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Pa. needs a common agenda for growth

Yesterday, the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy released its report "Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda for Renewing Pennsylvania." The report tells us in painful detail about the decline of our communities - something most Pennsylvanians already feel, but perhaps do not fully understand.

In a nutshell, the Brookings Institution found that Pennsylvania's governance structure and practices hinder instead of help the state in reversing its economic decline. The good news is that Brookings presents common strategies to overcome our severe handicap.

Cities from Scranton to Pittsburgh, weaned on mining and manufacturing, have been fighting decline for 50 years. Even small cities, such as York, which still have a strong manufacturing base, have lost jobs and residents. Many of these places have done everything they can locally to revive their downtowns and attract growth. They have redeveloped brownfields, invested in cultural and sports facilities, and even established a form of tax-base sharing, as Pittsburgh did with Allegheny County. Yet these measures have not been sufficient to overcome the wider economic and demographic forces.

In part, says Brookings, this is because our governance structure works against strategic planning for development at any but the most local level. Our thousands of small governments and authorities, while providing "government close to home," stymie planning for business development, open-space conservation and growth supported by public infrastructure. For example, state law delegates land-use authority to no less than 2,566 municipalities, putting these critical decisions at a level of government with limited capacity to make them efficiently. Fully 80 percent of our municipalities contain fewer than 5,000 residents.

The report's focus on municipalities is illuminating. For residents of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the report is important because it says our growth and development problems do not belong to Philadelphia alone, but also to older developed communities all across the commonwealth - including 600 boroughs in rural areas. These boroughs and older townships surrounding Philadelphia are facing the same issues, on a smaller scale, as our large cities.

Pennsylvanians tend to emphasize their differences within the state, and there are real regional differences that can't be ignored. However, the Brookings report lays out very clearly the challenges we share and what we need to address them. We need a common agenda for Pennsylvania's cities and towns, whether Philadelphia or Franklin, Washington or Wellsboro, Scranton or Selinsgrove.

The decline of our communities is not the fault of one or even several government administrations, but of decades of unplanned growth and investments. In recent research, 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Economy League, and The Reinvestment Fund urged a reevaluation of state investments and policies. The Brookings report reinforces that conclusion: State government can play an important role in improving our quality of life in Pennsylvania, but only if it acts strategically.

State officials have shown real leadership in some areas. The General Assembly began to address the impact of fragmented governance on land use by amending the Municipalities Planning Code in 2000 to provide new tools for municipalities to voluntarily plan together. Many communities have taken advantage of the financial incentives for multi-municipal planning provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. The widespread use of these incentives is one indication that state measures to address fragmented governance can work.

So where do we go from here? Many Pennsylvanians will read this report with dismay at the results of nearly a century of haphazard growth. The bad news is, established communities (where 58 percent of Pennsylvanians still live) are declining. The good news is, these communities and their residents represent a powerful constituency for positive change.

The Brookings report outlines a statewide agenda for renewing our cities and towns. The 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania will be working to advance this agenda over the coming months and years. The key is to focus not on jobs or population growth wherever we can get them, but to create good jobs and housing in places where people live now.

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Janet Milkman is president and CEO of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, which promotes sound land use. For an essay by the authors of the Brookings report, see today's main Commentary page.