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Lessons from my own relationship with Vancouver

January 5, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 3 comments

Many urban policies now focus on attracting talented citizens. But they often focus on appealing to those in their twenties — people often without children who spend time at night clubs, cafes, restaurants. However, a successful city will find a way to embrace those 20-somethings as their lifestyles change — and to attract more experienced people who are at different stages in their lives.

Here’s how things have changed for me, as an example.

One key reason I moved back to Vancouver after grad school in the US was for the international feel and focus of the city. I also missed being able to travel by transit and foot to my favorite destinations. This seems like a more human pace to me than driving in my own car.

As I settled down more (got a little older), my routine involved walking and taking the skytrain downtown to work, cycling to destinations occasionally on weekends. Restaurants, grocery stores, specialty stores and cafes were (are) all easy walks from home. I rarely drove my old Honda Civic Hatchback — a tank of gasoline would last a couple months.

My ecological footprint was quite modest.

When I had a baby, some of that changed. First, we sold the Civic and invested in a mini-van, which doesn’t exactly “sip ” gasoline (but otherwise is quite a practical vehicle). Second, when I returned to work, the only daycare I could find was in a distant neighbourhood. This meant driving to work so that I could pick my son up afterwards (my husband did the drop off). Third, even when a subsequent child care option opened near our home, I continued to drive to work. Driving takes 10 minutes versus 30-35 by walking and transit. Although parking costs $10/day, and I missed the more relaxed pace of a walk and 10 minute metro ride, driving offered me 40-45 very valuable minutes in my long, flex-working hours day that started at 6:30 AM and ended at 11 PM.

Even now with two kids, we have no intention of moving to the suburbs; we enjoy the community-focused and walkable neighbourhood in which we live. When we do have a babysitter, it’s nice to be able to hit a great restaurant or pub only a few blocks from home (if the baby needs me, I can easily walk home). And, there are so many young families (as well as empty nesters, childless couples of all ages, and others) that it’s easy to connect with others with whom we have lots in common (our tribe). We all visit the cafes, parks and playgrounds.

Lessons: If we can generalize from my experience, here are some thoughts:

1. Great neighborhoods tend to keep people at all stages of their lives. Walkability along with amenities for people of all ages from birth to retirement are important.

2. Family ecological footprints would be lower if cities did more to encourage (rather than discourage) a variety of quality child care options in all neighbourhoods.

3. More frequent bus service to downtown or to the nearest metro station combined with neighborhood childcare would allow more people to take transit.

There are probably a few more…

Category: attracting talent, communities, ecological issues, urban families, urban lifestyles /

San Diego – city or sprawling cool beach towns

January 2, 2008 / Wendy Waters / 2 comments

Christmas Day on Pacific Beach in San Diego was warm. Surfers caught waves; children splashed in the ocean; families had their annual portraits taken. A few beach stalls, coffee bars, and stores were open and we enjoyed a beer or two (legally!) on the sand at sunset. That was our first day in San Diego and we could only think “wow,” how nice. We casually explored the city over the next week. Here are some impressions.

Many of the beach-based communities (especially Pacific, Mission, Ocean) seemed like something from yester-year. Art deco 1930s styles butted against some 1950s facades in the commercial areas, clashing with a few more modern supermarkets or a Taco Bell. But the big national and global chains were generally absent from the neighborhoods — smaller, family run businesses seemed to dominate in districts of small stores.

Surfers clad in wet suits walked to their Volkswagen vans parked on nearby streets. They then casually wrapped a towel around their waist and changed clothes. Down to earth. Older, small cottages crowded up near the sea shore. However, many now rent for hundreds of dollars per night, or are available for sale for nearly $1 Million (non ocean front but steps from the ocean) for about 800 square feet on a tiny lot.

These beach communities reminded me of the sea side towns along highway 101 in Northern California and Oregon — except the latter are isolated. These cool San Diego beach communities are attached to a substantial urban area. And yet somehow seem unspoiled, like time had passed them by.

Some streets (particularly in Ocean Beach) reminded me of Tucson, near the University of Arizona where I went to grad school. Smaller 1930s single-level homes, with palm trees and desert plants. Traces of Spanish and Mexican heritage can be found if you look for it.

