What should be done about the nation’s rustbelt cities–or, as they are being repackaged by marketers, “Legacy Cities“? The populations of at least a dozen major cities declined by more than 10 percent between 2000 and 2010, including Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and of course Detroit and New Orleans (whose population decline has little to do with the rest of them). In many cases, such as Pittsburgh and St. Louis (which declined between 8 and 9 percent in the 2000s), recent declines are merely a continuation of trends since 1950.
Click image to download the report (7.6 MB).
A new report from the Lincoln Land Institute offers a set of prescriptions for these cities. While they may sound good at first glance, close scrutiny reveals that they are the same tired policies that have been trotted out by urban planners for decades.
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These policies include:
- Urban renewal, funded with tax-increment financing, to “leverage assets” in the city;
- Regional government “to better distribute the burdens of urban infrastructure and other costs,” i.e., make the suburbs pay for the central cities’ mismanagement;
- “New urban forms,” meaning, of course, high-density, mixed-use developments;
- “Re-establishing the central role of the city,” meaning demands that employers move to cities rather than suburbs; and
- “New governance structures,” meaning “economic development corporations” that can “leverage assets” (use tax dollars) to benefit selected developers in selected neighborhoods with little public scrutiny.
The report gives examples of cities that are doing some of these things, but fails to show that any of them are actually succeeding at attracting new people and jobs. In fact, the higher taxes and increased regulation called for by this report is more likely a recipe for accelerated disaster.
Here’s a completely different set of recommendations that the Antiplanner suggests is more likely to succeed:
- Improve schools, probably by using a voucher system to create a competitive environment for both public and private schools;
- If the city has a large African-American underclass, make absolutely sure that all elementary students have caught up to their middle-class peers by the time they reach high school, and gather private funding to insure that all high-school students who graduate with decent grades know they will get scholarships to a major university, thus giving them an economic path out of poverty;
- Eliminate cronyism and corruption in city government, problems never mentioned in the Lincoln Land Institute report but which could actually be exacerbated by the report’s recommendations. Cities are the creation of state legislatures, and if cities can’t reform themselves, the legislatures should take action by rechartering the city government;
- Reduce crime by doing things like changing the gridded city streets that planners love into cul de sacs so that criminals have fewer escape routes;
- Reduce taxes by eliminating all but the most essential urban services–this means no government-funded convention centers, sports stadiums, hotels, streetcar lines, or other things that ought to be privately funded, if they are needed at all;
- Reduce regulation, including zoning rules, so property owners can engage in urban renewal without government subsidies or top-down planning. Historic preservation ordinances may sound cool, but they are one of the biggest obstructions to private redevelopment;
- Fix city pension and health care funds, even if it means going bankrupt to allow cities to renegotiate unsustainable contracts with public employee unions;
- If it hasn’t been done already, legalize the sale of beer from the same premises where it is made. As the Antiplanner has argued elsewhere (see page 6), the micro brewpub revolution has done more to revitalize cities than rail transit, tax-increment financing, and the other expensive programs planners and city officials love.
In short, rather than adding to the layers of taxes and regulation that already hinder city growth, government should get out of the way.
These cities should follow the Democrat approach and raise the minimum wage to $30-$40 per hour and revel in all the people “liberated”from working for wages by Obamacare. Clearly the rise of the Living Wage class and all the Artistically Released people will make these cities successful in just a few years. Oh, and they should invest in pre-school and pre-pre-school for all those proven increases in future economies.
You make many worthwhile recommendations.
One major thread (implied but not stated) that ties so many of your points together would be to place a ban on eminent domain and, specifically, the liberal progressive wing of the US Supreme Court’s Kelo decision.
Eminent domain is the most powerful tool of the corrupt and the cronies. They do more than tax you to death – they take away your property and give it to the well-connected elites who then get more governmental financing to enrich themselves with your property.
But what about Richard Florida’s creative class? Where will they go?
I am not a libertarian, but I can see some great points in this plan.
Schools- yes! That is the proper role of gov’t. Vocational training too.
Also- advertise in Portland- let people know that they can buy a house in Cincinatti
for the cost of a micro-dorm in Portland.
The brew pubs- yes! Food carts too- they let someone open a business. Plant tress ,and then more trees. Trees cool the city down, make it more beautiful and even (for reasons I don’t understand) correlate with lower crime rates.
Recreational bike trails are fun and relatively cheap (I think). You can import some good Portland ideas and put the expensive crap ideas aside. Our Springwater Corridor (rail tracks turned to paved recreational bike trail) gets all sorts of families out walking and biking. 100 times cooler than
the stupid streetcar.
I totally agree with the general theme of Mr. O’Toole’s post today. The first two items on his list would no doubt have a greater positive impact on “Legacy Cities” than all The Lincoln Institute policies combined. I also agree that cronyism and corruption are huge issues, but I would remind everyone that both cronyism and corruption run deep in state legislatures too.
I too would like to see the elimination traditional zoning laws in place of limited less restrictive set of land use regulations. I agree that Historic Preservation Districts “are one of the biggest obstructions to private redevelopment,” but isn’t that the point? I think Historic Districts have their place, but “Historic District” and “privately redeveloped” have some mutual exclusivity.
I believe that most city planners (off the record, over a couple of beers) would admit they were also opposed to publicly funded, platinum plated convention centers, sports stadiums, hotels, and yes, even kitschy little streetcar lines. However, that’s about where they’d draw the line.
Nobody is going to get any love from us Gen Xer/Millennial types in regards to pensions. To us pensions are tiny-rainbow-colored-winged-unicorns. #8 is a no-brainer. Speaking of no-brainer, Legalize It!
