Charting Brookings Metro’s course under a Trump administration

At Brookings Metro, we often call leaders in cities and metropolitan areas the pragmatic caucus. Mayors, business leaders, educators, philanthropists, and non-profit leaders continually roll up their sleeves and pursue shared strategies to improve their communities. They value progress over partisanship. The path is rarely easy, but they often get the work done.

We need to tap that same can-do spirit if we hope to move the nation forward after the most divisive presidential election in modern American history.

As Washington transitions to governing, we at Brookings Metro aspire through our work to mirror the pragmatism and affirmative spirit we see in our cities and metro areas. We will use data and evidence to clarify trends for national and local decision-makers so they can craft sensible solutions grounded in community realities. We will encourage the new administration and Congress to partner outside the Beltway to empower local communities, whether large or small, red or blue, coastal or inland, and regardless of their racial makeup. And we will strive to find solutions to common challenges across these communities—adapting economies to trade and technological change; connecting workers to good jobs and pathways to upward mobility; growing the economy by diversifying our energy sources; and modernizing infrastructure to spur growth and access to opportunity.

As we do all that at Brookings Metro, our work will also reinforce the values that have always been critical to the success of our cities and metro areas: diversity, tolerance, openness, exchange, and commitment to the public good. And it will continue to demonstrate Brookings’ enduring dedication to quality, independence, and impact.