Promoting Regionalism in Cleveland: Regional Solutions for 21st Century Challenges

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Promoting Regionalism in Cleveland Regional
Solutions for 21st Century Challenges
Presentation for Regional Minority Forum November
30th 2004

• john a. powell
• Williams Chair in Civil Rights Civil Liberties,
  Moritz College of Law
• Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
  and Ethnicity
• The Ohio State University
• http//www.kirwaninstitute.org/

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Overview of Todays Presentation

• What issues are impacting the health of the
  Cleveland region?
• Why is regionalism the solution?
• What does regionalism include?
• How do we measure the impact of regionalism?
• Are there concerns about regionalism?
• How do we build upon existing successful
  initiatives?
• What should been done to promote regionalism?

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The Challenge for Cleveland and Other Midwestern
Regions

• The challenges faced by Cleveland are not
  entirely unique
• Geography What Cleveland is facing is part of a
  larger phenomena impacting the rust belt and
  other Midwestern states
• Population loss aging population, brain drain
  of the young and educated, central city
  population loss
• Every working age person in Cleveland supports 70
  children and seniors
• Economic transition and job loss
• Regional fragmentation
• Tremendous segregation
• Sprawl and urban decline

The Core Rust Belt Region
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Regionalism in an Undercapitalized City

• Cleveland (like many Midwestern and Northeastern
  Cities) is an undercapitalized city with
  significant urban decline, racial inequity and
  limited new investment
• Other large undercapitalized cities include
  Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburg, Philadelphia,
  Baltimore, Newark.
• As an undercapitalized city, Cleveland requires
  an unique approach to promoting regionalism and
  equity
• Strategies that may work in hot market cities
  such as Seattle, Austin or San Francisco may not
  work in Cleveland.need for a more strategic
  approach

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Characteristics of Undercapitalized Cities

• Characteristics
• Population decline or stagnation
• Significant regional land use consumption but
  stagnant population growth
• Home value depreciation or stagnation
• High poverty, disrupted social networks and
  concentrated poverty
• Vacant land and declining tax base
• Employment de-concentration and limited new
  commercial/residential investment
• Single gentrified neighborhood may exist, but
  majority of neighborhoods are in decline

Please Reference Building a New Framework for
Community Development in Weak Market Cities,
prepared by Community Development Partnership
Network (April 2003)
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Threats for Undercapitalized Cities

• Threats
• Continued disinvestment and decline
• Inability for the region to compete in the global
  economy
• Continued isolation of central city residents
  from opportunity and investment
• Existing tools for community development and
  economic development (place-based strategies) may
  be accelerating central city decline

Please Reference Building a New Framework for
Community Development in Weak Market Cities,
prepared by Community Development Partnership
Network (April 2003)
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Sprawl and Urban Decline in Cleveland and the
Region

• Clevelands population declined by 37.3 between
  1970 and 2000.
• The Cleveland MSA lost 7.5 of its population
  during this time
• Urban Sprawl
• The Cleveland-Akron-Lorain CMSA experienced
  population growth of less than 1 between 1982
  and 1997 but had an increase in urban land of 37
• Job Sprawl
• Clevelands employment has decentralized, with
  less than 15 of regional employment within 3
  miles of the Central Business District and 44 of
  employment more than ten miles from the CBD

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Urban Decline is not just a City of Cleveland
Issue

• Decline is spreading to older suburbs in the
  Cleveland region
• Seven of Clevelands older suburban communities
  lost residents in the 1990s
• Older suburban communities will soon face many of
  the problems associated with the central city

The suburbs in red lost population in the 1990s.
Including East Cleveland, Brook Park, Lakewood,
Shaker Heights, Bedford, Euclid and Garfield
Heights
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Middle Class Population Loss and Concentrated
Poverty

• Areas in dark red represent the large
  concentration of poverty in the central city
  (areas with poverty rates of 30 or more)
• Population losses are exasperated by the loss of
  the middle class from the central city
• The City of Clevelands middle income households
  (earning 35K to 52K) decreased by 9 in the
  1990s

