Blueprint for American Prosperity - An Economic Plan for the Commonwealth: Unleashing the Assets of Metropolitan Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, the next major presidential primary state, concerns about the economy loom large as global competition, economic restructuring, and an aging workforce threaten the state’s ability to prosper. A true economic agenda for the state must speak to the core assets of Pennsylvania’s economy and where these assets are located: the state’s many small and large metropolitan areas. In short, this brief finds that:
- To help Pennsylvania prosper, federal leaders must leverage four key assets that matter today—innovation, human capital, infrastructure, and quality places. These assets help increase the productivity of firms and workers, boost the incomes of families and workers, and can help the state and nation grow in more fiscally and environmentally responsible ways.
- These four assets are highly concentrated in the state’s economic engines, its metropolitan areas. There are 16 metro areas in the Commonwealth, ranging from Philadelphia, the most populous, to Williamsport, the smallest. The top six metropolitan areas alone generate the bulk of the state’s innovation (80 percent of all patenting), contain the majority of the state’s educated workforce (77 percent of all adults with a bachelors degree), and serve as the state’s transport hubs. Thanks to these assets, the six metro areas generate 80 percent of the state’s economic output even though they house 68 percent of its population.
- Despite these assets, Pennsylvania’s metro areas have yet to achieve their full economic potential. For instance, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh enjoy strengths in innovation, but they both struggle to convert their research investments into commercial products and real jobs. The Scranton metro area is emerging as a satellite of the New York City region, but it’s hampered by the absence of frequent and reliable transportation connections and inadequate broadband coverage.
- Federal leaders must advance an economic agenda that empowers states and metro areas to leverage their assets and help the nation prosper. To that end, they should establish a single federal entity that works with industry, states, and metro areas to ensure that innovation results in jobs and helps businesses small and large modernize. The federal government should strengthen access and success through the entire education pipeline. They should overhaul and create a 21st century transportation system. And they should use housing policy to support quality, mixed-income communities rather than perpetuating distressed neighborhoods with few school and job options.
Media
Report says federal planning key to prosperous Phila., Philadelphia Business Journal, April 1, 2008
"For Pennsylvania to prosper, federal leaders must advance an economic plan that leverages the state's four key assets -- innovation, human capital, infrastructure and quality places -- according to a report released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.
The presidential candidates need to talk more about policies that would help leverage these key areas, but they've been largely silent on them while campaigning in Pennsylvania, according to the report."
Commentary - Four core assets key to our competitiveness, DC Examiner, April 2, 2008
"In Pennsylvania, the next major presidential primary state, concerns about the economy loom large as global competition, economic restructuring and an aging work force threaten the state’s ability to prosper."
Northeast Pa. placed at bottom among state’s economic assets, Wilkes-Barre Citizen's Voice, April 2, 2008
"The metro area’s relatively low educational levels and technological limitations create a lag in productivity, a The metro area’s relatively low educational levels and technological limitations create a lag in productivitynew think tank analysis concludes.
“Northeast Pennsylvania has gone through a difficult period of restructuring,” said Amy Liu, deputy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning Washington, D.C., research group. “It is trying hard to adapt to the new rules of the global economy.”
Will Americans invest in America?, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 3, 2008
"We've watched Pennsylvania invest in stadiums and hockey arenas, and make a big bet on slot machines. We've had enough diversions. When America is ready to do something serious about the way we live now, it should call on Americans." For the complete article, please
click here.
Changing Skyline: Campaigns Ignoring City Issues, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 4, 2008
"There are three times as many urbanites in America as country folk, yet you wouldn't know it listening to the three main presidential candidates, or perusing their Web sites. Instead, you might come away thinking the United States is a collection of Norman Rockwell small towns surrounded by picture-book farms. "
Pennsylvania's Cities Deserve Attention for Good of Entire Commonwealth, Allentown Morning Call, April 6, 2008
"The Brookings Institution, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C., wrote a landmark report about
Pennsylvania's economy in 2003. It illuminated the ''hollowing out'' of cities as a major drag on the economy and the quality of the lives people have here. It laid out a series of reforms that might fairly fit under the heading ''smart growth.''
For the complete article, please
click here.
Pennsylvania Primary, WAMU-AM, April, 8, 2008
Please
click here to listen to the radio interview.
Forget Obama, Clinton. Brookings has a plan to 'unleash' PA, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 8, 2008
"With the Presidential candidates traipsing across Pennsylvania touting their plans to fix the U.S. economy, can the think tanks be far behind?
The Brookings Institution released a report today that suggests things the federal government might try to capitalize on the assets of metropolitan Pennsylvania." For the complete article, please
click here.
Pennsylvania is a Metro State - America is a Metro Nation, April 10, 2008
"Today, Bruce Katz was in Harrisburg to meet with policy makers and community leaders to discuss "An Economic Plan for the Commonwealth: Unleashing the Assets of Metropolitan Pennsylvania". I was privileged to hear a customized version of his Metro America presentation, with specific slides for Pennsylvania." Please click here for the
blog entry.
