Rehabbing Urban Redevelopment

1
Rehabbing Urban Redevelopment

• What Can the State Do to Address Loss of Function
  in Our Middle Cities?
• Jim Stergios, Executive Director

2
Defining Middle Cities

• Brockton
• Chicopee
• Fall River
• Fitchburg
• Holyoke
• Lawrence
• Leominster
• Lowell
• Lynn
• New Bedford
• Pittsfield
• Springfield
• Taunton
• Worcester

• Three objective factors
• Population gt 40,000
• Per capita income lt 20,000
• Equalized valuation per capita lt 80,000
• EQV is a measure of property value
• Two subjective factors
• Geographical distribution across the state
• Separation from Boston economy
• Other similarities
• Past industrial prowess
• Significant influx of immigrant populations
• Persistent difficulties creating, attracting, or
  retaining businesses.

3
Why Care?

• An increasing number of cities feel fiscal
  pressures due to employment costs and weak growth
  in municipal tax revenues (from weak economic
  growth)
• Possible new and expensive receiverships
• Huge expenditures in Middle Cities are
  opportunity costs
• How can we not care about the limited
  opportunities for social mobility for nearly 20
  percent of the population?
• Huge opportunity cost in terms of what these
  cities could be an arrow in the quiver of the
  states aim to compete

4
The Context

• An increasing number of cities feel fiscal
  pressures due to employment costs and weak growth
  in municipal tax revenues (from weak economic
  growth)
• Nationally, the trend toward increasing fiscal
  pressure is most profoundly felt in older
  industrialized urban areas.
• Receiverships represent failures in state and
  local policy
• The number of receiverships over the past 13
  years in MA is not a blip on the screen

5
Significant Local Aid Resources
Additional Assistance
Lottery
Ch. 70 - Education

• 2000-07 38 of total state aid went to the
  Middle Cities (18 of the states population)

6
Grant Funding for MC Redevelopment, 00-06

• Grant programs 45 million each year,
  uncoordinated across agencies
• Ribbon Cuttings/Earmarks
• ANNUAL AVE. 67 million in state grant and
  redevelopment resources

• Technical Assistance

• State Interventions

7
Current Conditions Economic Climate

• Per capita income (see above)
• Unemployment rates

• EQV
• Tax title properties
• Building permits

8
Current Conditions Public Order

• Violent Crime (see above)
• Murder Rate
• Property Crime

• Fire/Arson
• Community Survey

9
Current Conditions Education

• MCAS (see above 10th grade ELA)
• ELA 1132 Warning/Fail Math 1647
  Warning/Fail
• Dropout Rates 9 cities over 23 4 cities 3440

10
Current Conditions Fiscal Management

• Bond Rating (see above/Moodys) 8 of 14 under
  A range
• Debt management Debt/EQV
• Sustainability of commitments Municipal
  Sustainability Factor 

11
How Did We Get Here?

• Multiple causes for problems in the Middle Cities
• Federal, state and local policy
• Changes in the national and global economy
• Changes in social mores
• Thesis Middle Cities are not performing well
  because
• They have lost the economic function/purpose
  that their infrastructure was designed around,
  and
• The numerous constituencies and host of problems
  make it difficult for any responsive leader to
  remain focused on growing the pie and increasing
  opportunities for social mobility

12
So is the Solution Top-Down or Bottom-Up?

• Top-down approaches to economic growth rarely
  work
• Companies can locate anywhere
• Require basic quality of life and match-up on
  workforce
• Starts at end of the process, not at the
  beginning
• Remember What can work in Boston may not
  translate
• Panel 2 presentation demonstrates that
• Growing Middle Cities grow across business type
  and size
• Overall, economic development efforts targeted
  at specific industries do not show any
  significant effect
• Middle Cities should learn from Middle Cities
  that are showing progress

13
Lessons from Chelsea and Springfield

• Bolster local leadership, to get past gridlock,
  by an objective outside force.
• Enhanced state involvement can help provide
  financial tools, standardized procedures and
  goals.
• State coordination speeds action and impact.
  Lack of state coordination and focus allows for
  receiverships to happen.
• Economic development is an integral function of
  city government, not an after-thought.
• Beacon Hill needs a better grasp of Middle City
  issues.
• A multi-year state focus getting past budget
  cycle is needed.
• The state needs Middle City-specific tools.
• Public Order is king.
• Prevention Need a state-local partnership to
  gain positive attributes of state involvement
  without outright intervention.