Source Brookings Institute Living Census Data
Book
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Economic Transition and Globalization

• The current recession combined with economic
  transition from globalization has resulted in
  significant economic change in Cleveland
• Unemployment in the Cleveland region and Cuyahoga
  County has risen by 50 since 2000
• Cuyahoga County lost 16,200 jobs between 2000 and
  2003
• Manufacturing job losses are the greatest share
  of job loss in Cuyahoga County
• Manufacturing employment in Cuyahoga County
  declined by 29 between 1996 and 2002 (resulting
  in a loss of more than 40,000 manufacturing jobs)

Source Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
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Racial Disparity Segregation From Opportunity

• Sprawl exasperates the racial (residential)
  segregation of Cleveland and other major
  Midwestern cities
• 77 of African Americans in the Cleveland region
  would need to relocate to desegregate the region
• The Cleveland region is the seventh most racially
  segregated region in the nation
• Residential segregation is really a proxy for
  segregation from opportunity for Clevelands
  African American (and Hispanic) residents

Source Lewis Mumford Center, Dissimilarity Index
for all Regions.
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African American Residential Segregation in
Cleveland

• The African American population is highly
  concentrated in Cleveland
• Areas in dark red represent census tracts that
  are more than 30 African American

Source Brookings Institute Living Census Data
Book
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Segregation From Employment Growth

• Between 1996 and 2002 marginal job growth
  occurred in Cuyahoga County and employment
  decreased substantially in the Manufacturing
  Sector
• In contrast, job growth has been greatest (and
  manufacturing job losses the smallest) in some of
  the surrounding suburban counties

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Racial Disparity Segregation From Opportunity

• Segregation from Opportunity
• Segregation for Clevelands minority residents
  fuels the substantial racial disparities (and
  racial/social inequity) found in the region
• African Americans in the Cleveland region in
  2000
• Had 60 of the median income of Whites
• Had poverty rates 300 higher than Whites
• Had 250 higher unemployment
• Lived in neighborhoods with twice as much vacant
  abandoned housing
• Had homeownership rates that were 33 lower than
  Whites
• Lived in communities with a lower tax base
• Central city communities in the Cleveland region
  have per household residential taxable values
  that are half of the regional average

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Urban Hardship in the Rust Belt

• Despite the challenges shared by the rust belt,
  urban hardship (based on poverty, economic
  health, investment and population change) varies
  significantly by region and several rust belt
  regions are performing wellwhy?

Source An Update on Urban Hardship The Nelson
A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. State
University of New York. 2004
Most Hardship
Least Hardship
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Is it Regionalism?

• Some Midwestern regions who have implemented
  regionalism based initiatives are showing less
  indications of distress
• Columbus Proactive annexation policies
• Indianapolis Government consolidation and more
  recent education and transportation reforms
• Minneapolis Tax revenue sharing and recent
  school equalization

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What is Regionalism?

• Regionalism an approach that emphasizes the
  region as the primary geographic unit determining
  the distribution of opportunity and resources
• Consequently the region is the best geographic
  entity to base some level of decision-making
• Can work to enforce inequity or improve equity,
  depending on the focus of regionalism
• What is the focus?
• Economic efficiency, fiscal efficiency,
  infrastructure efficiency, environmental quality,
  racial social equity
• These goals can work in concert or in conflict
• When goals are aligned to combat inequity,
  regionalism can be powerfully effective in
  addressing racial disparities

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Is Regionalism the Solution?

• Regionalism
• Regional strategies can be effective solutions to
  addressing the issues impacting Cleveland and
  other major regions
• Racial and social inequity
• Urban/exurban sprawl
• Jurisdictional fragmentation
• Central city disinvestment
• Fiscal distress
• Economic transition/globalization

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Why Focus on the Region?

