Chris Briem and Richard Florida

Chris Briem, one of the Pittsburgh area’s most beloved bloggers, brought my attention to a Richard Florida piece in the April 12th edition of The Wall Street Journal.

The money quote?

The real driving force of the world economy is a new and incredibly powerful economic unit: the mega-region.

And where do we line up?

The world’s largest mega is Greater Tokyo, with 55 million people and $2.5 trillion in economic activity. Next is the 500-mile Boston-Washington corridor, with some 54 million people and $2.2 trillion in output. Also in the top 10 are mega-regions that run from Chicago to Pittsburgh, Atlanta to Charlotte, Miami to Tampa, and L.A. to San Diego. Outside of the U.S., you can find megas around Amsterdam, London, Osaka and Nagoya, Milan, Rome and Turin, and Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

I wouldn’t have started this project if I didn’t believe our ‘mega-region’ stretches beyond Chicago and Pittsburgh, but it is heartening nonetheless to see this idea find its way into another major American opinion page. And yes, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Detroit Free Press are major opinion pages, thank you very much.

Good for you, and you, and you…

We’ve previously talked about the clear economic benefits of Great Lakes restoration. The Brookings Institution’s Healthy Waters, Healthy Economy report demonstrates that implementing the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy would, with an investment of $26 billion, create between $80 and $100 billion worth of benefits. But while this report made a convincing argument that we’d see a return in increased property values, tourism, fishing, and decreased municipal costs, among other categories, it didn’t answer the question: where?

Now Brookings and partners (the Council of Great Lakes Industries, the Healing Our Waters Coalition, and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative) have created a supplement that might be sufficiently local to get the attention of our local leaders. You can read the press release here, and the Place-Specific Benefits report here.  An excerpt from the press release:

“Millions of people depend on the Great Lakes for their drinking water, recreation and way of life,” said Andy Buchsbaum, co-chair of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. “This analysis shows us that restoring the Great Lakes isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.  Cleaner lakes mean a healthier regional economy and a healthier place to call home. The time to act is now.”

Buffalonians, Come Home!

From Ann Mestrovich in Buffalo:

From June 24th through June 27th, thousands of Buffalo natives and anyone interested in experiencing the Queen City at its best will come “home” to rediscover what makes this city so great. This event was started in 2006 by a grassroots group of volunteers looking to celebrate the city and bring others back. This year’s outreach will include a home-grown campaign to “Bring the Herd Home,” where locals will be asked to register and invite five friends home for the event.

For more information visit: www.buffalohomecoming.com

What is Buffalo Homecoming?

Buffalo Homecoming 2008 is a celebration of the best of Buffalo for those who are in Buffalo because they want to be, and for those who are not in Buffalo, but wish they were…

What Are We REALLY Trying To Accomplish?

We believe that the Buffalo Homecoming event can play a critical role in:

• Keeping those who want to be in Buffalo here

• Bringing back those who have left but would prefer to be in Buffalo

• Attracting creative class urban professionals of all ages to Buffalo

• Showcasing Buffalo’s many often over-looked assets and revealing the Buffalo and Western New York area as a vibrant, growing community

• Showing why Buffalo Niagara is a great place to live, work, play and invest to a broad group of individuals who care

PGH and DET, On a Spectrum

As you surely know if you’ve read What is GLUE?, this project came about after Abby and I moved back to our hometowns, Pittsburgh and Detroit, respectively, within six months of each other.  We started talking - a lot - about the similarities we were finding.  As a metro-Detroiter, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if everyone knew how much our two cities have in common?  We have so much to learn from Pittsburgh!”  Through thoughts like that, the comparative conversation that became GLUE was born.

People often ask us which of the cities we visit now are “dying,” and which are on their way “back.”  We like to try to point out the flawed assumptions that underlie this question.

First, we exist on a spectrum of city health.  Pittsburgh’s resilience, as discussed in this article urging Detroit Freep readers to look to Pittsburgh for some positive ideas about our potential future, is evidence.  Thirty years ago, people might have described Pittsburgh as “dying,” but today, despite its continued challenges, no one would make that mistake.

