Regionalism

Everybody in the business talks about it, but why is regionalism so difficult in economic development? I encounter this issue with great regularity in my strategy work.

My simple answer is that regions lack political constituencies to support them. Politicians are elected to serve at the state, county or city level. Regions are political vacuums in that respect.

In my assessment, current political and taxing jurisdiction boundaries prevent us from adopting regional economic strategies. Competition for resources is also a major factor. Local, intra-regional, rivalry for tax base is the single biggest reason why regional economic development efforts suffer from weak support.

There are other reasons as well. People attach great personal significance to specific local places. In this sense, communities will always matter. Even though worker commuting patterns have shifted to larger geographic areas, people tend to relate the most to the specific community they live in.

What is the answer to fostering greater regional cooperation for economic development? There are two that I will offer here: 1) help people to understand how communities in the same region are interdependent and share a common fate in terms of economic growth; and 2) build a track record of regional cooperation that starts with smaller and simpler things and advances to larger and more complex challenges. Communities, and most counties, have economic bases and not economies. Regions in most cases have true economies that can be defined by industry structure, markets, infrastructure systems, and labor markets.

Right now, some regional economic development efforts are being re-thought--for example those in Toledo, Charlotte and other metro areas. Others are moving forward step-by-step, such as those in San Diego, Phoenix, Louisville, and Pittsburgh. Some, like the new Team NEO effort in Northeast Ohio, are just getting underway.

My forecast is that regional strategies for economic development will continue to make progress. This progress will hinge on many factors. The most important of which is demonstrating that new value can be added by regional programs and organizations.