14
Blueprint for Focused Leadership Collaboration

• Set goals and incentives to lay the foundation
  for growth
• Benchmarking a city against its past performance
  on quality of life and business predictability
  measures
• Pay for performance
• Establish a GC (designee) within the Governors
  office to coordinate state, local and federal
  resources
• Single point of contact to agencies
• Benchmarking, technical assistance, grant money
• Encourage strong leadership by offering
  significant support
• Offer the development of a state-regional-local
  investment plan
• Offer multi-year investments in anchor
  neighborhoods, using a portion of the 67
  million in grant aid (fungible to local needs)
• But only to leaders and cities committing to
  bold change

15
Trust but Verify Benchmarking

• Get out of business of micromanaging local use of
  state money instead, set goals and incentives
• Focus on measures that are outputs, macro
  measures, trackable, and related to Commonwealth
  interests
• Suggested measures were put up earlier
• Taken together, the four areas outlined (public
  order, education, fiscal management, and economic
  climate), if done well, allow for local business
  growth and external business relocation equally
• Focus on improvements current city performance
  vs. previous years performance
• Benchmarking cities against themselves - for
  incentives
• Benchmarking across cities - for policy
  adjustment

16
Trust but Verify Benchmarking
17
Trust/Verify and Assist Technical Assistance

• Some cities already do well on some key measures
• Governors Middle Cities designees should develop
  with mayors/city managers a Middle Cities
  Coalition
• Share practices that have been shown to lead to
  improvement
• Develop public safety community perception
  survey, uniform data tracking and department
  command recommendations.
• Discuss state mandates increasing the cost of
  government
• Identify ways to improve state technical
  assistance
• Offer revisions to state programs for Middle
  Cities
• Governors Middle Cities designees should
  coordinate agency technical assistance in
  education, public safety, business development
  and fiscal management.
• E.g., 43D outreach, DOR assistance to establish
  best practices, or Land Court streamlining tax
  lien-foreclosure-disposition process

18
Trust/Verify and Encourage Leadership
Thresholds for Participation in the Partnership

• State needs to secure broad support to turn
  around cities not just officials, but also
  businesses and neighborhoods
• State should offer development of a plan and
  focused investments to cities that demonstrate
  sufficient improvement or a commitment to change
  e.g.,
• Economic climate adoption of Ch. 43D
  streamlining
• Public safety Participation in Middle Cities
  working group on public safety
• Education Broad array of reform (pilots, METCO,
  charters)
• Fiscal management Outperform the state pension
  system (PRIT) over 10 years, or inclusion of
  local pension system into PRIT

19
Partnership Plan and Anchor Investments

• State-Regional-Local Plan
• The state would convene regional and local
  officials to develop a plan that would result in
  small-bore investments (not ribbon cuttings) in
  key residential neighborhoods and retail spines
  around city centers
• In addition, the partnership would be looking to
  ensure that specific sites are pad-ready for
  business relocations or development
• State Investments in Anchor Neighborhoods
• The Governors designees would apply the 67
  million in average state resources dedicated to
  Middle Cities according to city plan (not agency
  ownership)
• Also, bring to bear soft resources to anchor
  neighborhoods

20
Policy Recommendations

• The state should get the most for its dollars and
  should support bold local leadership
• Tie municipal benchmarks to new local aid
• Seek commitments from local leaders for bold
  action
• The state should help re-create a new economic
  function
• State coordinator within the Governors office
• Middle Cities Coalition to define reforms
• 8 reform ideas to state programs
• Focus resources on the basis of a partnership
  plan
• The goal is not to assume that this prescription
  is to begin a dialogue on these ideas and the
  measures that might be appropriate