Think tank places bets on Maine
Deborah McDermott
Portsmouth Herald: Oct. 23, 2005
AUGUSTA, Maine - Washington, D.C., think tank the Brookings Institution is taking a bet on Maine - taking a bet that it’s not too late to curtail sprawl; taking a bet residents with differing ideologies care enough about the state to talk constructively; taking a bet that young people will want to stick around if there are jobs for them.
That was the message delivered this past week to about 300 state and local officials, businesspeople, conservationists, planners and developers at a daylong economic summit in Augusta.
The conference was sponsored by GrowSmart Maine, an organization formed to combat sprawl in the state and that earlier this week announced it had hired Brookings Institution to conduct a $450,000 study.
Bruce Katz, vice president and director of the metropolitan policy program at Brookings, told the audience he has already met with several groups in the state, and intends to meet with many more before concluding the study in May.
"We are betting on Maine because we think Maine is different (from other states in the country)," Katz said.
He said he believes the people of Maine, unlike other states, "can engage in real dialogue. You can grow inclusive places. You can promote livable cities and towns as a foundation for competitiveness."
But, he cautioned, first the state has to deal with some hard realities. He said there are three rules for a state’s economic success.
The first: What you know will affect what you earn. People who have advanced degrees earn more than those with a high school degree. Only 23 percent of adults in Maine have bachelor’s degrees, placing the state 28th out of 50.
At the same time, the state is rapidly changing from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, in areas such as financial services, leisure activities and tourism. "Until your educational indicators change, your vitality will not budge," he said.
The second rule: How you grow physically will affect how you grow economically.
Maine "is barely growing" in part because its cities have remained stagnant, but "you are spreading out," Katz said.
Growth outside the cities, or sprawl, is "skyrocketing," he added. This low-density, dispersed population that has to drive distances to work is troubling, he said.
"You are sprawling very, very fast, and it’s undermining your brand. When I’ve driven around Maine this week, I couldn’t tell I was in Maine."
The big boxes and strip malls make it look like any other state, Katz said. "How you govern will affect how you grow" is rule No. 3. Katz said Maine is "one of the most fragmented states in the nation" in terms of governance, with layers and layers of bureaucracy.
"I’m not one to tilt at windmills, but there has to be a serious conversation about how you compete in a global economy" when there is such fragmented government, he said.
He said state government has to take a much more active role in directing Maine’s future.
Katz has already held a number of meetings in cities in Maine, and the Brookings staff will be back numerous times in the next six months to talk with groups all around the state.
The study is expected to be completed by Memorial Day 2006.
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