Regional Plan Association and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy are hosting a two-day research seminar as part of the America 2050 initiative on the creation of a national growth strategy for America and how federal policy should address and serve regions of varying rates of population and economic growth, population density or isolation.  The seminar will explore the inter-connections between megaregions and their adjacent rural and frontier regions as part of a national growth strategy for the United States.  To advance America 2050's research efforts beyond the nation's metropolitan regions and megaregions to create a truly national plan that accounts for metropolitan, rural and frontier regions, we are soliciting proposals for new research that will explore the topics outlined here.

 By Petra Todorovich

The crisis in our financial markets and the deepening national recession suggest difficult times for the United States. But, sometimes a crisis is necessary to rally sufficient leadership and popular support for radical changes to address entrenched policies, practices, and inertia.

With regard to infrastructure and economic recovery, we have two key challenges to meet.

First, we must rally support for making sufficiently bold investments to put people to work and make transformative investments in infrastructure.

Second, we must ensure that the choices we make about infrastructure provide new models of decision making and accountability to obtain investments that will transition the nation to be a low-carbon economy with energy independence, and a sustainable, equitable future.

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This month, America 2050 released its most recent report: An Infrastructure Vision for 21st Century America. This report highlights the need to develop a bold and compelling vision for investing in the nation's aging water, energy, and transportation infrastructure in a way that will help America meet the key challenges of the 21st century. These challenges include America's fast-growing population, deteriorating infrastructure, the deepening recession, our competitiveness in a global economy, fairness and opportunity, and climate change and energy security.   

The report makes the case that the federal government should provide leadership in aligning its energy, transportation and water infrastructure policies to support environmentally sustainable development, efficient and reliable transportation systems, and sustained, robust economic growth. Currently, many of the federal government's programs are ineffective or obsolete, or work at cross purposes, such as transportation policy that increases our reliance on foreign oil, or federal farm subsidies that encourage fertilizer and pesticide use that pollutes our drinking water.

Over the next year, America 2050 will build on this report to create physical plans for national systems of transportation networks, electrical transmission and water infrastructure and specific policies to encourage greater accountability, decision-making criteria for project selection and performance measures.

The graduate students at the Toulon School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University have released their latest study of the Cascadia Megaregion, "Ecolopolis," which presents a vision for coordination and sustainable economic development in the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland megaregion. Building on two previous studies, the report includes a detailed sector-based economic analysis and recommendations for further strengthening Cascadia's economic "competencies" in areas of green building and architecture, creative services, agriculture and food production and high tech. It also makes recommendations for protecting Cascadia's renowned environmental heritage and reputation for sustainability, while improving flows and connections within the megaregion.

Download the Report.

The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program released a report this month titled "Mountain Megas: America's Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper".  The report was introduced in conjunction with a luncheon in Denver on July 22nd that brought leaders from the Intermountain West to discuss economic, social, and environmental challenges in five emerging metropolitan areas: Wasatch Front, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; Sun Corridor, Arizona; Northern New Mexico, New Mexico, and the Front Range, Colorado. 

As part of its Blueprint for American Prosperity initiative, the Brookings report calls for the federal government to provide leadership and support as these urbanized and rapdily changing areas emerge and expand. In addition, the report comes in anticipation of the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver.  Local leaders and officials are hopeful the presidential candidates and elections will make these emerging trends and challenges a national priority.  As one of the fastest growing regions in the country, the study suggests that these swing states represent a "new new West" that is urban, and require new and reformed federal-state-local partnerships.  Moreover, the research recommends that these collaborations should be issue focused, namely: transportation, infrastructure, innovation, immigration, and climate change. 

The event was attended by Jon Huntsman, Gov. of Utah; Bill Ritter, Jr., Gov. of Colorado, and John Hickenlooper, Mayor, City of Denver.  For a copy of the executive summary of the report, please click here.     

Photo: "Mountain Megas: America's Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper", July, 2008.

 

The proceedings of the Rebuilding and Renewing America forum sponsored by America 2050 on May 9, 2008 in Washington, D.C. are now available for download. (3 MB)

The forum assembled business and labor leaders, Democratic and Republican members of Congress, transportation and engineering industry leaders and environmental advocates to address the pressing infrastructure challenges of our time.
The forum was co-sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, The Surdna Foundation, Regional Plan Association, and the Division of United States Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

The report summarizes keynote addresses and remarks by Gov. Ed Rendell, Judith Rodin, Tom Donohue and U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Chris Shays, Rosa DeLauro and Tom Petri, among other noteworthy speakers. It also reports on roundtable discussions on energy, water, and transportation infrastructure.

The May 9 forum marked the launch of a national series of "Rebuilding and Renewing America" forums around the country to draw attention to the nation's growing infrastructure needs and gather input on the key priorities in growing megaregions.

The Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University released a report in May titled, Megapolitan: Arizona's Sun Corridor. The study examines growth challenges in one of the nation's most rapidly growing regions: the Tucson-Phoenix corridor. Poised to double in population from 5 million to 10 million by 2050, the region will grapple with the environmental challenges of accommodating rapid population growth in a fragile desert environment. Ensuring an adequate drinking water supply and mitigating urban heat island effect without the use of increased vegetation (which requires additional water) are two big challenges. Urban form is another important consideration; detached single family homes are by far the preferred development type in this region, but their proliferation will contribute to sprawled development and make transit options less viable.

The changing demographic and economic environment in the corridor is prompting researchers and leaders to think about how the corridor can one day become a significant economic, technological and cultural center, while growing in a sustainable way. At a recent workshop sponsored by the Sonoran Institute and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, planners considered the implications of this emerging megapolitan region with the report's authors and local transportation and community leaders.