Jennifer Bradley Senior Research Associate Buffalo, NY June 18, 2009

1. How Recent Federal Policy Supports Metropolitan Collaboration Jennifer Bradley Senior Research Associate Buffalo, NY June 18, 2009

2. Overview Why do metro areas matter to economic recovery and prosperity? I II How well does ARRA empower cities and metro areas? How are metro areas beginning to respond with regional action and creativity? III IV What are emerging opportunities in the federal budget?

3. Long-run economic growth depends on investment in the drivers of prosperity To prosper, the U.S. must leverage four key assets Human Capital Innovation Infrastructure Quality Places + Governance

4. 12% 65% Our country’s 100 largest metro areas hold the bulk of the assets of the U.S. economy Land Area Population 92% 79% 78% 74% U.S. Air Cargo Weight Public Transit Miles College Graduates Patents Source: Brookings analysis of U.S Census Bureau, BLS, and, BEA data

5. These metro areas collectively generate 75% of U.S. GDP, and will drive our economic recovery

6. The Great Lakes states are metropolitan states * In these states, the smaller metro areas, rather than the metros in the top 100 nationally, are what make them “metro states” ** Greater New York City alone counts for 64 percent of the state population and 76 percent of state GDP Source: Brookings Analysis of Census and BEA Data

7. Overview Why do metro areas matter to economic recovery and prosperity? I II How well does ARRA empower cities and metro areas? How are metro areas beginning to respond with regional action and creativity? III IV What are emerging opportunities in the federal budget?

8. ARRA was conceived to respond to a crisis—one of the worst economic contractions since the Great Depression As it was signed in February: • The nation’s unemployment rate hit 8.1 percent • GDP was announced to have fallen more than 6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 • Job losses had exceeded 600,000 for the third consecutive month

9. From the very beginning, an insistence on swift action characterized the debate “If we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.” -President Obama, January 24, 2009

10. ARRA balances tax cuts, investments, and aid Source: Center for American Progress

11. $400 Green investments Other investments (highways, health, etc.) $300 Aid for states and localities Help for those most in need $200 Tax cut stimulus $100 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 A substantial portion of the stimulus funds must be spent within the next two years Annual spending, in billions Source: Center for American Progress

12. But is speed the correct goal? SLOW PROCEED WITH CAUTION While we think that crisis breeds innovation, the speed with which ARRA was enacted had the opposite effect at the federal level

13. ARRA is business as usual … at warp speed Thus, it’s not surprising that ARRA is disappointing from a metropolitan perspective: • Inherent anti-urban bias • Narrow definition of accountability • Categorically siloed programs • Proliferation of recipients

14. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Federal Railroad Administration Federal Transit Administration Highway Infrastructure Intercity Rail Transit Capital Amtrak State Department of Transportation State Rail Program Transit Authority Metropolitan Planning Organization Local Executive Especially troublesome will be the typical mix of siloed money flows and rifts between key actors

15. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration Job Training in Renewable Energy and Emerging Industries Community Service Jobs for Older Americans Adult, Youth, and Dislocated Worker Job Training National Non-Profit Organizations State Agencies State Agencies Workforce Investment Boards Workforce Investment Boards? Local Government Agencies Local Non-Profit Organizations Local Executive Especially troublesome will be the typical mix of siloed money flows and rifts between key actors

16. And yet, ARRA also invests substantially in what matters • Directs hundreds of billions of dollars toward bolstering the economy’s key assets • Provides impetus for metropolitan collaboration and policy coordination in some areas

17. About $335 billion out of $787 billion is directed toward the key assets that drive long-run prosperity Source: Brookings analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

18. Notable investment categories include: • $50 billion in federal research and development (R&D) funding critical to innovation activities in local universities, labs, health complexes, and research centers • $125 billion in direct funding for education and human capital cultivation, including billions in funds for incentives to states and $650 million to support innovative approaches in struggling school districts • $126 billion in spending on transportation, energy grid, water-sewer, and other infrastructure • $34 billion to support energy retrofits of buildings, community development, inner-city business development, and transit—things that contribute to the creation of sustainable, quality places in metropolitan America

19. Other provisions provide an impetus for metropolitan collaboration and policy coordination • $750 million for connecting worker training to high-growth and emerging industries could spur regional approaches to worker training that may bolster regional industry cluster growth • $1.5 billion in competitive grants for major transportation projects, which could provide opportunities to link transportation, housing, energy, and environmental programs • $3.2 billion in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants could be used for metropolitan strategies to reduce driving and conserve energy in other coordinated ways • $2 billion in competitive grants for Neighborhood Stabilization that may support consortia of nonprofits serving multi-jurisdictional areas hit hard by housing crisis

20. Overview Why do metro areas matter to economic recovery and prosperity? I II How well does ARRA empower cities and metro areas? How are metro areas beginning to respond with regional action and creativity? III IV What are emerging opportunities in the federal budget?