• The importance of the region
• The spatial orientation of todays economy,
  housing market, infrastructure, and labor market
  are no longer locally focused
• Local conditions are under the influence of
  regional forces outside of local control, such as
  globalization
• There is a need for structures and solutions to
  better link city/suburb/exurb and reflect the
  regional economy
• Local initiatives alone are not enough

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What is Regionalism Addressing? Fragmentation and
Localism

• Fragmentation The fracturing of a region into
  multiple autonomous local jurisdictions of local
  government
• Localism is synonymous with fragmentation
• Many autonomous local governments directing
  policy based on an insular perspective
• Fragmentation and localism results in decision
  making that is good at the local level but
  detrimental to the region
• Decision making is on the local level
• Opportunities are allocated on a regional level,
  beyond local control
• Economic opportunity, labor force, housing
  opportunity, educational opportunity
• This creates less than optimal decisions for the
  region

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How does Fragmentation and Localism Impact the
Region?

• Fragmentation and localism have worked on a
  structural level to maintain and reinforce racial
  and social inequity, encourage sprawl and central
  city abandonment
• Political fragmentation and localism exasperate
  the flow of resources to the urban periphery as
  communities compete over commercial investment
  and high income population (the favored quarter)
• Fragmentation allows communities to sort what
  people and business they wish to attract
  (strengthen economic and social isolation and
  segregation)
• Fragmentation not only harms communities of color
  but harms everyone in the region by.
• Driving up housing costs (through exclusionary
  zoning)
• Limiting regional economic growth and investment
• Creating higher tax burdens for all regional
  residents (due to the inefficiency in government
  services and disparity in community resources)

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Fragmentation Creates Dysfunctional Regions

• Fragmentation makes the region less economically
  competitive by restraining the labor market and
  discouraging a unified regional economic
  development strategy
• Fragmentation creates substantial redundancy in
  government services, creating fiscal
  inefficiencies for the entire region (and
  ultimately impacting the regions taxpayers)
• Fragmentation has created dysfunctional regions,
  with mobility restricted for poor residents,
  infrastructure illogically distributed and
  communities fighting over investment
• This not only works to harm the regions residents
  (especially communities of color) but limits the
  economic vitality and competitiveness of the
  entire region

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Globalization, Fragmentation and Regionalism

• Globalization has heightened the need for
  regionalism and compounded the problems
  associated with fragmentation
• As national trade restrictions are relaxed,
  regions become the primary economic actors,
  competing globally for investment
• Capital investment is no longer tied to a
  particular place, creating zero sum competition
  between local governments for investment
• Fragmentation fuels this competition at the
  expense of the entire region
• Fragmentation also creates an incoherent
  framework for the region to address this economic
  challenge

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Globalization, Fragmentation and Regionalism

• The region not only competes globally for
  investment but now must compete nationally and
  globally for population
• The global economic competitiveness of the
  Cleveland region is impacted by the brain drain
  of young educated workers to other regions within
  the United States
• International immigration of skilled workers is
  one approach to counter this trend
• International immigration has also proven to be
  one of the driving forces for economic growth
  (and population growth) in many declining central
  cities
• The region must compete for these new residents
  and develop a coherent regional strategy to meet
  this goal

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What Does Regionalism Look Like?

• There are multiple regional strategies (or
  structures) to address fragmentation, sprawl,
  economic change inequity and fiscal distress
• Regional Governance
• Annexation
• Mergers Consolidation
• Regional Functions
• Tax base or other forms of revenue sharing
• Opening the regional housing market
• Regional land use control
• Regional Infrastructure
• Infrastructure related growth management
• Each region must choose which strategies would
  work best based on needs and the potential impact

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Understanding Types of Regionalism

• Most regionalism initiatives can be placed into
  four categories
• Coordinating Regionalism
• Regional coordination around specific issues
  (transportation, housing, land use)
• Examples Metropolitan Planning Organizations,
  Regional land use authorities (Portland)
• Administrative Regionalism
• Special districts and inter-local government
  agreements to tackle regional problems
• Examples Multi-jurisdictional service areas for
  infrastructure and public services, service
  agreements between local governments
• Structural Regionalism
• Physically rearranging local government
  boundaries to create a larger regional body
• Examples Annexation policies, consolidations and
  municipal mergers
• Fiscal Regionalism
• Strategies to share the cost and benefits from
  development, and address inequity in local
  community resources
• Examples All revenue sharing strategies tax
  base sharing, cultural asset districts, employee
  based taxing strategies

