The Citistates Group

• Strategizers in Syracuse

• Amtrak, Rails, Regions
• Biodefense: Top Model in the Washington Region
• Urban Schoolhouse Perils — Three Coins in a Foundation
• Barcelona: Secrets of a Global Star
• Regionalists and the New Civics

It’s worth noting that it’s been the New York Regional Plan Association that’s been catalyst for the remarkable post 9/11 Civic Alliance, focused on the future of Lower Manhattan, that I described in a late July column. In times past things probably would have been different: the officially-constituted Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, with limited public input, might well have called all the shots. Correct or not, many people would have seen a repeat of the political maneuvering, insider deals, top-down approaches typical of New York (and so many other cities) through their history.

But when there’s a broad-based, citizen-based organization ready to join the debate — one like RPA — the dynamic shifts quickly. And not just civically, but geographically. Lower Manhattan’s future is not just a New York City affair– it matters immensely across the other boroughs, in New Jersey and New York. RPA is able to bring those voices into the discussion, and did at the July 20 event attended by over 4,000 citizens.

Not that managing the new Civic Alliance is easy. It started that way, notes RPA president Bob Yaro, as more groups than he anticipated poured into the early post-9/11 organizational sessions. But now, he notes, “We have 85 contentious members. We take this De Toqueville stuff of an active civic sector very seriously. But believe me, the care and feeding of coalitions is not for the feint hearted. You have to listen and compromise and share responsibility.”

The other big innovation, the focus of my column last week, was the highly imaginative, high-tech citizen consultation process designed by Carolyn Lukensmeyer and her AmericaSpeaks group. Carolyn’s earlier breakthrough had been in a big citizen-based planning effort for Washington, D.C. It’s not perfect: synthesizing big group reactions on the fly is a science in the making. But clearly Carolyn set a standard others will be emulating into the future.

How does a moderately-sized region rise from the pack, focus its strengths so well it’s seen as a continental and global leader? The 2000-year old city of Barcelona, riding high on the fame it won from hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics, attracting visitors in astounding numbers, developing and then following a strong regional strategic plan, is a prime example.

Barcelona was the target this May of the Ninth International Study Mission of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce/Trade Development Alliance. We’ve accompanied three earlier trips — to Hong Kong, Sydney and Berlin — but the report on the Barcelona trip, by former Seattle Times reporter Dick Lilly, suggests this may have been the most stimulating ever. (For Word file of the report, e-mail Jenny Steen at jennys@seattlechamber.com).

The Seattleites found virtually every speaker on an extensive program had a strong grasp of Barcelona’s economic strategy and spoke with enthusiasm for the motivating power of the strategic plan. Even Joan Coscubiela, general secretary of the Catalonia trade union group, focused on Barcelona’s role within Europe and city-region’s strong mix of social guarantees and economic competitiveness.

Barcelona’s unified leadership sets a high standard: How many American citistates could come close? The Seattle mission members, by contrast, depicted their city (surely in exaggerated terms) as “mired in process, stuck in traffic, lacking in leadership, and without a strategic plan for regional development.”

All of Seattle’s global missions (the brainchild of Citistates Associate William Stafford) have revealed remarkable unity of among the foreign cities’ leaders — unified views of their region, the world, their challenges. (An earlier example: Hong Kong, so unified, strong and investing that the Peoples’ Republic couldn’t even consider ending its autonomy).

Yet it’s our observation there are just as many talented leaders in American regions. Do we lack a sense of history? Are special interests tearing us apart? Are we destroying the leadership that could propel us forward? How do we need to change?

Your views will be welcome!