Downtown was an odd mish mash of architecture. There were some hispanic style buildings as well as a couple grand art deco styled edifices. There was some less pleasing-to-the-eye modernist architecture. And, there were some condo towers that looked straight out of Vancouver (and they are being done by some of the big Vancouver developers — in fact, they looked so similar that I wonder if architectural drawings were re-used!). But it did look like downtown was coming to life — it seemed a little quiet, but it was only 55 degrees (13 celcius) the day we were there, cold for the locals.

San Diego also has the naval and military presence, and out in the sprawling eastern suburbs numerous leading technology firms.

What seemed a little odd to me was how spread out everything was. Somehow, given the great climate and setting, I would have expected higher density housing and business infrastructure to have happened by now (something more like Vancouver or Portland and less like Dallas). And public transportation? pretty limited because of the low density communities spread out over such a wide area.

Yet, San Diego strikes me as a city to watch over the next decades. It will be interesting to see what planning policy choices happen.

Will they go for higher density near beaches to keep living in the vicinity affordable to more people? or stick with the current lower density approach, which will soon make even a small shack a multi-million dollar home.
Will San Diego be able to attract younger knowledge workers? living in the eastern suburbs did not seem nearly as appealing as dwelling near the beach, and if the latter becomes unaffordable I could see this being a challenge.
Will downtown living really take off? or will the Boza towers become giant white out-of-place elephants?

These are the impressions of me as a vacationing tourist. I’d be curious what those of you who know the city far better have to say…

Category: attracting talent, communities, downtowns, planning policy, residential development, revitalization, sprawl, urban lifestyles /

Family-friendly cities: another angle

December 3, 2007 / Wendy Waters / No comments

The blogosphere has seen a recent surge in discussion about how to make a city family friendly. But in all the discussion about coffee houses and night life, the issue of the employment culture in a city hasn’t come up. This is what I’ll raise after summarizing the discussion thus far.

Joel Kotkin’s article, “The Rise of Family-Friendly Cities,” began the debate. He argues that (a) families with young children are the backbone of a strong metropolitan economy (rather than singles or empty nesters, for example) and (b) that families with young children want suburban life and not dense, revitalized-downtown urban living. He suggests that metropolitan areas are wrong to focus on attracting the young and single by expanding arts and culture opportunities including the restaurant, night club and coffee bar scene.

An author at CEOs for Cities counters some of his arguments. In particular, (s)he suggests that people don’t generally pack up and move to another city once they get married. Therefore, attracting young people with skills and education is key, as they are likely to stay once they have a family. My favorite line from this critique is: “Does anyone really believe that one loses one’s taste for latte when one starts pushing a stroller?” And this isn’t a throw away line. The same things that attract families with children attract many other demographic groups as well, as Richard Florida argues.

One issue missing is how family friendly the business or employment culture is in a city. That is, when a man says he wants to leave at 3pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays to coach his daughter’s soccer team (and make up the hours in the evening or on the weekend), how likely is he to have “career trouble” as a result? Will he be told no? Will he get less challenging or interesting assignments at work? Will his co-workers resent him? Or, will his employer support the initiative and maybe even sponsor the soccer team?

What about when a woman announces that she is pregnant, what is the reaction on the part of co-workers and “the boss?” Is it, “this is terrible, we’re never hiring a woman again in that role!” Is she given less challenging or lucrative work? Is she all-but-fired on the spot (yes, it’s illegal in most developed countries, but there are ways to push someone out)? Or does the company start thinking long term about how to handle the workload during her absence and how to make things easier for her to come back?

In comparing reactions to pregnancy announcements with internet acquaintances in many US cities, and in reading stories on blogs, I was surprised at how negative the reactions were for other people. My own experiences with both pregnancies were positive — people I worked with and for were happy for me, immediately began making long term plans to handle my absence, and started coming up with flexible solutions to help me return to work and be a productive worker and good parent. While I’m sure my departure created some chaos and challenges, no one expressed it openly as a frustration against me personally.

If a city’s economic and business community wants to attract young, educated, creative types then surely they want to keep both the men and the women contributing to the economy. Having a business culture (or government employment culture) that is anti-family in the sense of not being flexible to family needs could drive some young families away — especially if two incomes are necessary (or 1.5 incomes) to afford the mortgage.

