Rx for Suburbia
(Page 4 of 7)
March / April 2003
By Jay Walljasper, The Nation
Drawing on this research, Orfield has fashioned an innovative political program to spread the benefits of economic growth to all corners of America’s metropolitan areas. The chief goal is to encourage middle-class people and thriving businesses to stay in—or move back into—city neighborhoods and older suburbs by removing barriers that stand in the way of community revival: poor public services, a low tax base, and the web of social problems that arise in pockets of concentrated poverty. Orfield’s program involves enacting new policies in four areas, based upon successful strategies already in place around the country These are proven policies, he emphasizes, “not radical departures.”
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- Land-use planning. Orfield’s regional revitalization agenda emphasizes preserving green space and limiting runaway sprawl. An urban growth boundary in Portland, Oregon, a line beyond which suburban development can’t go, keeps the lid on sprawl, saving farmland and open space. But it also redirects development back toward the city and inner-ring suburbs because there is less cheap land available on the outskirts of the region. Downtown Portland and many urban and inner suburban neighborhoods have benefited enormously from renovation projects and new development spawned by the growth boundary. He notes that of 25 major metropolitan areas he’s studied, Portland is the only one where inner-ring suburbs are posting economic gains compared to the rest of the region. Sixteen states in all now feature comprehensive land-use plans.
- Affordable housing. Another central component of Orfield’s blueprint for stabilizing metropolitan areas is fair-share housing measures, which require all municipalities in a region to provide housing for some low- and middle-income families. This helps relieve the tangle of social problems that arise when poor people are concentrated in certain locales. This idea has been adopted in a number of areas, most impressively in Montgomery County, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., where 10,000 affordable homes have been constructed in affluent neighborhoods since 1977.
- Metropolitan government. America’s metropolitan regions function as single communities in almost every way—economics, the environment, even the sports teams they support—but not when it comes to government. Public services are divided up among any number of separate and often competitive municipalities. Allowing voters to elect a regional government body (Portland has had one since since 1979) lets important decisions be coordinated in a unified way rather than by scores of local governments. By federal law all urban regions must have metro planning agencies, Orfield says, so let’s bring some democracy and accountability to them.
- Tax equity. Orfield advocates that basic services be funded primarily by state or regional sources rather than local taxes. This means that poorer communities don’t have to choose between subpar public services and stiff property taxes, both of which drive people out.
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