Models of regionalism adapted from The Regional
Governing of Metropolitan America by David
Miller at the University of Pittsburgh (2002).
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Understanding Types of Regionalism

• Which of these approaches already exist in
  Cleveland and what future approaches would be
  appropriate?
• Coordinating Regionalism
• Cleveland Example The NE Ohio metropolitan
  planning organization's work in coordinating
  transportation investment
• Potential Could a regional coordinating agency
  focus on regional affordable housing?
• Administrative Regionalism
• Cleveland Example Greater Cleveland regional
  transit authority, Cleveland Metro Parks,
  Inter-governmental agreements to share road salt
• Potential Could a regionalized public water and
  sewer agency plan for regional infrastructure
  needs?
• Structural Regionalism
• Cleveland Example None
• Potential Mergers of smaller local government or
  merging local school districts?
• Fiscal Regionalism
• Cleveland Example Earnings tax
• Potential Could tax base sharing be applied to
  the region?

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How should we measure the potential impact of
regionalism based initiatives?

• Look at the impact on regional fragmentation
• What fragmented regional functions or structures
  will be improved?
• Look at the land area impacted
• How much of the region will be impacted?
• Is this where growth is currently occurring or
  will occur?
• Look at the impact on the regions population
• How will the regions population be impacted?
  Will disenfranchised communities see their
  opportunities and mobility improved?
• Can power dilution be avoided for communities of
  color?

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Concerns about regionalism

• Often regions rush to regional governmental/struct
  ural solutions (such as consolidation) without
  exploring other cooperative intergovernmental
  strategies
• There may be significant resistance of
  communities of color to adopting this approach
• Why?
• Communities of color and low-income communities
  can be further marginalized through power
  dilution from government consolidation and
  mergers
• Regionalism may not explicitly target the issues
  impacting racial equity (such as housing,
  education and tax base)

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Power dilution from regionalism

• Minority representation dilution
• In most regions, consolidation reforms have
  resulted in a reduction in the concentration of
  African American voters (and in some cases
  elected political representation)
• Indianapolis Unigov
• Schools originally not addressed in
  consolidation, fragmented tax districts also
  maintained and created political
  disenfranchisement of African American community
• Louisville Consolidation
• Recent research has found suburban political
  interests (and development) dominate the
  political agenda at the expense of African
  American central city neighborhoods

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Can regionalism exist without regional government
or consolidation?

• Yes
• Intergovernmental arrangements can address
  fragmentation and inequity without resulting in
  power dilution for communities of color
• Example Pre-consolidation Louisville
• Prior to the consolidation in Louisville, the
  city and county developed an agreement to share
  occupational tax revenues and jointly manage land
  use planning and development
• During the this time period, investment increased
  significantly in Louisville and indicators of
  disparity were improved
• Example Minneapolis-St. Paul
• The twin cities region remains highly fragmented
  (the 2nd most fragmented region per capita
  nationally) but equity has been improved through
  regionalized tax base sharing
• Additional initiatives to equalize school funding
  have also improved equity

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Addressing key equity issues

• Not all regional intergovernmental arrangements
  are positive for communities of color
• Arrangements that ignore the key issues fueling
  inequity (housing, education, fiscal inequity)
  allow inequity to continue unabated
• Regionalism must address these key issues,
  especially if support is to be gained from the
  central city
• If regionalism is to work in Northeast Ohio,
  Clevelands suburbs must help the city deal with
  unemployment, homelessness and a cash-strapped
  school systemwere wasting our time if we
  dont deal with the substantive things
• Cleveland City Council president Frank Jackson on
  his concerns about consolidating public services
  in Cleveland
• .if regionalism isnt dealing with land use,
  fiscal disparities, housing and education then
  regionalism isnt dealing with the issues that
  count"
• David Rusk (2002)

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How do we build upon existing successful
initiatives?

