BLUEPRINT FOR AMERICAN PROSPERITY

Focused Images Photography/Lynn Dykstra - Bruce Katz, vice president and director of the Metropolitan Policy Program, addresses the crowd at the Summit for American Prosperity
June 11, 2008
The opening dinner of the Summit for American Prosperity featured remarks by metropolitan leaders and a keynote address by Michael Porter, author and a professor at Harvard Business School.
Read More
SPOTLIGHT: Transportation

Istock Photos/Liz Leyden - The Red Line train comes out of its tunnel in Boston to go over the Longfellow Bridge
Robert Puentes, June 12, 2008
Robert Puentes calls on the federal government to empower major metropolitan areas by giving them direct transportation funding and the flexibility to make unbiased decisions between different modes of transportation. The federal government can then maximize performance by committing itself (and the recipients of federal funds) to an evidence-based, outcome driven, and benchmarked way of doing business.
Read More
Transportation, Federalism, Highways, Traffic, Environment
SPOTLIGHT: Earned Income Tax Credit

Istock Photos/Arpad Benedek - Kitchen worker wiping dishes
Alan Berube, David Park and Elizabeth Kneebone, June 05, 2008
Slowed economic growth and rising prices for necessities like food, transportation, and child care threaten to exacerbate the challenges already facing America's low-income workers and their families. The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) could do more to help close the growing gap between stagnant wages and rising prices. "Metro Raise" demonstrates how an expanded and modernized EITC would benefit families and communities in the nation's major metropolitan areas.
Read More
Earned Income Tax Credit, Inequality, Taxes, Working Poor, Children & Families

Total carbon emissions per capita by quintile.
Why does an Indianapolis resident emit more carbon from transportation and residences than Honolulu or Los Angeles dwellers? According to a new report from the Metropolitan Policy Program, carbon footprint sizes vary due to development patterns, rail transit, fuels used to generate electricity, energy prices, and weather. “Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America” quantifies for the first time the carbon footprint of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas.
Read More
Event
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
9:00 AM to 12:30 PM
Washington, DC
At this forum, featuring a panel of innovative business, philanthropic, government and university leaders, Brookings launched Blueprint for American Prosperity, a multi-year initiative to promote an economic agenda for the nation that builds on the assets—and centrality—of America’s metropolitan areas.
Read More
Competitiveness, Cities, U.S. Economic Growth