Metropolitan Initiative
Bay Area Metropolitan Region

Meeting Summary
San Francisco, CA
April 1, 1997

By most accounts the Metropolitan Initiative forum for the Bay Area region was a success. Brought together by The James Irvine Foundation, the Bay Area Council, Bank of America, the Association of Bay Area Governments, and the Bay Area Economic Forum, the group represented most of the leadership of the Bay Area, including regional agency directors, business leaders, foundation representatives, and advocacy and community activist groups.

For some, the session represented a continuation of the challenging on-going discussion that has taken place over many years about how the regions numerous jurisdictions can better coordinate policy and decision-making. For others, it was an opportunity to introduce new concepts and innovative approaches that are already working on a small scale in specific communities and may offer examples of how to work at the regional scale. While the group was both constructive in its criticism of the current role of federal agencies in Bay Area decisions and optimistic about a more collaborative future, many expressed concern that change will not occur without a mutual sense of regional interdependence matched with strong leadership from federal agencies.

The Meeting

After a series of introductions by the host committee and Michelle Perrault of the Sierra Club who is also a member of the Presidents Council on Sustainable Development, a presentation was made by Julia Parzen of the Center for Neighborhood Technology on emerging regional efforts nationally. She pointed out that many regions are working together to address issues of regional significance and common ingredients include: involvement from the outset of a wide diversity of community, business, and government interests; a willingness to challenge previous decisions or old procedures; and a commitment to action, not only discussion. She was followed by Shelley Poticha of the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) who presented a summary of the information included in the meetings briefing paper. Key issues facing the Bay Area include: a strong economy, but impending challenges from military base closures and welfare reform; rising housing costs and a significant lack of affordable housing near growing job centers; rising traffic congestion and diminishing transit service; declining performance in k-12 education; class, race, and equity tensions among and within communities of the region; and though the region is defined by its beautiful natural setting, pollution and sprawl are threats to its health.

The meeting then opened to a broad discussion of projects in the Bay Area that have been successes or present models that could be applied to regional consensus-building. A great diversity of projects was identified, including:

Bay Area Successes and Opportunities

• East Bay Shoreline Park
  • Dedicated individuals and leadership over a long period
• Non-Profit Housing Association
  • Builds support for affordable housing
  • Works with community groups to educate them about the need for affordable housing
• Urban Ecologys Weeks Neighborhood Project in East Palo Alto
  • Hands-on community planning
  • Citizen control of resources
  • Local involvement from Day 1
• Base Closures
  • Started with a crisis
  • Acknowledged that conflict wont lead to solutions
  • Linked to brownfields efforts
  • Tied together non-profits, governments, and private sector
• Hamilton Base Re-Use
  • Tried the top-down way: didnt work
  • Bottom-up approach, with a mandate to act from the top
• Bay-Delta Conservation and Management Plan: effective federal cooperation
  • Clarified agency roles and priorities
  • Distributed leadership from different agencies to key issues
  • Broadened understanding of problem and gains
  • Forced State to be involved
  • Process of inclusive involvement was critical to success
  • Stakeholders put pressure on Feds to meet lofty goals
• Energy Task Force of PCSD
  • Included all stakeholders
  • Learned that: building trust takes time
• Homelessness
  • Community collaborations built the infrastructure for success
  • Federal role: adopt policy and provide technical assistance
  • Regional support to build local capacity
  • Don't take a narrow focus

The discussion moved on to recent failures and factors that contributed to their lack of success. Though more specific examples could have been identified, key themes included:

Barriers to Success

• Little coordination among the regions 100 cities and numerous public agencies.
• Governance structure does not support regional decision-making because regional agency officials are all representatives of cities and counties.
  • Term limits are a barrier to forging regional solutions
• Police power of local agencies
  • Prevents collaboration because any single agencys power may be reduced
  • Local governments need to balance budgets and deal with day to day activities, this prevents their involvement in regional decisions
  • Land use: no adequate agency role to coordinate interjurisdictional impacts
• Current system creates winners and losers
  • Water and air are successes via command and control approach
• What we do effects adjacent regions
  • Its not just nine counties
• No support structure at state to address problems
  • e.g. homelessness
• Fiscalization of land use
  • Tax incentives exist for non-sustainable development
  • Other regions have tackled this. We can too.
• Vertical redundancy
  • Overlapping and conflicting responsibilities
  • Roles of state and federal agencies are not defined and their activities often interfere
• Horizontal Redundancy
  • Local regulatory hoops are numerous (especially in project permitting)
  • The existing regulatory system is complex: need an audit to help reform
• Need a Metropolitan Civic Culture
  • Build citizen support and engagement
  • Work with the media to get the message out