My challenge to people with the resources to study such things, is to create a measurement of family-friendliness within a city’s major employers as a proxy for the whole city. To do this, one could look at official policy of the top 10 or 20 employers; survey employees to see if they indeed have access to these measures. Senior management and CEOs should also be queried. As Penelope Trunk has said, look at the CEO if you want to know if the job will offer flexibility and reasonable hours:

It’ll be a great day when CEOs are dismissed for neglecting their kids. Meanwhile, employees, beware: CEOs like Stringer and Immelt have a negative effect on your own ability to keep your personal life intact, because work-life policy starts at the top and trickles down.

When you are looking for a company to work for, look at the CEO… if he works insane hours, you can bet that you will be expected to do the same, on some level. And my gosh, if he refers to you as his family, run!

Family friendliness becomes contagious. If you look at the big 4 accounting firms, they are all starting to bend over backwards to retain talented employees and family-friendly policies are at the centre. At a city level, therefore, I would assert that the more companies that support families in their daily policies (such as allowing flexible hours, 3/4 time work, occasional telecommuting, sick days — when the kids are sick), the more rivals that will do the same creating an overall family-friendly city. And, wouldn’t you know it, there is a growing body of evidence that family friendly policies yield greater returns for corporations that use them. So, family-friendly policies should therefore benefit a city’s overall economic development.

Category: attracting talent, economic development, urban families, urban lifestyles /

Bikes, Boston and attracting talent

November 13, 2007 / Wendy Waters / 6 comments

Does bicycle friendliness contribute to a city’s economic development? City planners and economic development specialists are spending increasing amounts of time trying to make their cities attractive to younger, educated workers and the companies that wish to hire them. They often focus on creating river walks or revitalizing downtowns through cleaning up crime and supporting retail and restaurant businesses.

Dave Atkins (of the Dave Writes blog) argues that reducing obstacles to everyday bicycle travel — to using a bike instead of a car — should also be priorities. According to Dave, cycling around Boston is challenging:

we have a lot of work to do in Boston. I found it ironic that my effort to attend this workshop [on making Boston more bike friendly] illustrates just how much of a fanatic you need to be right now to bike Boston…first, I rode my bike in to work–13 miles dodging potholes, being ever vigilant for crazy drivers, constantly watching for right-turners who would cut me off, timing things to avoid running over oblivious pedestrians, choosing to ride on the sidewalk at times, running stop signs and red lights as a lesser of evils choice to get out of traffic-pinching situations and, after riding a short stretch of interstate onramp that is the only way to get from the South End to Southie, finally arriving at work where I changed clothes in the bathroom and tried not to sweat too much.

At lunch, I rode over to Government Center through the financial district. Again, pedestrians everywhere, delivery trucks, one way streets…I hardly ever run lights, but I found that the safer course of action for me was to run the red lights and go the wrong way a few times. Then I got to government center with its many, many steps on the plaza that I got to carry my bike across.

Whew.

He connects bicycle friendliness to the overall atmosphere that he, his family, and friends or associates desire. He insists that bikes shorten distances between interesting commercial and pedestrian-oriented areas, and between residential neighborhoods and various city amenities.

The bike component is a key feature for any city to achieve the kind of living balance that so many of us want these days. We don’t want to commute by car in from the suburbs. We want to be a part of where we live and work. The bike can really help that feeling of connectedness.

Dave makes a compelling point. Being able to travel by bicycle somehow makes a giant metro area seem more friendly and relaxed. And, I agree could be a factor in attracting and retaining talented people. A further reason that he doesn’t raise is how cycle travel can contribute to better home affordability. If families can get by with only one vehicle or even no vehicles, this allows them to spend more on their mortgage (and housing is expensive in many vibrant cities) or on other lifestyle expenses like lattes, restaurant meals, etc.

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Additional great stuff on bikes:

Rebuilding place in urban space has : “Making biking irresistible” also see bikecommuter.com and the post “I’d ride my bike but…”

Virgin vacation rates the world’s top 11 cities for biking (HT Creative Class Exchange)

I see from Planetizen that Seattle has launched a big bike use expansion plan..

Category: attracting talent, economic development, planning policy, transportation, urban lifestyles /

Dubai – a microcosm of globalization?

October 29, 2007 / Wendy Waters / No comments

What does globalization really mean? It’s a loaded term with many meanings. Perhaps one way to understand what the shrinking distances between people, economies, cities and countries really means is to look at life in one city that exists in its current form because of global trade and travel – Dubai.

Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirites that has long historic routes as a regional trading centre, but only recently has become well known internationally. The government has undertaken a bold scheme to use the income from the limited oil reserves of this emirite to build a global financial center as well as international shopping and tourist destination.

