Regionalism in Action

Today's announcement that The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun will begin sharing stories and photos as a cost-saving measure is a concrete example of regionalism in action.  In the case of the newspapers, it makes sense. 

It also makes sense for local governments to form regional pacts to support major facilities, transportation, air and water quality, even economic development -- in theory.  But the devil is in the details.  And those details are playing out in the economic stimulus package.

There is a push to promote regionalism through the stimulus package.  That makes sense.  But since there are no regional governments, the only real way to distribute money for regional transportation decisions is to states.  And therein lies the problem. 

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz sent me a link yesterday to Florida's stimulus package submission.  The state's priority list reflects a sprawl-inducing, carbon-spewing lsit of projects.  Unfortunately, that story is being repeated all over the country.  That's not surprising since history shows that's what most states know how to do.

If there were, in fact, regional governments, then maybe public policy to support regionalism would make sense.  (Of course, that assumes you think more government is a good idea or that local governments are going to go away.)  But in the absence of that, I'd rather see money go to the cities where the nation's competitive advantage lies and be spent only if it is meets two criteria:  produces good jobs and invests in appreciating assets.  It's hard to imagine that investing in petroleum-dependent assets will actually become more valuable.

  

Tom Christoffel, December 26, 2008

I'll include a link to this post in the December 31 issues of Regional Community Development News. A link to the newsletter will be found at http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/ Please visit, check the tools and consider a link for your regions work. Tom

Link: http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/

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