The Summit for American Prosperity: Washington and Metro Areas Working Together

Brookings’s Metropolitan Policy Program hosted The Summit for American Prosperity: Washington and Metropolitan Areas Working Together at the Washington Hilton on
June 11 and 12, 2008. 

View agenda »

This Summit launched the policy phase of the Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation, an ambitious, multi-year initiative to build long-term U.S. prosperity by reinvigorating the federal role in promoting the health and vitality of America’s metropolitan areas. This Summit builds on the Blueprint’s earlier efforts to demonstrate that the nation’s assets are concentrated in our metro areas, and are the vital engines of the U.S. and global economy. 

Event Highlights:

• Audio downloads for all speeches and presentations »
• Bruce Katz Vice President and Director, Metropolitan Policy Program
  Watch MetroPolicy presentation »
  Download MetroPolicy speech »
  Download Creating Quality Places multimedia presentation »
• Rob Puentes Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program
  Watch Driving Competitiveness presentation »
• The Honorable Greg Nickels Mayor, Seattle, Washington
  Download speech »
• Michael Porter Founder, Chairman and CEO, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School
  Download presentation »

Blueprint Reports and Policy Briefs:

• MetroPolicy: Shaping a New Federal Partnership for a Metropolitan Nation »
• A Bridge to Somewhere: Rethinking American Transportation for the 21st Century »
• Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Metropolitan America »
• Metro Raise: Boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit to Help Metropolitan Workers and Families »
• Boosting Productivity, Innovation, and Growth: Through a National Innovation Foundation »
• Clusters and Competitiveness: A New Federal Role for Stimulating Regional Economies »

Among those who addressed the Summit were:

• The Hon. Edward G. Rendell, Governor, Pennsylvania
• Michael Porter, Professor, Harvard Business School
• Henry Cisneros, Chairman, CityView
• Strobe Talbott, President, Brookings
• The Hon. Michael Nutter, Mayor, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Michael Mandel, Chief Economist, Business Week
• Hilary Pennington, Director of Special Initiatives, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• The Hon. Ron Sims, County Executive, King County, WA (Seattle)
• The Hon. AC Wharton, Jr., Mayor, Shelby County (Memphis), Tennessee
• Rob Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
• Tom Darden, CEO, Cherokee Investment Partners
• Jonathan Capehart, Editorial Writer, The Washington Post 

The next Administration and Congress will confront increasingly complex global and domestic realities, and their improved partnership with local and regional leaders and the private sector will be essential to helping our nation adapt and prosper in this new environment. The Summit was a valuable opportunity to place this important discussion on the national stage and to strengthen our collective efforts to promote reforms.