International Economic Development Council
September 16, 2007
Phoenix, Arizona
Glad to have this opportunity to talk with you today.
Your CEO, Jim Finkle, gave me a tough assignment.
Don’t just tell us exciting ways the economic development landscape has been changing in Louisville, he said.
Don’t just tell us about your downtown renaissance…the latest billion-dollar expansion of UPS at your airport…the parks expansion that’s one of America’s largest.
Tell us things you’ve learned …reflect on what works….share lessons that can guide others.
It was a great assignment, Jim.
You might think ….after roughly 20 years as mayor of Louisville…that I’ve seen it all…been-there-done-that…that it’s all reruns…that we are operating on auto-pilot.
No way. The times they are a-changing.
And you have to change with them …if you care about the prosperity of your community and creating opportunities for your citizens.
I should note that times have changed in Louisville for one reason that is unique: In 2001 we became the first community our size to consolidate city and county governments in 30 years. It has doubled our population, increased our geographic area 6-fold, made us the 16th largest city in the United States -- and meant we can speak with one united voice … to business… to the state… to the federal government.
So let me describe at least 5 important new ways I find myself working on economic development issues…over the past 5 or 6 years… that may have relevance for you as well.
First, it’s a new day in terms of how local government creatively engage with businesses in our community. I don’t know about you. But in my judgment, it makes less and less sense to play the old game of trying to lure this business from Kansas City, then losing that business to Memphis…then trying to recruit this new headquarters from Richmond … and losing this other headquarters to Chicago… that old zero sum game that wastes civic energy. Where is the added value?
So…more than ever before … we are focusing on new ways to support the businesses in our community today … to help them thrive.
We came up with an imaginative program called Metropolitan College several years ago when UPS told us it was struggling with high turnover with night crews at its giant package-sorting hub. They needed stable shifts to keep growing. And of course we valued them as an employer – and a catalyst for more business growth.
So we mobilized. We created a partnership with local government, the state and UPS. The resulting Metropolitan College program provides free tuition to the college students who work at UPS during peak night shifts. What a success story. Today UPS is thriving. And thousands of college students are getting a free education.
Other new kinds of support: We created a Mayor’s High Impact program to reach out to our 100 fastest-growing locally owned companies – whether they need information on zoning or for me to make a personal phone call to help recruit a chief information officer living on the East Coast.
We’ve stepped up financial support for our life-science/biotech business incubator – to help research … new drugs…new diagnostic tools… make the transition from the laboratory to the marketplace. Instead of just funding it, we have recently …in essence…become an investor …so we’ll also benefit … if its companies do well.
We heard local CEOs … from startups to fast-growing local companies…tell us that they have trouble finding capital to expand. So local government went on a campaign. Over the past 4 years we’ve developed a seed capital fund …attracted venture capital firms to Louisville and developed a mezzanine loan fund.
And this summer I did something I never had done before: I went to Wall Street -- not to meet with bankers but to meet with private equity firms. We told them Louisville’s story – made the pitch that we are a great place to invest and invited them to visit…to look at businesses…to look at some major downtown projects…to look at a couple bridges we need funding for.
A second way times-are-changing relates to quality of life.
Sure, we have always talked about “quality of life” assets like the orchestra and vibrant neighborhoods….short commutes and good public schools. But today…more than ever before… we view quality of life improvements not as amenities but as big-picture economic development investments that help keep Louisville competitive in times when technology lets more individuals and companies choose where to put down roots.
It is a labor-of-love, for sure, that benefits our entire community.
But I spend more time and money than ever before on downtown revitalization … new sports facilities… park improvements like the 4,000-acre expansion I mentioned earlier …bike paths... neighborhood commercial enhancements … clean-and-green initiatives that plant trees, beautify and make us good stewards of the environment. And yes, I continue to spend time and money on arts and cultural organizations….along with special events like citywide Hike-and-Bikes (4,000 people set a record on Labor Day), music festivals, America’s biggest fireworks display, a new Idea Festival… all part of that elusive equation that takes your distinctive assets… adds to them … and puts your city on the map as an appealing destination. As technology lets more business be conducted anywhere ….I have found quality of life is increasingly important in the final decision.
Quality of life and workforce preparation…takes me to a third new way I am working to help business: focusing on education.
Unlike mayors of some cities, I do not run our public schools…or play a role governing community colleges and universities.
