Commentary: MetroNation: An idea from Brookings whose time has come?

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jul 3, 2008 by Joe Nathanson

With many Americans concerned about the fragile state of the nation's economy, some researchers at the Brookings Institution are promoting a new way to think about our economy. Before an audience of some 850 gathered in the Washington Hilton, the concept of "MetroNation" was rolled out at a recent forum titled "Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation."

Think of the MetroNation concept this way: the Baltimore region, consisting of Baltimore City and its surrounding counties, represents an economic entity producing $118 billion in goods and service, according to a 2005 estimate. This economic region accounts for just slightly less than 1 percent of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $12.4 trillion in 2005.

Add up the contributions of Greater New York, the Los Angeles region, Chicagoland and the rest of the top 100 metropolitan areas and you have 65 percent of the nation's population, 68 percent of its employment and fully 75 percent of the nation's economic output. All of our 300-plus metropolitan areas account for just under 90 percent of U.S. GDP.

As noted in the Brookings report on MetroNation, "America's metropolitan areas are not part of our national economy; rather, they are the national economy."

The makings of a MetroNation

MetroNation consists of a highly interconnected network of urban clusters -- cities and suburbs -- that contain the critical drivers of the nation's economy. These urban hubs of activity contain our most innovative firms, our most educated workers, and the essential infrastructure connecting them to one another and the global economy.

The launch of the "Blueprint for American Prosperity" is the start of a multi-year initiative of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings designed to bring about a dialogue leading to federal policy reforms in line with the realities of our economic landscape.

According to Bruce Katz, the founding director of Brookings' Center for Metropolitan Policy, little in federal policy recognizes the economic reality of our metropolitan nation.

"... Our federal government has gone fundamentally adrift, and is out of step and out of synch with the dynamic changes under way in the country. We are a MetroNation economically, but we do not act like one politically, governmentally or administratively," Katz says.

And, Katz concludes, a MetroNation calls for a MetroPolicy.

That MetroPolicy would recognize that the nation's metro areas cannot go it alone. They need an engaged federal partner to prepare for the future with investments in technical research and scientific innovation, in human capital, in regional infrastructure and in quality development.

Transportation challenges

The misalignment of current federal policy with metropolitan challenges is particularly notable in transportation. This message was brought home to a Baltimore audience a few days after the Washington forum.

Robert Puentes is a fellow at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and the author of "Bridge to Somewhere: Rethinking American Transportation for the 21st Century", a report released as one major component of the MetroPolicy initiative.

Puentes was one of the featured speakers at a regional transportation summit convened by the Greater Baltimore Committee. To an assemblage that filled the roundhouse at the B&O Railroad Museum, Puentes presented some of the ways that MetroPolicy would impact transportation policies.

A reformed federal transportation policy focused on metropolitan areas would call for national uniformity when that is appropriate. At the same time, a national policy must be flexible to account for regional variations. The transportation needs in Boston are not the same as those in Boise.

The policy would reflect "modal neutrality." At a time of higher gas prices, increased demand for mass transit and heightened concerns about global warming, it is hard to explain why there is still a built-in bias in federal funding formulas favoring new highway development versus transit facilities.

It would contain a strong element of accountability. Too often, regional transportation plans represent a patching together of local pet projects. The goal, according to Puentes, should be to maximize metropolitan prosperity. At present, we have no consistent measurements to determine whether the hundreds of billions spent under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and its successor surface transportation legislation have advanced local and national goals.

The MetroPolicy initiative has many other components that are worth considering and can be accessed at www.brookings.edu/metro.> With the public and politicians focused on more immediate issues ranging from rising prices at the gas pump to falling home values, it may be difficult to give much attention to MetroPolicy. But it deserves that attention and it is well that the Brookings Institution has committed itself to a multi-year campaign of public education.

Joe Nathanson heads Urban Information Associates Inc., a Baltimore-based economic and community development consulting firm. He can be contacted at urbaninfo@comcast.net.