A number of suggestions were then made about how regional decision-making and planning could be fostered in the Bay Area:

How to Foster Regional Problem-Solving

• What We Need:
  • Vision
  • Persistence
  • Partnerships
  • Policy and Regulatory Reform
• Start with a common understanding of problem and Create a Regional Civic Culture
  • Understand how neighborhoods relate to the region and how the region relates to the state and international economy
  • Use growth to benefit disadvantaged communities and target to sustainability goals
  • Dont just inform, engage
  • Move from pilot projects to massive, region-wide activity
• Build public pressure to get agencies to address the issues
  • Identify stakeholders
  • Encourage cross-communication
  • Build on activities in neighborhoods and sub-regions
  • Look at issues people are already interested in
  • Integrate with community colleges and their curriculum
  • Involve citizens in ways that help them understand personal implications of regional decisions
  • Highlight interdependence of issues at local/citizen level
• Share information on activities
  • Create an inventory of activities and resources
  • Internet is a resource
  • Group by clusters and share with region
• Accountability is essential to resolve divisive issues
  • Mandates to act must come from federal, state, and regional agencies
  • Ask for new federal standards that aide solutions
  • Leadership by these agencies is critical
• Provide financial incentives ("show me the money")
  • Infrastructure and transportation dollars
  • Provide new resources only with collaboration
• Agree to pool resources and save time, money, energy
  • Regional Air Plan is a good example
  • Coordinating Strategic Planning activities of agencies is a good opportunity
• Rationalize allocation of revenues
  • Learn from other regions
• Build a system based on lessons learned in existing neighborhoods and communities
  • Don't add more layers to the process
  • Encourage "lateral engagements"
• Government and Business Collaboration
  • Simplify process to protect environment

Finally, the group turned its attention specifically to the federal role in the region. Important ingredients include:

The Federal Role

• Federal Agency Collaborations
  • Leadership is necessary
  • Encourage Ad Hoc Collaborations
  • Command, not control
  • Let locals develop plan with assistance by Feds.
• Federal agencies should act as conveners, coordinate resources, and provide the "stick" in conjunction with a partnership
  • Identify responsible "clearinghouse" at Federal level that facilitates inter-agency coordination
  • This may already be done by the Inter-Agency Working Group and Indicators Working Group
  • The "big stick" is useful to actually accomplish goals on the ground
• Establish and enforce uniform standards from region to region (but not "one-size-fits-all")
  • Federal level tends to one-size-fits-all solutions. Regional representatives should be allowed to be more flexible and responsive to local concerns.
  • Recognize significance of Federal role, but focus on building local infrastructure/community capacity
  • Develop better indicators of progress
  • Any Federal recommendations should also be adopted by State
• Identify Regulatory Incentives
  • What are they?
  • Are they appropriate to goals?
  • Are they duplicative or at cross purposes?
  • Do they dovetail social and economic goals in a realistic way?
• Reinvent funding sources and grant cycles to better address local needs
  • Organize around local priorities and work with multiple agencies
  • Pool resources to tackle key issues
  • Redefine funding/reporting criteria to ensure adherence to sustainability goals
  • Map funding sources that address "root causes" of societal problems
  • Think "outside the box" to reallocate and combine funding
  • Need D.C. follow-through
• Build capacity and leadership in the community as insurance against changes and cuts at the federal level.

The meeting ended on a very positive note with at statement by Nick Bollen, Program Officer for The James Irvine Foundation, stating his enthusiasm for the Metropolitan Initiatives Project and his challenge to participants to create a Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Development and be selected as a demonstration region under a future Executive Order.