Lisa Zhu | Political platforms for stronger cities

With talk of ethanol and agricultural subsidies galore, this year's elections have been more than just a little bit country. But somewhere between our amber waves of grain and our purple mountains' majesty, America lost sight of one of its greatest competitive advantages in the future global economy - its cities.

While the campaign Web sites of Obama and Clinton both offer a specific Issues section focused on rural interests, candidates from both parties have made few attempts to address the development of metropolises like Boston, Chicago and of course, our fabulous City of Brotherly Love.

An obvious explanation is that many of the early primary election states (Iowa, anyone?) boast excessively high corn-to-human population ratios. However, the inordinate amount of attention paid to these agricultural interests ignores the unique economic and environmental opportunities inherent in America's urban centers.

"In the past 30 or 40 years, national urban policy has always been about poverty and urban liabilities," said Jeremy Nowak, president of the Reinvestment Fund, a private, Philadelphia-based economic development organization. "On a federal level, we need to recognize the role of cities and metropolitan areas as economic assets and not just liabilities."

The exodus of commerce from urban areas in earlier decades has resulted in a negatively tainted (and patently false) view of cities as deposits of poverty and deficits. According to a February New York Times editorial, "the largest 100 cities and their surrounding communities are home to 65 percent of the nation's population and account for about 75 percent of the country's gross domestic product." Ultimately, the same cannot be said for states whose main industry consists of agriculture.

It follows logically that national politicians should be finding creative ways to further develop these economically productive urban centers, especially with solutions that local and state authorities can't administer. "The federal government is the right place for redistributive policies, infrastructural investments, and public regulations," Nowak said. "All of those things have to be linked to some extent to our view of urban policy."

For instance, SEPTA recently received $8 million in state and federal funding to maintain routes that would assist low-income workers in finding employment further away from their homes. Similarly last year, New York City unveiled a proposed $350 million reform of public transportation in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Although these large-scale infrastructural projects are too costly for our cities' coffers, they are essential to federal efforts to facilitate economic exchange and promote environmental sustainability.

Moreover, not only are America's cities economically productive, but they also provide the most sustainable habitat as we contemplate solutions for a greener future. "Now that we've realized how limited our resources are, we actually have to start living more efficiently," said College senior Billy Hanafee, who also works for the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. "Cities actually provide that type of lifestyle much more than suburban sprawling growth."

Unfortunately, as Penn students, this argument resonates deeply in our less-than-ideal relationship with the city of Philadelphia. Similar to national politicians, many of us tend to directly associate our surrounding community with problems of poverty and crime, not with development and opportunity.

With such a large proportion of undergraduates haling from affluent suburbs, the idea of being dependent on public transportation and not having a backyard is unthinkable.

At least the University seems to have recognized the problem. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Commencement speech may provide some answers to the rarely-asked question of how America can help develop its cities.

"I think that he's very effective in bringing innovative ideas around the world to apply practical changes that improve daily life in New York City," College senior Max Nacheman told me. "He doesn't just think about poverty; instead, he's added to the general efficiency of a city as a whole." In other words, Bloomberg's creative, nonpartisan urban policies (including the ambitious transportation initiative described earlier) address critical problems that our Presidential candidates continue to neglect.

Through the mayor's speech, hopefully Penn can emphasize to the Class of 2008 one final time that it's not just the four years of classes here that have made us wiser. Our education rests just as much on the lessons we have learned from living in a city.

Lisa Zhu is a Wharton and College junior from Cherry Hill, N.J., United Minorities Council chairwoman and Undergraduate Assembly member. Her e-mail is zhu@dailypennsylvanian.com. Zhu-ology appears Fridays.

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