But it is clear that education …workforce development … is the ticket to opportunity for individuals and communities. The need for a skilled workforce is a top priority for almost every business person I talk to. They mention skills at every level… from folks with technology training to engineers to lab techs and PhDs.
So I work on education…short term and long term. I have supported an ambitious program to help struggling readers in our public schools ….and to find mentors for high school students at risk of dropping out – in fact, I’ve worked with two students myself. We help fund a program to keep kids in school – with a network of special school counselors --- and another ….newer program … to help out-of-school, out-of-work 18-to-25-year-olds get back in the system. I strongly support the efforts of our local colleges to get the funding they need – whether it’s science labs for our community college or a tax incentive program to help the University of Louisville develop its downtown life-science research park.
In short, I am on their team…an education advocate… like never before.
A fourth change…for me… for all of us, I suspect… is to focus on infrastructure more intently than ever before.
Infrastructure …not a word on the typical citizen’s lips…until the bridge collapse in Minnesota underscored the need to be proactive.
Not the most glamorous part of a city leader’s agenda… But in Louisville we’ve had to upgrade a century-old water system…century-old sewers… dozens of farm-to-market roads too narrow to let a car and school bus pass safely.
In an ideal world, you anticipate needs…before they become a crisis….a lesson we learned the hard way. We found ourselves with a landlocked airport in the 1980s…unable to improve passenger service …or respond to the need for a second runway if we were to see our UPS package-sorting operation expand. To build the second runway…meant relocating 4000 residents, 150 businesses and 16 churches. Let me tell you: It is not easy to tell folks with deep neighborhood roots they have to move ….even if you build them a brand-new subdivision to move to with their old neighbors. It was probably the hardest decision I’ve made in 20 years. But the result has been two separate billion dollar expansions of our UPS hub … so we are now the 3rd busiest cargo airport in the U.S.…UPS is our biggest employer… and its hub has encouraged dozens of other businesses to expand or locate nearby. And… when it comes to passenger flights, we have more nonstop flights from the Louisville airport today than ever before.
We now face the equivalent of the airport crisis… for our economy to stay strong and grow … the need for two new bridges across the Ohio River to Indiana with improvements to a treacherous downtown interchange.
It’s important to regional employers – and residents caught in traffic jams. But also has major economic-development impact beyond our region …as a major north-south corridor in our nation.
For years we believed federal and state funds would pave the way for the federal highway and bridges. But the feds have walked away from this interstate commerce responsibility.
Instead …like other cities across the nation with similar projects…from St. Louis to San Francisco … we are now exploring a wide range of alternative financing options.
The fifth and final change I’d like to mention…is a shift to regional thinking.
I confess...that for the 13 years I was mayor of the old city of Louisville…I focused economic development efforts on 61 square miles in our city limits. Inside, a new investment was a win. If a business located over the city line, that was not a win. If it located across the river in Indiana or in a nearby county… well, that was even more disappointing.
Those days are over.
The reality is that Louisville sits at the heart of a 25 county two-state economic area with 1.5 million people. Certainly, my revenue picture is improved if I collect local income tax from folks who work in Louisville. But today it is metropolitan regional hubs that power the economies of our states and our nation…with complex relationships between where our residents work, live and spend their money. Louisville still has the majority of the jobs and population in our region … and retaining that role is important to me. But I recognize our fates are intertwined across the region. If the Geek Squad chooses a site across the county line, I am glad to know that most of their employees live in my hometown and the company sees our downtown as its core: so that their first year they sponsored a downtown Christmas Festival Light Up Louisville…and this year they also stepped up as the lead sponsor of that Idea Festival I just mentioned …in the heart of downtown.
Thinking more regionally...these days I regularly visit the elected leaders of nearby communities to see ways we can work together for our common good … and hope that long-term relationships will help all our communities get resources we need by speaking with a common voice … whether the issue is state funding for transportation needs … or state approval for new local financing tools.
It is clear to me that we need to forge partnerships nationally as well … that lay out the needs of metropolitan areas facing 21st century challenge… our communities that are the metropolitan hubs that power the nation’s economy.
We need to speak out …at the state and federal level … as mayors and economic development officials to ensure that cities and metropolitan regions have the "rules and the tools”…to leverage their economic strengths… to grow in environmentally sustainable ways ….and to build strong, diverse and resilient economies.
Each one of you …and this organization … can make a difference.
I have always liked that quote from Margaret Mead.
“Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”