Second, we don’t want to go “back.”  Even in their 20th century heyday, our cities weren’t exactly Urban Gardens of Eden.  What we have now is the opportunity to refuse to repeat the same bad decisions - highways that wipe out neighborhoods and make fleeing to the suburbs easier, for instance - that we made in the 1950s and 60s.  We have the opportunity not to return to the conditions of the early 20th century, but to move to an economically, socially, and physically healthier future.

Let’s all look to our other GL friends for ideas about how to achieve that.

Sticky People at Work

Indy

Milwaukee

Cleveland

Sticky Results, Unfiltered, #1

Last week, GLUE held its first-ever, region-wide local brainstorming sessions. At these Sticky City Meetings, participants in each city listed their homes’ greatest challenges and most promising ideas or valuable assets. After each city finished its brainstorm, participants’ notes were sent to another GL city, who responded to the similarities, differences, and with ideas worth sharing. Everybody wanted to keep talking after the 1.5-hr meetings were over - evidence to the GLUE Team that people are ready for this kind of conversation. The topics of future meetings will be set based on the commonalities that emerged during Meeting #1. Stay tuned to GLUE’s Local Page for future events.

Below are links to the results: raw notes scribed during the simultaneous meetings on 4.8. Analysis, and the product of the five meetings on 4.10, to follow.

Buffalo Brainstorm + Reply from Columbus, 4.8.08

Chicago Brainstorm + Reply from Rochester, 4.8.08

Columbus Brainstorm + Reply from Flint, 4.8.08

Flint Brainstorm + Reply from Indianapolis, 4.8.08

Indianapolis Brainstorm + Reply from Chicago, 4.8.08

Milwaukee Brainstorm + Reply from Buffalo, 4.8.08

Rochester Brainstorm + Reply from Milwaukee, 4.8.08

I’m stickier than I was yesterday… But not as much as tomorrow!

Last night GLUE held its first set of Sticky City Round-Ups. Based on the initial feedback we received, this conversation was long overdue. To those of you who weren’t able to make it, fear not. It’s only the beginning.

I would of course be remiss if I didn’t extend a loud, bloggy thank you to our participants and organizers. Attendance at local outposts ranged from three to sixteen people. Like so many big, optimistic, complex undertakings, we’re starting small, and the contribution of every single person is significant. Future meetings will likely double or triple these numbers. Every single one of you has a role to play in this project as we move forward.

Below you’ll find a quick list of which cities talked. After TOMORROW’s meetings, we’ll be able to process all the feedback and get into the substance of these comparisons

Indianapolis gave feedback to Flint

Rochester gave feedback to Chicago

Flint gave feedback to Columbus

Milwaukee gave feedback to Rochester

Chicago gave feedback to Indianapolis

Columbus gave feedback to Buffalo

Buffalo gave feedback to Milwaukee

One particular quote made me especially happy, as it relates to our hopes for a Great Lakes Presidential debate!

(from Rochester)

Hello Chicago

We both have senators bidding for the opportunity to run for the White House – this could help to advance our causes, especially if GLUE is able to get an urban agenda into the national discussion.

Tomorrow’s round-ups will take place in Pittsburgh, PA, Detroit, MI, Cleveland, OH, Duluth, MN, Toledo, OH, and St. Louis, MO

Next month’s Round-Ups will take place on MAY 8th and MAY 13th.

Stay tuned for feedback in the coming days!

Can (insert your city’s name here) Ever Come Back? By Anthony Armstrong, Buffalo, NY

On Friday, April 18th, noted Harvard Economics Professor Edward Glaeser will be in Buffalo as part of a panel to discuss his take on Buffalo and what can/should be done with our city (Resurrecting Buffalo). If you haven’t heard about Glaeser before, well then he probably hasn’t written a controversial article about the fate of your hometown.

Published in the New York Sun and in City Journal , the article — “Can Buffalo Ever Come Back?” — came out in Autumn 2007. Ok, fairly objective and intriguing so far, but then the City Journal version tacked on the subtitle: “Probably not — and government should stop bribing people to stay there.”

