ARTICLE
A couple weeks back I attended the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership’s (MBEP) 2019 regional economic summit at the Monterey Conference Center. The 5th annual event was attended by a host of business, community and public sector leaders from the tri-county region (Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz County). It has taken me a couple weeks of reviewing my notes and defining the story line about our region. Having coordinated large gatherings for this Chamber and other business associations over the years, I know first-hand the challenges and logistics that take place behind the scene to pull off a quality day. Many thanks to Kate Roberts, the MBEP staff and the MBEP for putting on this event. Here are my takeaways from a very informative and insightful event. The Keynote speaker was Bruce Katz, the founding director of Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University in Philadelphia and co-author of The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism. Katz previously served as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Housing & Urban Development who has spent a career in academia, government and consulting on urban and metropolitan issues. The theme of the day: Don’t be fooled to think that Big Government (Sacramento or Washington DC) is coming to save our region and address the multitude of challenges before us. The fundamentals of governing have changed in this era of populism according the Katz. It is time that governments who operate in silos change their approach to issues of the day by accepting the reality that doing it locally (bottom up process) will create solution-oriented opportunities for a region. Essentially he noted that cities and counties are networks of people that need to follow a constructive planning course to meet goals and address challenges through what Katz termed, “Structural Effect.” Using the four pillars of a network: Innovation & Productivity, Diversity & Democracy, Economic Opportunity and Sustainable Development you can grow your region “smartly from the bottom-up.” Reverse engineering government works. He then shared case studies of three unique communities that needed to work from within to stem the tide of failing economic and environment unsustainable communities. 1) Pittsburgh: The Steel City of the 1970s was dying a slow deliberate death losing 10,000 jobs tied to an industry that was polluting the region and failing economically. The leaders of Pittsburgh turned to a secret sauce that was loosely connected to the major City’s universities. They formed the Oakland Innovation District to identify technologies where they captured the imagination of the future today — turning the Rust Belt to the Break Out using the brain trust in the technology advancement from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, forming a philanthropic investment towards a better future. The City began to think as an effective system and act like an entrepreneurial investor. The technology advancement in Pittsburgh was the shadow of innovation in bio science and artificial intelligence. Those industries are quickly changing the world. It all began because of an investment in community. Today, Pittsburgh is the center of innovation and has dramatically changed its workforce to meet a 21st Century society. 2) Indianapolis: Under the mayoral administration of Richard Lugar (who later became a US Senator) the city and county governments restructured, consolidating most public services into a new entity called Unigov. The plan removed bureaucratic redundancies, captured increasingly suburbanizing tax revenue, and created a political machine that dominated Indianapolis politics until the 2000s decade. Unigov went into effect on January 1, 1970, increasing the city's land area by 308.2 square miles and population by 268,366 people. It was the first major city-county consolidation to occur in the United States without a referendum since the creation of the City of Greater New York. Amid the changes in government and growth, the city invested in an aggressive strategy to brand Indianapolis as a sports tourism destination. Under the administration of the city's longest-serving mayor, William Hudnut (1976–1992), millions of dollars were poured into sport facilities. Throughout the 1980s, $122 million in public and private funding built the Indianapolis Tennis Center, Major Taylor Velodrome, Indiana University Natatorium, Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium, and Hoosier Dome and the 1984 relocation home of the NFL Baltimore Colts and the 1987 Pan American Games. The economic development strategy succeeded in revitalizing the central business district through the 1990s, with the openings of the Indianapolis Zoo, Canal Walk,[43] Circle Centre Mall, Victory Field, and Bankers Life Fieldhouse. 3) Copenhagen: Since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure. However, in the mid-1980s Copenhagen’s economy hit rock bottom with 17.5% unemployment and $750 million annual budget deficits. They needed to re-invent the city through infrastructure investments creating a different system to pay for their subway system. The City turned to reclaiming land as a Public Asset Corporation through public land sales to build its infrastructure without taxes. The transparent system merged public entities into a public private sector management model - these Public, Private Partnerships (PPPs) became an institutional model. The city is the cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark; it is one of the major financial centers of Northern Europe with the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Copenhagen's economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology, pharmaceuticals and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become increasingly integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö, forming the Øresund Region. Today, the City runs a $2 million surplus. It is a global leader in sustainability, 50% of the residents bike to work or school. The decentralized economic system is the model in Northern Europe. The MBEP Economic Summit provided a sounding board for our region to think locally and build a community of problem solvers. Katz concluded his remarks with three fundamental questions for us to ponder: 1) What is Your Edge? Identify you place and purpose. 2) Who’s in Charge? Define leaders who are action oriented and willing partners to be openly transparent for the cause. 3) Where is your power? Understand your strengths and weaknesses, audit and stress test your local institutions to make sure they are in sync toward a mutually beneficial goal. The final message of the day was coined in a question about political will. Yes, we can and do need support from Sacramento and Washington for certain things — the example was the little known language in the 2017 Federal legislation that created “Opportunity Zones” throughout the United States. The Opportunity Zone incentive is a new community investment tool established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to encourage long-term investments in low-income communities. The Act creates a tax incentive for investors to re-invest their capital gains into dedicated Qualified Opportunity Funds (“QOF”). Now, the transparent plan is to advantage capital gain funds for these Opportunity Zones in our region. Of the 8,762 census tracts across the country that have been designated as Opportunity Zones, our region has a couple identified that could lead to economic benefits for us. With smart planning and bottom up thinking, let’s create the ecosystem today to lead the tri-county region to invest in a brighter future.
