September 26, 2008: Day the Third

It's Friday afternoon, and the last tables are being cleared here in Studio One at the W Midtown in Atlanta. As we wrapped up, Steve Wray gave us three questions to ponder as we wing our respective ways homeward:

-         What did you learn over the last three days?

-         What does Atlanta's story tell us about the strengths and the weaknesses of Greater Philadelphia?

-         What would you import from the Atlanta region to our region?

If the reader will indulge, this correspondent would like to offer a few thoughts. As far as what we learned: growth isn't free. Every one of our panels grappled in some fashion with the question of how to manage the stress created by the region's population explosion.

In terms of physical infrastructure and social services, fast economic growth in a low-tax state exacerbates each of what developer Tad Leithead called the "wet" problems: water, education, and transportation. But at another level, growth is changing the region's demographic and racial profile. Based on what we heard this week, Atlantans are extremely proud of their region's culture of civic inclusion and openness. Clearly one of their challenges in the years to come will be to bring not only blacks and whites together, but Mexicans, Brazilians, Asians, young people, retirees - all the new faces who account for the growth that brings so much wealth to the region.

And what's revealed about our own region? Certainly we were reminded that Greater Philadelphia's contentious relationship with state government isn't unique. But frankly, this writer's impression is that opposition to taxes in any form, and with it distrust of government in general, runs much deeper in this region than ours. Greater Philadelphia has its share of small government conservativism, and its share of political animosity. But some of our bitter city-state battles look a little more manageable in light of what we heard in Atlanta.

On another front, our region clearly won't be replicating Atlanta's massive population growth anytime soon. But just as clearly, many Atlantans look with envy at the resources that only a mature region like ours has time to develop: our transit infrastructure, our rich crop of colleges and universities, our diverse and well-developed community of nonprofits, philanthropies, and neighborhood organizations. Atlanta has many of the strengths and weaknesses of a boom town. For better or worse, that isn't Greater Philadelphia's problem.

And furthermore, while Greater Philadelphia may not enjoy the same level of private-sector civic leadership as Atlanta, our region has a diversity of deep-rooted leaders from many sectors that Atlanta probably can't match at this point. Many of the Atlanta region's bright-eyed efforts at regional collaboration sound familiar, because Greater Philadelphians have been trying similar things for many years.

So what would this writer take from Atlanta to Philadelphia? Off the top of my head: their airport. No one likes jet noise. But a great number of our panelists ended up mentioning the airport's massive impact, in terms of attracting businesses, visitors, and residents. An extra runway in Philadelphia with extra room for direct flights to Mumbai or Beijing would translate directly into cash. But even more importantly, Philadelphia could only benefit from the infusion of cultural energy that comes to a global transport hub.

Speaking of airports ... time to find a taxi and get ready to loosen those shoelaces. Happy landings, Exchangees - - you all did a great job.