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Bragdon initiative: Create jobs and prosperity
David is aligning Metro behind a regional economic strategy to give the region's residents a wider range of choices for earning a living.
David’s economic agenda is straightforward: make sure Metro plays its appropriate role in strengthening the region competitively, and be a force in bringing together the region’s organizations and leaders behind an integrated regional strategy. That requires Metro to factor in an understanding of market forces in everything it does, from transportation planning to affordable housing, as well as to find ways to help bring leaders and organizations together behind a unified agenda.
Once upon a time, Oregon’s economic development approach was simple: we had cheap water, cheap utilities, cheap labor costs and cheap land, especially compared to our major competitor, California. Now, we recognize we don’t want to compete with India or Taiwan on the basis of cost, and must compete on the basis of quality and productivity instead.
Comparative advantage today requires that we integrate all the factors at which we can excel. That means capitalizing on our quality of life, maintaining an efficient transportation system, nurturing creativity and innovation, and making sure housing is available for workers. It requires that we have solid kindergarten through doctorate level education programs. It means providing the workforce training and research and development to support key industry clusters such as high technology, metals, sports apparel, creative services, nursery products, and other industries in which we have established ourselves internationally. No one organization in the region can do all these things; each must do its part.
The Metro Council will likely never take the lead on overseas trade missions or industrial recruitment. That’s not Metro’s role. But in such critical areas as freight mobility, affordable housing, redevelopment of old industrial areas, clean air and water, land use, parks and greenspaces, transportation options, and tourism facilities, David’s commitment to the residents of the region is that Metro will contribute substantially.
That means funneling transportation dollars where they will increase the productivity of our region’s companies, not be wasted on roads to nowhere. That pledge will be fulfilled as the Metro Council works with the trucking industry and shippers to develop a freight plan for our trade-reliant region. David has pushed the Council to consider the economic consequences of its environmental policies and to look to balanced approaches that get the greatest amount of environmental protection through the greatest level of cooperation.
Under David’s leadership, sophisticated mapping software used by Metro’s Data Resource Center is being put to work providing quality, web-based information to firms that want to expand or locate here. David also initiated a project to map old industrial brownfields that could be redeveloped, providing new jobs in existing urban areas.
None of these things, taken individually, will ensure regional prosperity. But through focused and coordinated efforts with other levels of government, and working with our education institutions, nonprofits, and private sector businesses, we can establish a solid competitive niche globally that continues to provide opportunity for residents of our region for years to come.