Most work is done by foreigners, imported for their particular skills. This is where Dubai seems to encapsulate a darker side of the global economy — the stratification of jobs, and incomes, sometimes along national lines. Creative, professional and management type jobs tend to go to North Americans and Europeans. Skilled and semi-skilled labor is typically done by people from the Indian sub-continent but also Africa and other parts of the world. Tourists are typically caucasion, and usually from Europe — or UN workers and non-profit development staff stationed in places like Afganinstan taking a break. The class/race stratification is shocking. The few who are true emirate citizens are either managers or live off the income from oil and investments.

I’m trying to decide if Dubai and its social stratification is a microcosm of the world, or just a unique place.
This week south-Asian workers staged a strike. According to CBC news, construction workers were protesting poor working conditions and wages.

Dubai is currently home to the world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai expected to be completed in 2008 and home of the world’s first Armani luxury hotel, and authorities report an annual average growth rate of 12 per cent over the past decade, largely driven by construction.

The boom has been possible due to plentiful investment from oil rich neighbours and armies of non-unionized South Asian workers whose fear of deportation, until recently, kept them from voicing discontent over low wages.

“The cost of living here has increased so much in the past two years that I cannot survive with my salary,” said Rajesh Kumar, a 24-year-old worker from the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, earning $150 a month.

This weekend the workers ignored the threat of deportation and refused to go to work, staging protests at a labour camp in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Industrial Zone and on a construction site in Al Qusais residential neighbourhoodThey demanded pay increases, improved housing and better transportation services to construction sites. On Saturday workers threw stones at riot police and damaged their cars.

The government is threatening deportation for some (foreigners have few rights in Dubai), however the construction managers and business community are generally against this as there is a labor shortage. Indeed, because of good economic times in India, cheap labor is becoming harder to come by in Dubai, generating challenges for the ambitious construction schedule.

There is another question here for cities like Dubai: Can a city survive on imported, rather than home grown labor and talent? What if not only the poorly-paid construction workers left, but also what if the highly-paid foreign real estate development managers and financial market gurus left for home as well?

And yet, I hope that the contrast of rich and poor, of highly paid talent from North America and Europe set against poorly paid labor from South Asia, is not really a microcosm of the world.

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Final, personal note: I did see the social stratification contrasted against ridiculous extravagance first hand three years ago. During a 24 hour layover in Dubai en route from Islamabad to London, my husband and I stashed our luggage at the giant glitzy airport and hopped on the bus to reach the old part of town. We were the only Caucasians using the spotless, brand new public transit system. The other passengers appeared to represent the multi-ethnic planet earth. The Indian-looking driver piloted the vehicle through major thoroughfares and onto narrower streets lined with industrial looking apartments, each with a balcony crammed with clotheslines displaying colourful laundry. They instantly reminded me of apartment blocks in working class neighborhoods of Latin America or Eastern Europe. On the roads, women in jewel encrusted black burka’s drove luxury automobiles (how they see to drive remains a mystery to me) while white men and women preferred SUVs, often white in colour. The modern shopping malls were more glitzy and grand than any I’d ever seen. A friend working there (managing a major development project) also took us on a tour. The strangest stop was a small high-rise neighborhood that looked — deliberately, by design — exactly like part of Yaletown in Vancouver.

Category: attracting talent, commercial development, diversity, economic development, poverty /

Toronto on the rise?

October 23, 2007 / Wendy Waters / 7 comments

Toronto is changing fast. No longer is it just Canada’s financial and business hub, but it’s becoming a world centre as well, with many of the spin off benefits and challenges.

This is the argument or observation of Dr. Sherry Cooper, the Chief Economist at BMO Capital Markets and BMO Nesbitt Burns in an essay she penned last week.

