Press

IFF: Briefly, what is “the new localism”?

Jeremy Nowak: New Localism is the term we use to describe the shift in power that is taking place today from the Feds downward to metropolitan communities; horizontally across public, private, and civic networks; and globally along circuits of capital, talent, and innovation. For us, Localism does not refer only to local governments, but to the interplay of multiple sectors. Most importantly, we view New Localism as a problem-solving practice focused on the major challenges of our time, including growth, sustainability, and social integration.

AS the Brexit deliberations unfold, the conventional wisdom is that the future of Britain will be decided by a small number of national elected officials responsible for negotiating the contours of the final relationship between Britain, Europe and the rest of the world. The Brexit game, one would conclude, is a game played exclusively by the few and the powerful.

The Miller Center for Public Affairs hosted a panel conversation on “Power in the age of populism” with author Bruce Katz Friday. The conversation focused largely on the concept of power cities, or cities comprised of innovative ideas and financial sustainability.

The conversation discussed key points in Katz’s recent book “The New Localism: How Cities can Thrive in the Age of Populism,” co-written with Jeremy Nowak, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation. The conversation focused particularly in on the shift away from cities dependending on the national government.

Bruce Katz, Centennial Scholar at the Brookings Institution, and Jeremy Nowak, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation, argue in their recent book, The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism, that the power to create social, economic and environmental change lies in the hands of a new kind of localism. Cities and communities are emerging as innovators and problem-solvers to address everything from social inclusion to environmental sustainability despite their being limited in these roles by fiscal distress. While not a replacement for the essential functions of  federal governments, Katz and Nowak argue that this new localism is the ideal complement to an effective federal government. Indeed, they argue it is an urgently needed remedy for national dysfunction.

We interviewed Jeremy Nowak to learn more about how he thinks the new localism will shape 21st century urban places in an environment of municipal fiscal distress.

In this period of political, economic, and technological upheaval, Bruce Katz believes we should look to cities to solve societal challenges. Katz is The Brookings Institution’s first Centennial Scholar and author of “The Metropolitan Revolution” and “The New Localism.” He shared his message about empowering cities at a Downtown Seattle Association event last week. Katz urged Seattle to create more intentional public-private partnerships to better aggregate and distribute the massive wealth generated in the city by industries like tech and healthcare.

A Sidewalk Talk Q&A with Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak, authors of “The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism,” on the new era of public, private, and civic collaboration.

In the past few decades, Pittsburgh has rebounded from the collapse of its steel industry to become a global leader in robotics. Indianapolis has broadened its sports-based economy (Kurt Vonnegut famously said city residents passed the time by going to the speedway one day a year and playing miniature golf the other 364) to include a robust life sciences industry. Copenhagen has gone from an unemployment rate of 18 percent into one of the world’s wealthiest cities.

Cities have long been seeking out companies to relocate to their business-friendly confines. By dangling tax breaks and other incentives, cities hope to boost the local economy, provide employment, and add to the property tax base. More recently, it seems, companies have been searching for cities that will be amenable to their workers, particularly the younger employees — millennials — who favor walkable urban centers with a healthy mix of nightlife and arts venues as opposed to the suburban house with the yard and the garage for the obligatory car.

Can local leaders solve issues better than politicians and bureaucrats in Washington? I’m not in the habit of posing silly questions, but I’ll bet many of you snickered at that last sentence. Utahns, residents of a unique Western state thousands of miles from Washington, are used to having national leaders dictate tone-deaf solutions to their problems.

“New companies and new teams are being formed all the time here, as writers from The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, Wired, and many others have noticed,” Mayor Andy Berke wrote last week in “The Berke Bulletin,” a subscription mayoral email blast.