Our Path to the Future, Harrisburg Patriot-News, April 13, 2008
"Amy Liu and Bruce Katz of Brookings were in town last week to present their findings in relation to Pennsylvania. Their report is a logical followup to a major survey the think tank conducted in 2003 which determined that developmental sprawl hindered our state's efforts to revitalize its economic fortunes. The new study points to the economic power of the state's 16 metropolitan areas (as defined by the census bureau) and recommends how development dollars should be targeted at them."
All Benefit from Cities, but Few Pay, Harrisburg Patriot-News, April 13, 2008
"One complaint I have about living in a city is that I must drive to the suburbs to find the retail shopping I expect -- abundant choices with competitive prices."
Pa. economic revival lies in its metro assets, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 14, 2008
"In the long run-up to the Pennsylvania primary, there's been a good deal of candidate discussion of the state's economy and how to fix it.
But missing from the prescriptions of what the federal government would do and how it would do it has been a discussion of where it will happen.
That needs to change because place matters. For all the ink spilled on the declining fortunes of the commonwealth, there are many bright spots around the state that could be catalysts to growth and prosperity." For the complete article please
click here.
How would presidential candidates help cities thrive?, York Sunday News, April 20, 2008
"For all the talk of the Pennsylvania economy in the long run up to Tuesday's primary, it would seem that everything that could possibly be said has been.
However, particularly with all of the talk of despair and economic decline in some parts of Pennsylvania, one key point has been missing: It's not all bad." For 10,000 Friends' Chair of the Board Eric Menzer's complete op-ed, please
click here.
2007 Update on Pennsylvania Economy
Although the following are not direct publications of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, we participated in their conception and release. More information can be found about them
here.
Three new studies are sounding a warning bell for Pennsylvania municipalities and the state as a whole: without major changes in the structures and laws that govern municipalities and the way they are financed, and unless communities are empowered to work more closely together, their fiscal and physical integrity is at grave risk and the state's economy will continue to struggle in the coming decades.
The independent studies released by three major research institutions concurrently today are:
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an update of the 2003 "Back to Prosperity" report, entitled
"Committing to Prosperity," prepared by the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program for The Campaign to Renew Pennsylvania; and
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Water and Growth: Toward a Stronger Connection Between Water Supply and Land Use in Southeastern Pennsylvania
Water and Growth: Toward a Stronger Connection Between Water Supply and Land Use in Southeastern Pennsylvania shows that water supply infrastructure has expanded rapidly in the Philadelphia suburbs, outpacing population growth and supporting low-density development, despite substantial excess capacity in older communities. The report identifies the factors that contribute to inefficient water infrastructure investments and offers recommendations aimed at integrating land use and water resource policies. Please
click here to download a summary of the report.
Click here for a copy of the full report.
Sewage Facilities and Land Development - Study Summary
Infrastructure funding and policy priorities have a critical impact on how we grow. Decisions as to where we put water and sewer lines, roads, and schools, and how we pay for these needs play a big role in shaping our communities and the use of our natural resources.
For example, 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania research has found that conflicts between Pennsylvania’s land use and sewage facilities laws, regulations and implementation practices inhibit meaningful consistency between sewage facilities and land use planning. As a result, sewage facilities can be permitted almost anywhere, and this conflict has helped foster sprawling development patterns in southeastern Pennsylvania in the 1990s. Please
click here for the summary.
Planning Beyond Boundaries – A Multi-Municipal Planning and Implementation Manual for Pennsylvania Municipalities
Playning Beyond Boundaries is now available online. Please click here.
In November 2002, 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania released Planning Beyond Boundaries – A Multi-Municipal Planning and Implementation Manual for Pennsylvania Municipalities. Authored and edited primarily by Joanne R. Denworth, former president of 10,000 Friends, the manual is a how-to guide for municipalities that choose to work together through agreements to develop and implement a multi-municipal plan as authorized by the 2000 amendments to the Municipalities Planning Code.
The manual includes articles and contributions from Pennsylvania planners, lawyers, and others with special expertise in land use issues, and is chock full of details on planning practices and tools, case studies, sample agreements, legal analyses and other useful information. It's seven chapters are: Why Do It?; Getting Started; Planning I; Planning II; Adopting the Plan; Implementation; and Special Implementation Topics, including articles on planning for housing, infrastructure, water resources, open space, traditional neighborhood development, the specific plan, transfer of development rights, infill development, brownfields, transit-oriented development, and sharing of tax revenues.
The manual was developed with support from several foundations, as well as DCED's Center for Local Government Services. It has been used in Center training programs on multi-municipal planning and implementation, but is also available to interested municipal officials, professionals, and citizens. Please click here for the introduction and table of contents of the manual. Click here for ordering information.
The Costs of Sprawl in Pennsylvania - Executive Summary
Sprawling development imposes high costs on Pennsylvania residents and communities. These costs range from more than $100 million per year in capital construction for local governments to mushrooming traffic in suburbs, and the decline of cities, boroughs, and townships across the state. Because many of the costs of sprawl are hidden, the study also identifies who pays them. It explains how widespread, diffuse real estate development increases the costs of transportation and schools along with pollution and stress, while also consuming agricultural land and natural areas. The study was commissioned by 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania with several sponsoring organizations. Please
click here for the summary.
We will be adding new resources and publications to this section. Please check back again soon. Thank you for your patience.