My only real beef with the post today… “4. Reduce crime by doing things like changing the gridded city streets that planners love into cul de sacs so that criminals have fewer escape routes;” Really? With all this about improvement in educational opportunities for the underclass, lowering of tax burdens and fighting political corruption, you’re going to fight crime with cul de sacs. Ha!
As a Cincinnati native, I find it interesting that they use several pictures of the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood and a picture about the Banks project, but don’t actually talk about them much in the report. While both projects are proceeding towards favorable outcomes, both can be used as examples of failures of some of the recommendations in the report. Over-the-Rhine development was held up for years by corruption in the development agency in charge of revitalizing the area. The Banks is about half done, but would have been completed years ago by a private developer.
“Improve schools, probably by using a voucher system to create a competitive environment for both public and private schools”
Ah. The standard conservative voucher “solution.” Won’t work when the archaic system of Prussian schooling is the root of the problem. Don’t conflate school with education.
“invest in pre-school and pre-pre-school for all those proven increases in future economies.”
Get out of the way so that private people and parents can invest in a competitive pre-school market; we don’t need to extend the government monopoly and thuggish union control to pre-K, especially with government results like this: One in four Americans unaware that Earth circles Sun. Remember 1984? Ignorance is Strength.
“Schools- yes! That is the proper role of gov’.”
Education is not a proper function of government. The Founding Fathers would be rolling in their graves at the thought of centrally planned government-run schools. Waste and fraud are a hallmark and immediate byproduct of coercive force being used to obtain funding. Is marching a young child into a classroom and forcing them to pledge allegiance to the national government and then telling them to sit down, shut up, and do what they’re told for the rest of the day an enlightened form of instruction? Those who run this type of a gulag system are corrupt and unaccountable from the get go. As more and more people flee the public schools in favor of other more effective and voluntary modes of instruction, this currently fading epoch of forced state education will fade into the background as a bad memory of a time when conformity and dependence were virtues, and independent thought and creative free inquiry were beaten out of children to create a compliant populace. Compulsory schooling has never been about education, and the sooner it dies off the better for our society and economic future.
Funny how the supposed benefits of higher minimum wage, never translate into decreased social spending.
You guys are deluding yourselves. The underclass, black or white, is not going to get educated, they are not going to stop taking drugs, drinking, fighting, stabbing people, mugging them, stealing and refusing to work. At least not until they feel the pain, and with the stupidly generous welfare policies of the various levels of American government they’re not about to feel any pain.
I hire these people very day, or try to, they’re not that keen to show up every day or even on time. I even enjoy their company. They are often engaging rascals, amusing and intelligent. I know them, but you lot mostly haven’t a clue. You think they’re just like you, only lacking a chance, a break, an opportunity. They get dozens of those every day and blow them all.
Too many of you think their plan will change humanity from partially civilized hairless apes to New Soviet Man. Good luck to you, I hope I’m wrong.
“The underclass, black or white, is not going to get educated, they are not going to stop taking drugs, drinking, fighting, stabbing people, mugging them, stealing and refusing to work… Good luck to you, I hope I’m wrong.”
I suppose that’s the difference between making a list of policies on a blog and implementing policies in the real world.
“The underclass…is not going to get educated,” Fred writes. Then Fred uses several comma splices. Nice.
AP said:
“Improve schools, probably by using a voucher system to create a competitive environment for both public and private schools;”
Frank said:
“Ah. The standard conservative voucher “solution.” Won’t work when the archaic system of Prussian schooling is the root of the problem. Don’t conflate school with education.”
Public education is a farce, private schools aren’t too far behind. Once common-core becomes mainstream, all children, even private school and “home schooled” will need to prove by standardized test that they have been equally indoctrinated with the risk of being placed into the CPS/Child Welfare system, forced into public school, and forced to take psychotropic medication.
Want to opt out? Either have friends in high places or get ready to defend a neglect charge in family court.
Cronyism, bureaucracy, public unions, defined benefit pensions, neglect of public infrastructure, restrictive covenants, unnecessary licensing – all combine to keep cities in decline. The answer is simply to make government smaller through privatization.
The research is already out there, and the likes of Sandy Springs, GA and Maywood , CA are examples of minimalist governments that worked.
The problem is that it is unnatural for those in power to give up power and the politicians, my friend, are in power and are unwilling to shut down the money pump.
I tried to find it again but couldn’t. Awhile ago I saw an interesting breakdown of Pittsburgh’s demographics and history that pointed out the decline in population began a century ago. IIRC it was masked by population gains due to annexation.
I see this as a something humans see to struggle with. We see something hit a certain level and then we get a bug up our butts thinking it needs to stay there. I think modern Pittsburgh is a great example of this. It’s doing relatively well especially in job creation. Sure, it’s population hasn’t “recovered” but there are things more important than having a bunch of people.
There are cities with growing populations that are dieing. Or, as Jim Russell calls them, they’re the undead.
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/business-economics/burgh-disapora/allentown-undead-69146/
A city can receive more migrants than it expels, skirt bankruptcy, and still be worse off than Detroit. Demographic decline and fiscal mismanagement compound Detroit’s problems. They don’t define them. Like Detroit, Allentown has wealth in the burbs it can’t tap. The urban neighborhoods are dead, packed with people.
EM: Recreational bike trails are fun and relatively cheap (I think). You can import some good Portland ideas and put the expensive crap ideas aside. Our Springwater Corridor (rail tracks turned to paved recreational bike trail) gets all sorts of families out walking and biking. 100 times cooler than the stupid streetcar.
THWM: That’s absolute BS & you even know it, a trail could have been built beside the rail line too!
Watch your mouth, Andrew Dawson! It would be a shame for your work and the media, which frequently covers your unhealthy obsession with choo choo trains, to find out who you really are and what you say when you think you’re anonymous!