A couple weeks back I attended the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership’s (MBEP) 2019 regional economic summit at the Monterey Conference Center. The 5th annual event was attended by a host of business, community and public sector leaders from the tri-county region (Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz County). It has taken me a couple weeks of reviewing my notes and defining the story line about our region. Having coordinated large gatherings for this Chamber and other business associations over the years, I know first-hand the challenges and logistics that take place behind the scene to pull off a quality day. Many thanks to Kate Roberts, the MBEP staff and the MBEP for putting on this event.
Here are my takeaways from a very informative and insightful event.
The Keynote speaker was Bruce Katz, the founding director of Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University in Philadelphia and co-author of The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism. Katz previously served as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Housing & Urban Development who has spent a career in academia, government and consulting on urban and metropolitan issues.
The theme of the day: Don’t be fooled to think that Big Government (Sacramento or Washington DC) is coming to save our region and address the multitude of challenges before us. The fundamentals of governing have changed in this era of populism according the Katz. It is time that governments who operate in silos change their approach to issues of the day by accepting the reality that doing it locally (bottom up process) will create solution-oriented opportunities for a region. Essentially he noted that cities and counties are networks of people that need to follow a constructive planning course to meet goals and address challenges through what Katz termed, “Structural Effect.”
Using the four pillars of a network: Innovation & Productivity, Diversity & Democracy, Economic Opportunity and Sustainable Development you can grow your region “smartly from the bottom-up.” Reverse engineering government works. He then shared case studies of three unique communities that needed to work from within to stem the tide of failing economic and environment unsustainable communities.
1) Pittsburgh: The Steel City of the 1970s was dying a slow deliberate death losing 10,000 jobs tied to an industry that was polluting the region and failing economically. The leaders of Pittsburgh turned to a secret sauce that was loosely connected to the major City’s universities. They formed the Oakland Innovation District to identify technologies where they captured the imagination of the future today — turning the Rust Belt to the Break Out using the brain trust in the technology advancement from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, forming a philanthropic investment towards a better future. The City began to think as an effective system and act like an entrepreneurial investor. The technology advancement in Pittsburgh was the shadow of innovation in bio science and artificial intelligence. Those industries are quickly changing the world. It all began because of an investment in community. Today, Pittsburgh is the center of innovation and has dramatically changed its workforce to meet a 21st Century society.
2) Indianapolis: Under the mayoral administration of Richard Lugar (who later became a US Senator) the city and county governments restructured, consolidating most public services into a new entity called Unigov. The plan removed bureaucratic redundancies, captured increasingly suburbanizing tax revenue, and created a political machine that dominated Indianapolis politics until the 2000s decade. Unigov went into effect on January 1, 1970, increasing the city's land area by 308.2 square miles and population by 268,366 people. It was the first major city-county consolidation to occur in the United States without a referendum since the creation of the City of Greater New York.
Amid the changes in government and growth, the city invested in an aggressive strategy to brand Indianapolis as a sports tourism destination. Under the administration of the city's longest-serving mayor, William Hudnut (1976–1992), millions of dollars were poured into sport facilities. Throughout the 1980s, $122 million in public and private funding built the Indianapolis Tennis Center, Major Taylor Velodrome, Indiana University Natatorium, Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium, and Hoosier Dome and the 1984 relocation home of the NFL Baltimore Colts and the 1987 Pan American Games. The economic development strategy succeeded in revitalizing the central business district through the 1990s, with the openings of the Indianapolis Zoo, Canal Walk,[43] Circle Centre Mall, Victory Field, and Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
3) Copenhagen: Since the turn of the 21st century, Copenhagen has seen strong urban and cultural development, facilitated by investment in its institutions and infrastructure. However, in the mid-1980s Copenhagen’s economy hit rock bottom with 17.5% unemployment and $750 million annual budget deficits. They needed to re-invent the city through infrastructure investments creating a different system to pay for their subway system. The City turned to reclaiming land as a Public Asset Corporation through public land sales to build its infrastructure without taxes. The transparent system merged public entities into a public private sector management model - these Public, Private Partnerships (PPPs) became an institutional model.
The city is the cultural, economic and governmental centre of Denmark; it is one of the major financial centers of Northern Europe with the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Copenhagen's economy has seen rapid developments in the service sector, especially through initiatives in information technology, pharmaceuticals and clean technology. Since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, Copenhagen has become increasingly integrated with the Swedish province of Scania and its largest city, Malmö, forming the Øresund Region.
Today, the City runs a $2 million surplus. It is a global leader in sustainability, 50% of the residents bike to work or school. The decentralized economic system is the model in Northern Europe.
The MBEP Economic Summit provided a sounding board for our region to think locally and build a community of problem solvers. Katz concluded his remarks with three fundamental questions for us to ponder: 1) What is Your Edge? Identify you place and purpose. 2) Who’s in Charge? Define leaders who are action oriented and willing partners to be openly transparent for the cause. 3) Where is your power? Understand your strengths and weaknesses, audit and stress test your local institutions to make sure they are in sync toward a mutually beneficial goal.
The final message of the day was coined in a question about political will. Yes, we can and do need support from Sacramento and Washington for certain things — the example was the little known language in the 2017 Federal legislation that created “Opportunity Zones” throughout the United States. The Opportunity Zone incentive is a new community investment tool established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to encourage long-term investments in low-income communities. The Act creates a tax incentive for investors to re-invest their capital gains into dedicated Qualified Opportunity Funds (“QOF”).
Now, the transparent plan is to advantage capital gain funds for these Opportunity Zones in our region. Of the 8,762 census tracts across the country that have been designated as Opportunity Zones, our region has a couple identified that could lead to economic benefits for us. With smart planning and bottom up thinking, let’s create the ecosystem today to lead the tri-county region to invest in a brighter future.