Saturday, January 17, 2009

Urban Development That Doesn’t Work

From the Wall Street Journal.

If there ever was a time to crow about the wonders of rebuilding a city around a professional sports team, this would be it. Three of the four teams remaining in the play-offs hail from cities—Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh—that in recent years spent billions rebuilding their downtowns around pro sports facilities and other community “anchors.”

Except that there’s a problem. The teams might be competitive, but the cities definitely are not. All three continue to shrink in population, and have stagnant job markets and crumbling public schools.

Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were prototypes of the economic development fad of the 1990s: government-financed “investments” in economic development. They all practiced what was called “tin cup urbanism”—the belief that the rest of society owed large taxpayer transfers to the urban cores from which most of us have fled. They all supped from the same cup: center city stadia, aquaria and subsidized retailia.

Philadelphia practiced “the core, the core, the core” as a development strategy while perfecting the art of the tin cup under the guidance of then Mayor (now Gov.) Ed Rendell in the late 1990s. The feeling in Philadelphia was that the city was being crushed by economic forces outside of its control, and that the country owes cities, owes them big, and should pay up.

We did pay up, although Philadelphia’s population declined 4.3% in the 1990s. And we will likely pay much more under Barack Obama’s “stimulus” plan to spend hundreds of billions on new infrastructure. But based on experience, we won’t see much renewal.

(5) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1652 hrs
Politics + Politics - General

  1. I think this is a pretty good article. Pouring money into building infrastructure into decaying urban areas doesn’t work as a method to increase population base, jobs and wealth. 

    Those urban areas (like Milwaukee) didn’t get their earlier status by virtue of having a new Harley museum, harborwalk, etc, etc.  They got them by having great manufacturing jobs.  Tons of them. 

    Milwaukee needs to set itself up as a business tax and regulatory haven.  Watch the jobs come back in and with it will come the wealth and development.  But if we keep taxing and regulating sick days, we’ll watch Chicago continue to eat our lunch and take away the few companies we have.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 17, 2009 at 1724 hrs


  2. That’s just not the case for Pittsburgh which is quickly becoming a major hi tech/biotech player based largely on the local government encouraging such firms to set up shop in the area.

    Baltimore’s also different because you have the “public anchor” in Camden Yards which was built right around the public/private effort to transform the Inner Harbor got kicked off, both of which did a lot to transform a downtown that was much worse 10-15 years ago than the author of the article above leads his readers to believe is the case today.

    Philly’s another animal altogether—I got nothing.

    Posted by JB on January 17, 2009 at 1816 hrs


  3. I don’t thnk this article is very accurate with regard to Baltimore. Having lived in DC for a number of years, as JB said, I know Camden Yards and the aquarium drove significan economic development in the inner harbor, which as I understand it was a no-man’s land prior to the investment. I’ve spent many a night and many a dollar at the inner harbor and it’s packed on weekends and after Orioles’ games (at least it was when the O’s were competitive).

    If I remember correctly there was significant condo development just north and west of Camden Yards in the last 10 years as well.

    Broad strokes are rarely accurate.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 17, 2009 at 2127 hrs


  4. The city is thriving because I went to some baseball games and it was crowded.

    Ok - by that logic everyone should love everything that I like, and hate everything I hate.

    I hope you aren’t in marketing.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 17, 2009 at 2348 hrs


  5. It’s been some time since I lived in the Baltimore area.  The inner harbor was new and the Orioles still played at Municipal Stadium.  Take a wrong turn and you were in a “no-man’s land” that makes 27th and Atkinson look like River Hills.  Adding Camden yards and a condo complex does nothing to change that.  Give me better evidence.

    Posted by Steve on January 18, 2009 at 0508 hrs


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