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Urban and Regional Policy Program Mission

GMF’s Urban and Regional Policy program empowers local leaders to introduce innovative strategies to their communities by building networks of local and regional policy makers and practitioners who can share insights about policy successes and shared challenges; by providing in-depth research and analysis of challenges and solutions across multiple communities; and by providing means for both practitioners and policy experts to conduct first hand research on best practices in communities across the Atlantic.

Why Urban and Regional Policy, Why Now

Metropolitan regions are now home to nearly three quarters of the population of the United States and Europe and are projected to continue growing.  The major economic, environmental and social transformations shaping nations over the next century, as well as the severe economic crisis facing them today, will necessarily play out in urban contexts.  Thus, the metropolitan built environment, its impact on the natural environment, and the resources available to citizens will be crucial for successfully meeting the complex challenges facing the transatlantic community.

While cities in the United States and Europe face similar policy challenges in related post-industrial contexts, individual communities that attempt to implement creative strategies have limited opportunities to learn from one another’s experiences.  Recognizing the necessity for communities to collaborate in crafting approaches to local problems that have global implications, the Urban and Regional Policy program provides a framework for transatlantic dialogue between individuals who influence and implement urban and regional policy. 

As communities on both sides of the Atlantic reevaluate their strategies for development in the face of globalization, deindustrialization, and the current economic crisis, issues like infrastructure, mobility, employment, and economic development take on renewed significance.  The current global economic restructuring places a new premium on the sustainability and cost effectiveness of growth.  In many communities, the major drivers of the local and regional economy are faltering, creating urgent social needs at the same time as unreliable funding streams force municipal and regional governments and agencies to creatively meet unprecedented budget shortfalls. 

Communities on both sides of the Atlantic have both the necessity and the opportunity to reassess their approaches to the entrenched problems that have come into sharp relief in the current economic climate, encompassing both the construction of the built environment and the development of human capital.  The Urban and Regional Policy program works to provide local leaders with the tools and knowledge necessary to ensure that long-term, sustainable solutions rather than short-term fixes are applied to these systemic challenges.

Urban and Regional Policy Advisory Committee

The Urban and Regional Policy program’s activities are guided, in part, by a Transatlantic Advisory Committee of experts on cities and regions who assist GMF staff in identifying TCN member cities, recruiting and selecting fellows, and setting program priorities related to the network.

The American representatives on the Advisory Committee are Sandra Newman, director of the Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Policy Studies, Neal Peirce, chairman of the Citistates Group, Julie Wagner, Trans-Atlantic Policy Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program and Colleen Haggerty, Senior Vice President for Bank of America.

The European representatives on the committee are Franco Corsico, director of Higher Institute on Innovation Territorial Systems (SiTI), Denis Bocquet, director of the Institut Français de Dresde, and Sabine Süß, executive director of the Schader Stiftung.

Urban and Regional Policy Program Partners

The Urban and Regional Policy program is organized with the support and collaboration of the Compagnia di San Paolo in Turin, Italy, which has a strong interest in fostering transatlantic learning between cities and regions, and the Bank of America Foundation.  The Urban and Regional Policy program”s work is also supported by the Kresge Foundation (Cities in Transition and the Detroit-Torino Partnership) and the Surdna Foundation (Cities in Transition).