.
"Major demographic shifts -- robust immigration, an aging population and changing family structures -- are altering the size, makeup and locational choices of the nation's households, to the benefit of the cities that offer the opportunities and amenities these groups seek," the report said. "Economic trends -- globalization, the demand for educated workers, the increasing role of universities -- are providing cities with an unprecedented chance to capitalize upon their economic advantages and regain their competitive edge."
States should help them meet those goals, according to the Brookings analysis, by:
-- Helping address basic urban needs such as reducing crime and improving neighborhood schools.
-- Assisting downtowns and industries such as education, medicine and culture that play to city strengths.
-- Supporting infrastructure repairs and central redevelopment efforts such as waterfronts and public parks.
-- Helping turn low-income residents into a vibrant middle class with better vocational training and work-related benefits.
-- Strengthening neighborhoods with backing of mixed-income housing developments and historic renovation projects.
With such initiatives, Katz said, "We think the time is ripe for cities to perform at the highest level ... and city revival is directly connected to metropolitan revival. ..."
The new report, "Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities," can be found at www.brookings.edu.
(Gary Rotstein can be reached at grotstein(at)post-gazette.com)