In my view, Toronto is becoming a world-class financial and commercial centre on the order of New York and London. While [new ultra-deluxe] condos are going for $1,300-to-$1,800 a square foot, they are cheap by international standards. Donald Trump—at the Toronto ground breaking of Trump Tower Toronto’s construction at Adelaide and Bay—recently declared that comparable property would sell for $5,000 a square foot in New York and even more in London.
…

No where is the new wave of foreign money more evident than on Bloor Street—Toronto’s version of the Big Apple’s Fifth Avenue with its mixed-use high-end residential, office and retail space. New designer stores are opening and existing ones are expanding. Canada’s-own Holt Renfrew’s flagship store has expanded and remodeled, becoming even more decidedly upscale; as well, designer boutiques such as Chanel, Gucci, and Escada have expanded. High-priced trendy restaurants are popping up city wide and the remodeling and expansion of the ROM, the Gardiner Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario are enhancing this urban renewal. We are observing the gentrification of Bloor Street west of Avenue Road and east of Yonge Street as downscale commercial properties are replaced by upscale residences and boutiques. For example, the 16-storey ultra-luxury Museum House condominium development will take the place of the Pizza Hut opposite the ROM’s new Crystal and it will be accompanied by other luxury condos on that same strip of Bloor. Even the seamier side of Yonge St. south of Bloor will change with the coming (in 2011) 80-storey hotel/residential/retail tower of 1 Bloor, touted as the tallest residential tower in Canada by its Kazakhstan-based developer. This five-star boutique hotel will join the other five larger five-star hotels opening in Toronto in the next few years, taking us from not a single five-star hotel in all of Canada to six and counting in Toronto alone.

Bottom Line: this is a fascinating and important economic development, bearing with it enormous portent. On the positive side, it will be a boost to the revenue base of the beleaguered city government and certainly increase the economic growth of the city and no doubt encourage the rise of the Canadian dollar. On the negative side, it will reduce the affordability of the city for current residents, potentially displacing low-income residents. It puts additional strain on public services and adds to the de-industrialization of the inner city. Historical preservation has become an issue as we have seen with the saving of the old fire house and the frontage of the first site of Mt. Sinai hospital on Yorkville Avenue. We run the risk of creating concrete caverns that block the sun and increase gridlock on already-busy city streets. It is an opportunity and a challenge, and it is happening faster than most people realize.

Toronto is certainly changing. While I generally agree with Cooper, I think she may be over-stating the case for current change — although not Toronto’s potential. I’m not sure it is achieving the status of New York or London — at least not yet. But it may be securing a role as the number two financial centre in North America after New York. And Toronto has a lot of advantages in terms of growing in this area:

In particular, Toronto offers an attractiveness to potential foreign immigrants and an easier immigration process, in comparison to New York. With over 40% of the population foreign born in the Toronto area (know locally as the GTA), most immigrants can find an ex-pat community from their birth country, should this be important. And Canada has been easing immigration restrictions, particularly for young, educated professionals — talent — which is becoming scarce in some industries and cities.

Toronto as a city is more like New York and London than most North American places. Although automobile-centred sprawl has created some challenges in recent decades, the older districts in the core are more human centred and walkable — and well serviced by efficient public transportation options used by all levels of society (much like New York and London). As oil becomes expensive and more sustainable living desirable, Toronto like New York and London is better positioned.

Certainly, Toronto lacks the same history as a global hub that London and New York share. But has Dubai has shown, this can be overcome with ingenuity, determination, and boldness. Further growth in Toronto may, therefore, require some clever and brash steps from business and political leaders.

And, Cooper is correct in noting the challenges. One she doesn’t mention is that Toronto’s infrastructure is decaying. Roads, overpasses, sewers, etc. require upgrades. Moreover, the city is desperately short of funds and cutting back services to citizens. I’m not sure that new deluxe condos will bring in enough new revenue to really help.

Without good infrastructure, the city will start to decline under its own weight and become less livable, undermining its potential as a financial centre. It’s the federal government’s revenues that will really benefit from Toronto becoming a bolder, global city and financial hub. And its from Ottawa that more support will be needed in order for Toronto to continue on this path.

Category: attracting talent, commercial development, downtowns, economic development, national politics, real estate, urban history /

Infrastructure and human capital needed

October 16, 2007 / Wendy Waters / No comments

CEOs for cities has a post this week entitled “Can Bass Pro Shops Really Save Troubled Cities.” In it, the author challenges the planners of Buffalo for inviting a large Bass Pro Shop to open on the waterfront as part of a revitalization scheme, citing Ed Glaeser:

Harvard economist Ed Glaeser questioned the strategy. “It’s crazy to think you can solve the problems of declining cities by building lots of infrastructure,” he told the New York Times. “While all of the colder, older cities in America looked troubled 30 years ago, the turnaround of some cities has been sharply linked to high levels of human capital, or a higher share of the population having college degrees….