Though he was invited here by the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, and the Buffalo Branch of the Federal Reserve, it may seem to some like Glaeser is attempting the journalistic equivalent of insulting your mother and then coming over to have dinner with you and all of your siblings at your parents’ house (FYI, Prof. Glaeser: I have four brothers).

As to the content of the article itself, though, aside from some broad assumptions about human wants, a somewhat ham-handed approach to local history, and the obligatory misinformed Buffalo-weather insults, there are some kernels of insight embedded that would serve to spark productive discussions on the plight of our city.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve ever thought we would be better off if the oft mis-appropriated quip “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” was applied instead to headline writers. But when the opener is so far over the top that finding the article’s merits is more difficult for most Buffalonians than finding an Ottawa Senators fan at the Anchor Bar (FYI: if you do find one, it’s probably one of my brothers, so be nice), you have a problem.

Nevertheless, I encourage you to read this article. Why? Members of the GLUE network will see pretty clearly that Buffalo herein serves merely as a trope for any Great Lakes (f/k/a Rust Belt) city. So how would you respond (in a productive way) if this article had been about your city instead, and if you had been asked to represent the ‘younger leader’ contingent here in a public forum? I have. Please post your thoughts here or get in contact with me to discuss.

I certainly have my own take on the situation here in Buffalo, but would like as much as possible to inject the perspectives of all of you out there who are not only trying to make it in the Great Lakes cities, but trying to make the Great Lakes cities better in the process.

Contact: aarmstrong@lisc.org

What would you ask a candidate?

If you had ten minutes with the presidential candidates, what Great Lakes Region specific question would you ask them?  Do you want to know how they’d fund Great Lakes restoration, and on what timeline?  Or how they plan to turn our urban schools around?  Will they prioritize urban infrastructure repair?  Would they incentivize the creation of green jobs in our cities?  How would they work with Canada to develop a bi-national agenda for our region?

Post a comment with your question for the candidates.

My Mega-Regional Easter Basket: Pittsburgh IS a Great Lakes City!

I have had several recent conversations with some of Pittsburgh’s self-identified regional taxonomists who disagree with GLUE’s categorization of the burgh as a Great Lakes city. I will be the first to admit we are not dealing with a cut and dry categorization here.

The term “Rustbelt” is pejorative and anachronistic but attractively gritty in certain circumstances.

Alternatively, I’ve taken to experimenting with a “Midwest” tag. With only anecdotal evidence available, I’ll tell you that it hasn’t been pretty. I’m not sure exactly what the fuss is all about, but there seems to be general agreement amongst Pittsburgh natives I know that it simply will not fly.

One protester of the “Midwest” stamp went so far as to say that Pittsburgh is the capital of America’s “Middle-East” region. Does that mean we will need to start naming, and re-pronouncing, places in Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi in addition to the Pittsburgh-ization of French names (think North Versailles, or Ver-sayles)?

Then of course there’s the “Mid-Atlantic” distinction. OK, I haven’t really given it a chance. The term wants to be followed by “Sales VP” or “Regional Manager” - an org chart classifier, perhaps, but not much else. I do not anticipate legions of Pittsburghers rallying around a call for Mid-Atlantic revitalization.

Jim Marczak did not put the taxonomy issue to bed in yesterday’s Post-Gazette, but he did proudly associate us with our freshwater oasis to the north, Lake Erie. My ardent hope is that his piece marked the beginning of a sincerely felt Great Lakes identity in Pittsburgh.

Among my favorite passages:

“Let’s face it, the Pittsburgh area is not really competing against Cleveland and Buffalo and Toronto. The entire Great Lakes region is competing for the next international investment dollar with Shanghai and Mumbai and Dubai, and we must work together to make it more attractive to investors.”

Making the region more attractive to international investors may not be the only reason mega-regionalism rings my chimes, but it’s a big one. As Erie’s twenty-something green-trepreneur Lucas McConnell said to me in January, “There is no reason industry can’t be responsible for the reemergence of this region as a global force. It will just be a different kind of industry.” Hear, hear!

If we exclude cities that don’t literally abut the Great Lakes from our regional concept, we severely undercut the potential power of cooperation.