• Cleveland has had many successes in combating
  sprawl and fragmentation and promoting equity
• Land Bank
• Downtown Revitalization
• Business Leaders Promoting A Regional Approach
• Revenue Sharing
• Transportation
• Philanthropic Initiatives
• Can these initiatives be built upon (or
  coordinated) to further promote regionalism?

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Initiatives in Cleveland

• Land Bank
• Along with Atlanta, Cleveland has one of the best
  land bank programs in the nation. This is key to
  promoting infill development
• Downtown Revitalization
• In the 1990s Cleveland was one of the most
  successful cities in the Midwest in attracting
  reinvestment back into its downtown

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Initiatives in Cleveland

• Greater Cleveland Partnership Business Leaders
  Promoting a Regional Approach
• The private sector can have a significant role in
  regionalism initiatives
• A regional business leadership initiative can not
  only promote job growth in the region but also
  address issues related to equity
• Chicago Spurred by labor shortages, the business
  leaders in the Chicago region have worked to
  expand the supply of workforce housing

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Initiatives in Cleveland

• Revenue Sharing
• No tax base sharing occurs in relation to
  property taxes but a revenue sharing structure
  exists in respect to the earnings tax (Taxes
  paid by employees from other jurisdictions who
  pay taxes in the municipality they work in)
• But for this policy to continue to be successful
  it depends on employment staying concentrated
  within the City of Cleveland
• In addition, recent downtown infrastructure
  (stadiums etc.) is funded by both the suburban
  communities and the City of Cleveland
• Providing another significant example of revenue
  sharing structure for the region

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Initiatives in Cleveland

• Transportation Policy
• The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
  involves regional cooperation (within Cuyahoga
  County)
• The regions metropolitan planning organization
  Northeast Ohio Area-wide Coordinating Agency
  (NOACA) provides regional transportation planning
  for five counties in Northeast Ohio

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Philanthropic Initiatives in Cleveland

• Foundations in Cleveland have targeted resources
  into exploring regionalism for the region
• The George Gund Foundation and others have pooled
  resources to improve the regions economic
  climate
• The Cleveland Foundation recently funded the
  Presidents Council (an African American business
  leadership organization) to research how African
  Americans can play a role in and benefit from
  regionalism in Cleveland
• The George Gund Foundation provided funding for
  research analyzing how regionalism could impact
  health and human services organizations in
  Cleveland

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What should be done?

• Coalition Building
• Coalitions are critical if regional initiatives
  and consolidation are going to gain popular
  support
• Consider building support among key stakeholders
• The business community, labor community
• The private sector can have a significant role in
  regionalism initiatives
• Distressed older suburban communities
• Social justice faith-based organizations
• Affordable housing advocates
• Smart growth and environmental advocates

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What should be done?

• Grab the lowest fruit on the tree
• Identify possible turning points or critical
  interventions.
• For example, is home ownership a good way to
  address housing disparity? How do you structure
  and use other resources to accomplish this?
• Work with the existing regional structures in
  Cleveland to promote equity issues and
  regionalism
• Example Metropolitan Planning Organization,
  Regional Business Organization, Existing Revenue
  Sharing Structures

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What should be done?

• Examine the impact of all regionalism proposals
  before supporting
• How will fragmentation be impacted? What
  populations and land area will be impacted? The
  impact on communities of color?
• Do not rush to regional government/structural
  solutions such as consolidation without exploring
  all options
• A multi-faceted approach (of multiple regional
  initiatives) may be necessary
• Consider the large number of intergovernmental
  cooperation strategies (functional solutions)
• These may prove more effective, meet less
  resistance and avoid power dilution for
  communities of color
• But.these must address the principle issues
  impacting racial equity such as housing, schools
  and tax base

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