To a point, I agree: if a city struggles to attract and retain talented people, then focusing only on infrastructure and making nice waterfronts will not help much. But if a city does have some creative and knowledge clusters — but needs more — then attention to infrastructure and ambiance is crucial.

Without quality infrastructure — whether parks, roads, utilities or shopping and entertainment — cities will struggle to attract and retain talented people. In the 21st century, the economic development of cities requires efforts to create home grown talent through good education and inspiration. But infrastructure is equally necessary for the city to function — and that is cultural infrastructure (and shopping is part of our culture) as well as transportation arteries.

While I’m not sure a Bass Pro Shop is the key, as is being tried in Buffalo, creating lively bustling retail districts is important.

Category: attracting talent, city hall, economic development, planning policy, public spaces, revitalization, urban retail trends /

Shrinking distances and global urban growth

October 4, 2007 / Wendy Waters / No comments

For centuries new communications technologies have been shrinking the distances between people and places. Most recently, the internet combined with easy, inexpensive transportation options allow people from different parts of the world to communicate, to meet, and to share and exchange cultural ideas.

One result: increasing numbers of people are introduced to experiences that reflect everyday life in dynamic world cities. And, as a result they crave an opportunity to participate in this interactive milieu, encouraging them to relocate to multi-cultural, busy, urban areas.

This is my theory, or assertion. But here is some historical evidence for it:

In Mexico in the 1930s and 1940s the government vastly expanded rural education programs as well as the country’s road and highway network. As a result, the youth were introduced to a world vastly different from life in their village. They became literate (and in the national and global language of Spanish rather than a local indigenous tongue), had access to consumer goods, and could travel to larger cities and towns (and meet people from those places who came to their community). As a result, when these people grew up, they frequently left their villages for the cities (particularly Mexico City), and some even departed for the United States. (Source: my doctoral dissertation – not available online).

The combination of education, literacy, and new, inexpensive and easy travel options is much like the phenomena of internet, telephones along with facilitated global travel today. This exposes people to urban life, and allows them to relocate to urban areas (and often from educational programs they have some skills to work in the city). Add in English education and literacy around the world and many people are also keen to relocate to places like London and New York (and maybe Toronto, which given 44% of its population is foreign born, can’t be overlooked here).

Put another way, it seems the internet, knowledge economy, instant communications has created contributed to a generation, or sub set of it (a creative class?) — who want that messy, unorganized mixing of global ideas and people that can be found in certain cities.

And major cities and urban living in general is growing rapidly worldwide.

Category: attracting talent, economic development, sprawl, urban history /

Tales of two border cities

September 25, 2007 / Wendy Waters / 3 comments

Strategies to work around US immigration policies are starting to become more creative, and bizarre. An author at CEOs for Cities is reporting that a consultant speaker at the Mayor’s Hemispheric Forum this week will advocate that the best strategy to revive Detroit is to partner with Windsor, Ontario Canada.

The logic goes, apparently, that because of a shortage of H1-B visas allowing skilled foreigners to live and work in the USA, cities like Detroit cannot re-energize their economies and shift the business base further into the knowledge economy. Therefore, under this theory, US companies should set up partner operations in nearby Canadian cities, as it is much easier for the talented to immigrate to Canada. The recent announcement of Microsoft’s new Vancouver-area operation (a 2 hours’ drive north of its Redmond Washington headquarters), is cited as an example.

Should America’s knowledge economy leaders follow this advice, it will certainly benefit Canada’s urban and national economies. But what about America’s cities?

Will such a cross-border urban business partnership really bring more companies to Detroit? If you’re a large knowledge economy company looking to expand operations in North America, why not just skip Detroit and Windsor and set up in Toronto with its bigger population and more dynamic urban cultural and economic scene?

If the plan is to help Detroit-area companies expand, then it might have a little more merit. However, if many or most of the new jobs end up in Windsor Ontario, how much will Detroit really benefit? The border region could certainly develop particular clusters and become known for that. But if any other company then decides they want to operate in the region, they will also likely need to choose Windsor as their base of operations in order to find their own workforce. (If Detroit had enough talented workers to support knowledge economy growth or cluster growth, then presumably the current and future residents of Windsor would not be required.) So again, how does Detroit really benefit here?

Maybe the hope is that building a dynamic Detroit-Windsor region will make more talented Americans want to move to Detroit. That could benefit the city. But it seems like an event at the end of a series of difficult-to-achieve ventures.

Category: attracting talent, clusters, economic development, national politics, revitalization /

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