Government Affairs-Economic Development and Regionalism | Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber

Research Topics and Trends

Recent articles published in Economic Development America focus on the continuing trend of innovative regional economic development.

In Expanding Boundaries – Opportunities for Innovative Regional Economic Development Strategies, Lora Lee Martin discusses the benefits of a regional approach as an economic development strategy.

Benefits of a regional approach:

Advantages to sharing and leveraging assets, expenses, and programs, especially with tight budgets.
Increase competitive advantage through partnerships.
Diversification of economic strategy.
Increase competitiveness on national and international scale by reducing immediate local competition.
Realignment of a region’s resources.
Expanded geographically defined area for economic development purposes.
Confidence in a region’s marketplace through elimination of jurisdictional hurdles.
Larger community networks allow for variety of linked resources.

Source: Economic Development America, Economic Development Administration, US Department of Commerce. Spring 2004. See EDA website for newsletter. www.eda.gov.

According to Michael Porter, a region is productive when it has four basic ingredients:

High quality inputs, such as labor or physical infrastructure. Intellectual and scientific infrastructure must be improving.
An environment or business climate that is encouraging investment in physical assets, technology and people. The regulatory process encourages innovation rather than holding it back.
Takes advantage of sophisticated local needs wherever possible.
Industries and firms in a given field clustered together.

Source: Michael Porter on Essential Elements by Anne Habiby, Economic Development America, Economic Development Administration, US Department of Commerce. Spring 2004. See EDA website for newsletter. www.eda.gov.

In CEO’s for Cities report, The New Metropolitan Alliances: Regional Collaboration for Economic Development, a number of regional communities were studied.

The project’s rationale is centered on the fact that cities and their regions have complex interdependent economies that are inextricably linked. Previously, community leaders of were fragmented and concerned with only their own territory, much to the detriment of the region. Now, political and business leaders have created structures that recognize the interdependence of cites and surrounding suburbs, modeling that regional cooperation and alliance are essential to ensure a better future.

Political, constitutional and economic barriers may make regional collaboration difficult.
The report listed the following four barriers to regional action:
•    Local control over land use
•    Rigidity of political jurisdictional boundaries
•    Increasing devolution of state power to localities under home rule
•    Resistance to tax sharing.

The five economic development organizations studied include two in Chicago, SANDAG in San Diego, San Francisco and Milwaukee. Each region faced specific challenges, and overcame them in unique ways.

In Chicago, the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus supports the authentic representation of 270 municipalities through a delegation of 45 members of nine sub-regional conferences. Participation was limited to mayors only as they could speak for their governments and have potential to bind municipalities into regional alliance. Similarly, the Jane Addams Resource Corporation, charged with establishing relationships between employers and job-training programs, combined with city, college and the area’s manufacturing association to form the Regional Manufacturing Training Collaborative.

Hit by defense downsizing, San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) sought to help defense-related businesses convert to other products and to expand high technology in the region. The San Diego Regional Biotechnology Initiative is a cooperative of six organizations that respond to the needs of existing and new biotechnology firms. Partners include the regional development organization, community colleges, a university and the industry association.

The Milwaukee Jobs Initiative helps local government, community organizations and educational institutions create a workforce development system that targets well-paying jobs with benefits and advancement potential. The MJI was created to reduce the gap in unemployment rates between the city and suburbs. The Initiative focuses on recruiting and training inner-city residents for jobs throughout the metroopolitan region. To date, more than 1,100 workers have been placed in manufacturing jobs with an average wage of $11.00 per hour.

When the San Francisco’s Bay Area Council, public policy organization that involves the CEOs of more than 275 corporations, addressed workforce development issues in the Bay Area, the main challenge was that of affordable housing. The group formed the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Development, a consortium of 40 organizations and five government agencies, to develop a consensus of regional development policies. The group also established the Community Capital Investment initiative to generate private-sector funds for affordable housing.

Among the lessons learned were:

To focus on issues where communities’ interests are aligned.
Creating an organizational structure that prevents any one organization from dominating.
Private sector expertise in raising capital can help finance regional alliances.
Labor and business communities have strengths that complement each other.
There is a need for a common language with which all partners are comfortable.
New regional alliances do not always require new organizations.
Strong leadership in all organizations makes cooperation possible.
Trust can be built structurally through alliance governance.

The New Metropolitan Alliances: Regional Collaboration for Economic Development, Joan Fitzgerald and David Perry, CEO’s for Cities. Spring 2002.