Full Citation
Title: Toward a Twenty-First Century City for All Economic Development: Addressing the Parallel Universe Dilemma
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2013
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI:
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: The next mayor faces several challenges in the economic development arena: a climate of fiscal austerity; the imperative to leave a legacy that distinguishes the new administration from its predecessors; and an obligation to steward continued growth while working to repair the economic distress and dislocation that still affect one in five of the city’s residents. If the next administration commits to pursuing growth and equity goals simultaneously in economic development policy, it can consolidate the achievements of the Bloomberg administration while responding to the many advocates and stakeholders who believe there is much more to be done. In short, the new mayor should move policies aimed at reducing poverty and connecting a new generation of New Yorkers to the middle class to the center of the agenda, rather than separating the quest for new sources of wealth and growth from the quest to improve the economic well-being of unemployed and low-earning residents. There are many things to learn from the current administration, and many of its economic development initiatives should and will continue. Yet the next mayor needs to look for a new play book on reconciling growth and equity by explicitly setting more evenly spread job growth, more evenly spread income growth and greater economic mobility for low wage-earners as goals. Luckily, it is not necessary for a new administration to feel around in the dark for solutions. Several cities – including Los Angeles, as outlined in a companion essay by Cecilia Estolano -- have pursued pro-growth strategies that also focus on economic mobility. Estolano’s examples and others show how embedding policies that put community partnerships into the DNA of city government and promote basic workforce linkage policies in conjunction with economic development projects can achieve both equity and growth. This paper reviews the recent history of economic development policy and suggests three “growth with equity” strategies for New York City: ∙ Replace discretionary and as-of-right subsidies to firms with investment in public infrastructure and the adoption of labor demand strategies ∙ Use available public levers to increase training, earning, and economic mobility opportunities for unemployed and low-wage workers ∙ Strengthen the City's core blue-collar employment base by bringing a deliberate equity vision to the management of the city’s physical assets, especially industrial land.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Wolf-Powers, Laura
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education
Countries: United States