Lee Fisher, President and CEO of CEOs for Cities, was recently interviewed about the upcoming Meeting of the Minds event. On October 9-11, Lee will join global leaders to convene in San Francisco for Meeting of the Minds. The Meeting is a premier leadership summit focused on the innovations that leaders in the built environment, infrastructure, transport, architecture, planning, finance and other key areas can use to grow sustainable cities. For two days, participants from across all sectors — public, NGO, and private — engage in lively discussions focused on “connecting the dots” linking buildings, energy and water resources, mobility, and finance.
The following is taken from Lee's interview with Meeting the Minds. Please visit Meet the Minds to see interviews with other global leaders who are attending the conference.
Tell us a little bit about your role in your company/organization.
I’m the President and CEO of CEOs for Cities, a national network of civic CEOs and urban leaders advancing the next generation of great American cities. Prior to this, I served as Ohio Lt. Governor, Ohio Attorney General, and Director of the Ohio Department of Economic Development. We were founded 12 years ago by a number of prominent urban leaders throughout the country including then Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Paul Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation, and Chuck Ratner, then CEO, now Chairman, of Forest City Enterprises. We are mayors and county executives, city and county officeholders, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, foundation leaders, architects and designers, university and college presidents, and civic and economic development leaders from over 60 cities throughout North America who believe cities are the solution to our nation’s most pressing problems.
What are you hoping to gain from attending Meeting of the Minds?
Cross-sector events, such as the Meeting of the Minds, gives a unique opportunity to engage urban leaders from across the country. It is through these connections that we will advance America’s cities and metropolitan regions. Everything can be summed up with this one statement: tear down walls, build bridges, light fires. Those are the words of Steve Jobs. When we tear down the walls between cities and suburbs and regions and build bridges to each other, and then light fires of targeted investment in the region’s core, the rising economic tide lifts all boats.
What projects are you currently working on that are aimed at improving cities?
Our City Vitals 2.0 research shows four essential characteristics that underpin economic prosperity. In a sense, the four letters that make up the word “city” spell out the generic code of urban success: Connections, Innovation, Talent, Your Distinctiveness.
Connected City: We’ve analyzed the latest data on migration patterns of college-educated 25-34 year-olds, a demographic we pay particular attention to not because they are young and hip, but because they are the most mobile people in America with a median job tenure of only 3 years. We call them the Young and Restless. This is the age at which you can attract talent or you can lose talent. The 2010 Census shows us that today this demographic group is more than twice as likely to live within 3 miles of the Central Business District than all other Americans in metro areas nationwide.
While the image of the “white picket fence” is hardwired into American politics, it is inconsistent with what young, educated people say they want. Overwhelmingly, they want walkable urban neighborhoods that substitute local businesses, arts & culture, and recreation for the previous generations’ sprawling yards, 3-car garages and in-home entertainment centers. What they want is vibrancy and a connected city.
CEOs for Cities has helped to move national policy opinions with our release of Driven to the Brink, a report released when the housing bubble popped that found metro areas with strong central cities tended to hold their real estate value better than those in metro areas with weak cores. We also found that home prices near the core were staying stronger than those in far-flung suburbs. We followed up with Walking the Walk, which analyzed 90,000 real estate transactions in 15 markets and showed that, almost without exception, homes in neighborhoods with better walkability commanded –sometimes substantial — premiums over comparable homes in less walkable neighborhoods. And we released Driven Apart, which was a damning critique of a national congestion report that for 25 years has been used by the US Department of Transportation to justify billions of dollars in highway expenditures. Driven Apart reveals the report’s deeply flawed methodology and shows how sprawl, not a lack of roads, is the cause of our nation’s traffic congestion problems.
Innovation: A city that values innovation and opportunity communicates to its residents that they can put their talents to work there. We’re in an age of entrepreneurship – where many young people are choosing to be employers, rather than employees. One other trend to note: The median tenure of U.S. workers with their current employer is only 4.4 years. That means that employment is far more volatile than we pretend it is. Not many of us are retiring with 30 years and a gold watch these days. We need to rethink our definition of work and help all workers become more resilient. Self-employment and small businesses keep job markets nimble.
And this short job tenure also has implications for where job growth should be encouraged. With U.S. workers changing employers frequently, it makes sense to choose a housing location near lots of jobs, rather than near one job. Even though employment has tended to decentralize over time in virtually all metro areas, central city locations still have the highest levels of accessibility. So if you want more people to be closer to more jobs, then increasing jobs in the core city (as opposed to moving more jobs to the suburbs) is the best way to accomplish this. Providing access to opportunities is another inherent advantage of cities.
Talent: When it comes to success factors for cities, talent is the first among equals. The percentage of 4-year college degree holders in a city’s or region’s population explains — conservatively – 58 percent of its success as measured by per capita income. Some say it is as much as 80 percent. At CEOs for Cities we developed a metric to show the economic impact of increasing college attainment in the top 51 metros by just one percentage point. It’s called the Talent Dividend, and in nationally it’s worth $124 billion in additional personal income annually.
Distinctiveness: Distinctiveness is another element of quality of place. As Harvard Professor Michael Porter reminds us – strategy is ultimately about difference – the ability to do something one’s competitors can’t do. Distinctiveness is all about recognizing what makes your city different from every other city and leveraging that difference. Local differences in taste can give rise to new ideas and new products – Nike started in Eugene, OR because in the 60s, adults there took up jogging as a hobby. We must ask ourselves, what makes our city different? Because an honest look at what makes our city different can provide unique economic opportunities.
What urban innovations have you seen or worked on in the last year that you think are game changers?
In an increasingly global and knowledge-driven economy, the ingredients of success are changing. Economic success depends on talent, and talented workers are highly mobile and are choosing increasingly to live in the central city and close-in urban neighborhoods. Cities that do the best job of raising their talent levels have strong urban cores. A year ago, with the support of the Kresge Foundation and Lumina Foundation for Education, CEOs for Cities launched the $1 million Talent Dividend Prize. This prize will be awarded in 2014 to the metropolitan area with the greatest increase in post-secondary degrees awarded per capita over a three-year period. 57 cities are participating in the Talent Dividend Prize. When at least 58 percent of a city’s success can be explained by the percentage of population with a college degree, talent development and talent retention reign supreme.