21. Characteristics of Regional Innovation in ARRA Regionally, creative solutions often: • Invest in projects or initiatives that reflect regional priorities and realities • Are multi-jurisdictional or multi-sector at the regional scale • Adopt integrated, silo-busting approaches • Embrace multidimensional outcomes (e.g. sustainability and inclusion) • Embody strong state and metro partnerships

22. Categories of Emerging Metropolitan Collaboration around ARRA State Driven MPO Driven Independent Collaborations

23. State Driven: California California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency • Working with 12 regions across the state to distribute and maximize the impact of ARRA funds • Their goal is to “ensure the federal stimulus funds will achieve the highest economic impact” • Each region is encouraged to create a Regional Economic Recovery Work Plan that supports economic recovery by: • Leveraging resources • Expediting infrastructure spending • Supporting the growth of business and innovation • Promoting workforce development • Enhancing environmental quality Website: www.bth.ca.gov

24. State Driven: California The Bay Area Council Economic Institute • Public-private organization charged with developing the 9-county Bay Area’s economic recovery plan • Plan summarizes regional strategies and priorities in transportation, water, energy efficiency, workforce training, housing market sustainability, science and innovation, notes which individual jurisdictions or agency proposals best align with the strategy and priorities • All localities can forward their individual plans to the state – exclusion from the regional plan is not fatal Website: www.bayeconfor.org/recovery/index.html

25. MPO Driven: Seattle Metro Puget Sound Regional Council • MPO’s prosperity partnership coalition created a clearinghouse of competitive ARRA funding opportunities and regional project ideas • Also convenes regular meetings of regional stakeholders to share ideas, match potential regional partners, work on most promising regional applications for competitive funds • Not a regional application system, and does not preclude individual governments from submitting their own grant applications Website: www.psrc.org/recovery.htm

26. MPO Driven: Kansas City Metro The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) • In absence of state leadership, MARC is articulating regional policy priorities (bi-state, 9 counties, 120 municipalities) • MARC is currently developing an ARRA implementation strategy at regional level: • Coordinating local implementation of grants and link up multi-jurisdictionally when possible (weatherization; job training; and neighborhood stabilization) • Conceptualizing support for regional projects (public health and health information sharing; regional traffic management system) • Aligning regional resources to a targeted neighborhood of high distress yet major assets Website: www.marc.org

27. Independent Collaborations: Seattle Metro Puget Sound New Energy Solutions • Fourteen city and county governments and four regional and local utilities cooperating in advancing the same regional sustainability framework • Coordinating investments in energy efficiency, clean mobility, smart grids to get the most out of the stimulus formula allocations and be better positioned to win competitive grant awards • Specifically, guiding coordination of EECBG applications and competitive ARRA grant proposals

28. Memphis City and Shelby County Independent Collaborations: City of Choice Initiative • Establishing shared objectives for stimulus spending, 12 priority areas and resources for reaching the goals • Vision of using ARRA funds to achieve “game-changing” goals in the priority areas

29. Southern Cook County Suburbs (Chicago) Independent Collaborations: South Suburban Housing Initiative • Twelve suburban Chicago communities coordinating NSP round 1 funding, supported by MPO, regional non-profit • Hired a coordinator for its inter-jurisdictional housing collaborative to align the policies, programs, and resources of participating towns • Creating, among other things, a unified zoning code overlay to make things easier for interested developers. • Will use this as a platform for the NSP2 competitive round funding

30. Metropolitan Collaboration: Common Themes • Voluntary collaboration • Prospect of competition spurring efforts to collaborate, coordinate • Collaboration filling capacity gaps, lowering transaction costs

31. Overview Why do metro areas matter to economic recovery and prosperity? I II How well does ARRA empower cities and metro areas? How are metro areas beginning to respond with regional action and creativity? III IV What are emerging opportunities in the federal budget?

32. Emerging Opportunities: Sustainability HUD’s $150 million Sustainable Communities Initiative to “integrate transportation and housing planning decisions in a way that maximizes choices for residents and businesses, lowers transportation costs and drives more sustainable development patterns” • MPOs, CDBG teams apply for competitive grants to support integrated regional development plans – cross-border, cross-policy silos • Grants for localities to align local zoning and land use rules with larger regional visions • Funds for research and innovation by HUD and DOT

33. Emerging Opportunities: Innovation Department of Energy’s $280 million request to fund eight new Energy Innovation Hubs aimed at supporting “cross-disciplinary research and development focused on the barriers to transforming energy technologies into commercially deployable materials, devices, and systems,” replicating the success of the department’s three regionally sited Bioenergy Research Centers. Department of Labor’s Economic Development Administration’s request for $50 million for a national research and information center on the geography of regional innovation clusters

34. Emerging Opportunities: Land Use Community Regeneration, Sustainability and Innovation Act, 2009 (Introduced) Would support multi-jurisdictional or regional approaches to addressing vacant and abandoned property through: • Regional land banks • Regional land use plans • Networks of green infrastructure

35. For More Information Metro Potential in ARRA: An Early Assessment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Metro Program’s Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Analysis and Other Related Commentary Jennifer Bradley jbradley@brookings.edu Senior Research Associate Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program