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What makes a city great?
TAVIA GRANT
Globe and Mail Update
Cities are home to more than half of the industrialized world's population and most of its jobs and output.
But what makes for a competitive city in today's global economy? That's what a report released Thursday by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development set to find out.
The report comes amid predictions that, by next year, the world will have more urban residents than rural dwellers for the first time in history.
“Successful cities attract talented young highly-skilled workers, are centres of innovation and entrepreneurship and are competitive locations for global and regional headquarters,†the 450-page report says.
Innovation means access to higher education. “The proximity of universities to research and production facilities means cities are where new products are developed and commercialized,†it said. More than 80 per cent of patents are filed in cities.
Just because a city has higher economic growth, foreign investment and labour productivity than the rest of the country doesn't automatically spell success. Many are also more polluted, crime-ridden and socially disparate, the report said.
The OECD report studied the 78 largest metro-regions in the OECD, ranging from Tokyo with close to 35 million inhabitants to Auckland, with 1.5 million. San Francisco is the city with the highest purchasing power parity GDP, followed by Washington, Boston and Seattle. Toronto ranks 36th and Vancouver 44th on the OECD's ranking.
The report stresses that, while there is no ‘one size fits all' policy for cities, there are ideas that can be tailored to meet specific needs. These include:
• a flexible vision that fosters competitiveness with information and transportation links between universities, researchers, technicians, and manufacturers
• “livable†cities with high-quality infrastructure, green spaces, and inner city residential areas and public projects, which contribute to economic success by attracting foreign investors as well as professionals and tourists
• leadership from the national government to encourage reform, government at the metro level and local networks that include non-governmental actors and businesses which can deal with social tensions and market realities
• cities can diversify tax revenues with ‘smart taxes' such as congestion charges and use public-private partnerships to raise money for public projects. Equalization payments between metropolitan regions can also sometimes be effective
It found that growth doesn't always equate with success. Indeed, bigger means richer is only the case until a certain threshold -- around 7 million. After that, “the correlation between metro-region size and income becomes negative,†the report said, giving Seoul, Mexico City, Istanbul, and probably Tokyo.
“The smaller cities gain from the growth, while the larger ones benefit from the reduction of pressure,†the report said.
Larger metro-regions also tend to breed large pockets of unemployment.
Exclusion and poverty in most OECD countries have become urban phenomena. These issues are prominent not only places like Mexico City, where about half the population lives in poverty, but also in cities undergoing industrial restructuring, such as Rotterdam, Lille and Detroit.
This, in turn, can prompt high levels of criminality and more people living in “distressed†neighbourhoods.
The report studied two “successful†cities: Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.
Both cities are trying to balance economic growth with social equity. In Helsinki, economic growth has created challenges for governments to stick to their traditional commitment to equality, creating political frictions. In Stockholm, high housing prices are making it increasingly prohibitive for low-income people.
What makes a city great?
TAVIA GRANT
Globe and Mail Update
Cities are home to more than half of the industrialized world's population and most of its jobs and output.
But what makes for a competitive city in today's global economy? That's what a report released Thursday by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development set to find out.
The report comes amid predictions that, by next year, the world will have more urban residents than rural dwellers for the first time in history.
“Successful cities attract talented young highly-skilled workers, are centres of innovation and entrepreneurship and are competitive locations for global and regional headquarters,†the 450-page report says.
Innovation means access to higher education. “The proximity of universities to research and production facilities means cities are where new products are developed and commercialized,†it said. More than 80 per cent of patents are filed in cities.
Just because a city has higher economic growth, foreign investment and labour productivity than the rest of the country doesn't automatically spell success. Many are also more polluted, crime-ridden and socially disparate, the report said.
The OECD report studied the 78 largest metro-regions in the OECD, ranging from Tokyo with close to 35 million inhabitants to Auckland, with 1.5 million. San Francisco is the city with the highest purchasing power parity GDP, followed by Washington, Boston and Seattle. Toronto ranks 36th and Vancouver 44th on the OECD's ranking.
The report stresses that, while there is no ‘one size fits all' policy for cities, there are ideas that can be tailored to meet specific needs. These include:
• a flexible vision that fosters competitiveness with information and transportation links between universities, researchers, technicians, and manufacturers
• “livable†cities with high-quality infrastructure, green spaces, and inner city residential areas and public projects, which contribute to economic success by attracting foreign investors as well as professionals and tourists
• leadership from the national government to encourage reform, government at the metro level and local networks that include non-governmental actors and businesses which can deal with social tensions and market realities
• cities can diversify tax revenues with ‘smart taxes' such as congestion charges and use public-private partnerships to raise money for public projects. Equalization payments between metropolitan regions can also sometimes be effective
It found that growth doesn't always equate with success. Indeed, bigger means richer is only the case until a certain threshold -- around 7 million. After that, “the correlation between metro-region size and income becomes negative,†the report said, giving Seoul, Mexico City, Istanbul, and probably Tokyo.
“The smaller cities gain from the growth, while the larger ones benefit from the reduction of pressure,†the report said.
Larger metro-regions also tend to breed large pockets of unemployment.
Exclusion and poverty in most OECD countries have become urban phenomena. These issues are prominent not only places like Mexico City, where about half the population lives in poverty, but also in cities undergoing industrial restructuring, such as Rotterdam, Lille and Detroit.
This, in turn, can prompt high levels of criminality and more people living in “distressed†neighbourhoods.
The report studied two “successful†cities: Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.
Both cities are trying to balance economic growth with social equity. In Helsinki, economic growth has created challenges for governments to stick to their traditional commitment to equality, creating political frictions. In Stockholm, high housing prices are making it increasingly prohibitive for low-income people.