Creating Opportunity on a Regional Scale

Creating Opportunity on a Regional Scale

In Regionalism: The New Geography of Opportunity, the third in a series of occasional essays now available from HUD USER, HUD Secretary Henry G. Cisneros examines strategies for addressing the consequences of rapid suburbanization and profound economic change on the Nation's metropolitan areas.

Federal policies that built freeways and encouraged homeownership in the post-World War II era opened new opportunities for many American families. However, Secretary Cisneros points out that the exodus of much of the urban middle class to the suburbs has had devastating consequences for many who remained:

Pursuing the American Dream . . . has also created an American Nightmare--high concentrations of poor minorities in poverty-impacted, revenue-strapped, physically decaying inner cities and older suburbs who are isolated from opportunities generated in wealthier, vigorously growing outer communities of metropolitan areas.

Many families and businesses have fled the central cities for ever more distant suburban communities, hoping to shut themselves off from the symptoms of what they regard as "inner-city problems." The political fragmentation of metropolitan areas has erected walls around many cities, consigning them to struggle against a growing share of regional needs with a shrinking share of regional resources. However, the causes and consequences of poverty cannot be confined by political boundaries: the problems associated with concentrated urban poverty are not only exacting tremendous human and economic costs from central cities, but are making disturbing inroads into older suburban communities as well.

Instead, the essay argues, it is in the interest of all segments of metropolitan regions to cooperate in addressing the underlying lack of opportunity that plagues distressed urban communities. In today's integrated global marketplace, the social and economic health of regional jurisdictions are inextricably linked and "the higher a region's internal disparities by jurisdiction, by race, and by income group, the less its economy can be competitive."

The essay highlights the benefits of regionalism as a basis for coordinated action to ensure opportunity throughout metropolitan regions. This regionalism may take any number of forms. Although a handful of regional governments such as Indianapolis-Marion County and Nashville-Davidson County have shown promise, Cisneros argues that the more essential change is regional governance that focuses on fostering opportunity for people, rather than subsidizing things and projects. He cites a number of examples of regional governance in action, including:

Inclusionary zoning policies in Montgomery County, Maryland, and Tallahassee, Florida, under which area jurisdictions have agreed to accept a "fair share" of low- and moderate-income housing.
HUD's proposal to use tenant-based rental assistance to enable inner-city public housing residents to seek housing closer to job opportunities or family support networks.
Equal educational opportunities through the promotion of racially and economically integrated housing markets.
Areawide growth management to prevent abandonment of communities or people. Portland, Oregon's Metro, the country's only directly elected regional government, plays a primary role in regional planning and growth management.
Formalization of existing areawide revenue-sharing arrangements, as in Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky, and Pittsburgh-Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

This essay outlines important ideas for building a more prosperous and harmonious future for all parts of metropolitan America. Single copies of Regionalism: The New Geography of Opportunity are available from HUD USER free of charge. Please contact HUD USER to obtain print copies.