Friends and
Colleagues,
Stay tuned to the Brookings
Metropolitan Policy Program for a new initiative, the Blueprint
for American Prosperity, that the Metro Program is launching on
November 6, 2007. The Blueprint is a multi-year effort to inform the 2008
presidential election, and policy makers in the new administration and Congress
in 2009 and thereafter, regarding federal policy reforms that would promote more
productive, inclusive, and sustainable growth in metropolitan America, and
ultimately a more prosperous nation.
The
Blueprint will have a special focus on the battleground regions of the
Great Lakes and the Intermountain West. It will continue Brookings Metro Program work with political,
business, civic, and nonprofit leaders across the Midwest (from Minnesota to
Upstate New York) in The Great Lakes Economic Initiative?to advance the
agenda set forth in The Vital Center: A Federal-State Compact to Renew the
Great Lakes Region, and help the Great Lakes transition from industrial to
knowledge-economy leadership.
The Blueprint
will also bring new focus to the battleground states of the Intermountain West,
who are experiencing their own unique challenges and opportunities created by
rapid population, job growth and an influx of immigrants. This effort will
tackle such issues as transportation, immigration, affordable housing, and water
resources in five emerging-mega areas in five states: Albuquerque, NM; Denver, CO; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; and
Salt Lake City, UT.
Attached please find an
overview of the
Blueprint initiative.
And for those of you able to get to
DC, below is an invitation to the November 6
Blueprint national launch event at Brookings. The event will feature an
address by Bruce Katz, Vice-President of Brookings and Director of the
Metropolitan Policy program. unveiling the initiative, and a panel discussion
among a distinguished group of corporate, civic, political, academic, and
philanthropic leaders from across the nation about the federal reforms necessary
to unleash the full potential of America's metro areas.
The Blueprint will provide
additional momentum for bringing the unique economic challenges and
opportunities of the Great Lakes region to the
fore in national policy discussions.
Stay tuned for more information?and please visit www.brookings.edu/metro for more
information, including a revamped web-site for the Great Lakes Economic
Initiative at www.brookings.edu/projects/great-lakes.aspx
Best,
John Austin
Non-Resident Senior Fellow,
Brookings Institution
Director, Great
Lakes Economic Initiative
As a valued friend of the Brookings
Metropolitan Policy Program, I hope that you can join us in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, November
6th (9 a.m. ? 12:30 p.m.) for the launch of our new national
competitiveness initiative, Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the
Potential of a Metropolitan Nation.
The Blueprint offers a
powerful and compelling argument: The ability of the United States to
compete globally and to meet the great economic, environmental, and social
challenges of the 21st century rests largely on the health, vitality,
and prosperity of the nation?s major cities and metropolitan areas. With a
series of thoughtful, provocative papers to be released over the next year, the
Blueprint will: a.) demonstrate that metros are the engines of national
prosperity and the key to American competitiveness in the global economy; b.)
illustrate how many of our outdated, outmoded federal policies are inhibiting
the dynamic potential and growth of these metro areas; and c.) present an
integrated policy agenda in advance of the 2008 elections, with specific,
discrete recommendations on key federal reforms and initiatives needed to foster
robust, inclusive, and sustainable growth in America?s
metros.
On Tuesday, November 6th
? one year out from the ?08 elections ? we will kick off this ambitious national
initiative with a high profile public forum in Washington, D.C. The forum will introduce the
Blueprint for American Prosperity and the first of the Blueprint
papers, MetroNation: How U.S. Metropolitan Areas Drive American
Prosperity, which will make the fundamental case that metropolitan areas are
the engines of national prosperity and review the challenges and opportunities
that globalization and rapid technological change pose for the American
economy. We will also feature a panel of business, philanthropic,
government, and academic leaders who are driving innovation at the metro level
talking about their experiences and the types of federal reforms necessary to
help foster and support such efforts.
The forum will take place in the
Falk Auditorium at the Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, 9 a.m. -
12:30 p.m. In the coming week we will be sending out additional details on the
launch, but I hope that you will mark your calendar now for this important
event.
To RSVP for November 6th,
or if you have any questions about the launch, please contact our events
manager, Teresa Brown (tbrown@brookings.edu or 202-797-6255).
I hope to see you next
month.
Warmest
Regards,
Bruce Katz
Vice President &
Director
Metropolitan Policy
Program