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Past Event

A Metropolitan Policy Program and Blueprint for American Prosperity Event

Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation

Competitiveness, Cities, U.S. Economic Growth


Event Summary

On November 6—one year out from the ‘08 elections—the Metropolitan Policy Program launched a new national competitiveness initiative, Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation. The Blueprint offers a powerful and compelling argument: The ability of the United States to compete globally and to meet the great economic, environmental and social challenges of the twenty-first century rest largely on the health, vitality and prosperity of the nation’s major cities and metropolitan areas.

Event Information

When

Tuesday, November 06, 2007
9:00 AM to 12:30 PM

Where

Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC
Map

Event Materials


Contact: Brookings Office of Communications

E-mail: events@brookings.edu

Phone: 202.797.6105

The forum featured a panel of innovative business, philanthropic, government and university leaders discussing how federal policy reforms could bolster their efforts to create more prosperous metropolitan areas. Brookings President Strobe Talbott and Jim Johnson, former chairman of Brookings’s Board of Trustees, provided introductory remarks. Bruce Katz, vice president and director of the Metropolitan Policy Program, presented the Blueprint, followed by the panel discussion.

Video:
Watch additional videos of event  »

Transcript

Jim Johnson:  We stand at an important crossroads. America is experiencing a period of profound global and domestic change, increasingly global competition, economic restructuring at home. And dramatic demographic shifts are rewriting the rules of how we produce jobs, how we build wealth, and how we conserve our natural resources. As a nation, we face an urgent set of challenges that we can no longer afford to ignore. How does the American economy maintain its cutting edge, given rising competition from abroad and economic restructuring at home? How do we grow the education and skills of our workers so that the benefits of economic growth are shared widely? And how do we grow in environmentally sound ways, while securing our energy independence, given that our population will expand by 120 million people by 2050? In short, how do we prosper with an economy that is productive, a society that’s inclusive, and an environment that’s sustainable?

Our answer: to achieve true prosperity, we must leverage the key assets needed to excel in today’s global economy. They are innovation, superior infrastructure, outstanding human capital and quality places to live. And those assets are principally concentrated and leveraged in our metropolitan areas.

Participants

Welcome

Strobe Talbott

President, The Brookings Institution

Introductory Remarks

James A. Johnson

Vice Chairman, Perseus LLC; Former Chair, Brookings Institution

Keynote Address

The Honorable Henry Cisneros

Chairman, CityView, and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Presentation

Bruce Katz

Vice President and Director, Metropolitan Policy Program

Moderator

Neal Peirce

Citistates Group and Washington Post Writers Group

Panelists

Mark Ernst

Chairman, President & CEO, H&R Block

Rey Ramsey

Founder & CEO, One Economy

Ralph Smith

Senior Vice President, Annie E. Casey Foundation

Nancy Zimpher

President, University of Cincinnati

The Honorable AC Wharton, Jr.

Mayor, Shelby County (Tennessee)


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