learning from others

Carol Coletta's CEOs for Cities has a great radio show (available as a podcast via iTunes), runs a great website, commisions great research and releases a great newsletter.

They are (in their own words) "..a national network of urban leaders speeding innovation in cities. It is the only organization that brings together mayors, university officials, corporate executives foundation presidents, and business and civic leaders to tackle issues affecting the future of U.S. cities."

Although US centric -much of what they discuss would be of great help to progressive city mayors and managers back home. Here's a snippet from the June 5, 2006 newsletter [my notes in brackets]:

What We Know About Urban Success…

Based on earlier work for our organization by Bob Weissbourd and Chris Berry, we know that:

• The fates of cities and their suburbs are inextricably tied. They succeed or fail together. [The near suburbs of Northern Cavite and Southern Rizal, pay heed! Subic and Clark, pay attention!]
  
• Increasing per capita income is a better measure of the success of cities than is increasing population.
  
• The best predictor of a city’s economic success is the percentage of college-educated people among its citizens. [I think we are the 6th largest producer of college graduates. - Whether they are on par with the best is the question. How we can keep and employ them is the challenge.]
  
• The isolation of Blacks and Hispanics has a negative and significant effect on a city's income growth. [So who are the marginalized and disenfranchised in the Metro Manila? We don't segregate by race or regional identity -but we do segregate by income.]
  
• Income inequality has a negative effect on urban economic growth. [See my last comment.]

more...

Go visit. Lots of good stuff.