Revitalizing Distressed Older Suburbs Kathryn W. Hexter Edward W. Hill Brian A. Mikelbank Benjamin Y. Clark Charles Post November 2011 Acknowledgments The What Works Collaborative is a foundation-supported research partnership that conducts timely research and analysis to help inform the implementation of an evidence-based housing and urban policy agenda. The collaborative consists of researchers from the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, and the Urban Institute’s Center for Metropolitan Housing and Communities, as well as other experts from practice, policy, and academia. Support for the collaborative comes from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Ford Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Surdna Foundation. The authors acknowledge the support of the Urban Institute and wish to particularly thank Mary Cunningham and Chris Narducci, of the Urban Institute and Alan Berube and Jennifer Vey of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, whose insights and guidance contributed to this report. Many thanks as well to the staff in the Office of Policy Development and Research at HUD for their helpful guidance in designing the methodology and feedback on the selection criteria for the case study cities. We are also grateful to Karen Majewski, Mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan, and Jeremy Nowak, President of The William Penn Foundation, for his insights regarding most distressed suburbs. Special thanks go to the many people we interviewed in each of the case study cities. We visited each city for two to three days and met with city officials, planners, academics, developers, observers, and others. They took the time to welcome us and to share their own honest and expert assessments of the strengths and the challenges faced by their cities. Their careful review of the case study drafts and their feedback was crucial in our efforts to get the story straight. We would especially like to thank the Mayor and City Manager of Inkster, Michigan, and the Mayors of Chester, Pennsylvania, East Cleveland, Ohio, and Prichard, Alabama. We were inspired by their passion for their cities. Like us, they are interested in “what works” in the hope of providing high quality places for their residents to live now and in the future. We would also like to thank our two graduate students who did much of the background research for this project, Ashley Shaw and Jason Russell. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of those funders listed above or of the organizations participating in the What Works Collaborative. All errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors. About the Authors Kathryn Wertheim Hexter, director of the Center for Community Planning and Development, joined the Levin College of Urban Affairs in 1986. A planner and public policy analyst, Ms. Hexter has over 25 years of experience in the areas of housing and community development, neighborhood development, and regional collaboration. She has worked extensively with federal, state, and local governmental, philanthropic, and non-profit organizations. She is co-editor of the book The New American City Faces Its Regional Future, A Cleveland Perspective (Ohio University Press, 2000) and co-author of Public Utilities and the Poor: Rights and Responsibilities (Praeger Publishers, 1985). Ms. Hexter holds a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, 1976 and a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University, 1978. She is a graduate of the 2003 Rockwood Leadership program and the Foundations and Frontiers in Appreciative Inquiry workshop at the Case Weatherhead School of Management, 2004. Edward W. (Ned) Hill is the Dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings Institution and a Nonresident Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Government Studies at the University of California at Berkeley though his membership in the MacArthur Foundation's Research Network on Building Resilient Regions. Hill is author of two books, co-editor of five books, and author of over 90 articles, book chapters, and columns. He was a lead in the Deloitte Consulting-Cleveland State University team that wrote Industry- based Competitive Strategies for Ohio: Managing three portfolios in 2005 and Manufacturing Pennsylvania's Future in 2004. Ohio's Competitive Advantage: Manufacturing Productivity was released in 2001. Ohio's Competitive Advantage has been credited with starting a five-year statewide conversation that resulted in fundamental business tax reform in the state of Ohio. The Cincinnati Enquirer referred to Hill as the "godfather of tax reform" in the summer of 2005. He earned his Ph.D. in both economics and urban and regional planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981 and he is a resident of Lakewood, Ohio. Benjamin Clark joined the Levin College faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2010. Dr. Clark earned his Ph.D. in Public Administration in 2009 from the University of Georgia. His teaching and research focuses on public budgeting and administration. He came to Cleveland State University from a career in public service. Prior to his appointment at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Dr. Clark worked as a budget analyst for the Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County (Athens, Georgia). He has previously worked in a Washington, DC based public health consulting firm (Futures Group International) to assist foreign governments, multilateral organizations, and NGOs in the development and implementation of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health programs. He is also a former Peace Corps Volunteer in the West African nation of Senegal. Dr. Clark has been published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Policy Sciences, Public Administration and Development, Science and Public Policy, the Journal of Technology Transfer, and the Asia-Pacific Population Journal. Brian A. Mikelbank is an associate professor of Urban Studies in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. He is an urban geographer with varied interests in quantitative spatial analysis. His recent research focuses on the spatial analysis of metropolitan housing markets and dynamics of urban-suburban change. Brian teaches classes in housing analysis, quantitative and spatial data analysis, urban geography, urban development, and urban geographic information systems. Charles Post has been a Project Manager / Research Associate in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University since 1992. Previously, he was a Policy Analyst at The Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) at Case Western Reserve University, a Research Analyst at Mathematica Policy Research (MPR) in Washington, D.C., and a Policy Analyst in the Department of Energy (DOE). Post earned a B.A. in Economics and Math from Earlham College, an M.A. in Economics from Washington University, and an M.S. in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie-Mellon University. Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Revitalizing Distressed Older Suburbs .......................................................................................................... 5 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................ 6 Demographic Characteristics of Case Study Cities ................................................................................... 8 Fiscal Characteristics of Case Study Cities .............................................................................................. 10 Lessons from Four Suburbs .................................................................................................................... 13 Recommendations .................................................................................................................................. 27 Appendix A. Literature Review .................................................................................................................. A.1 Appendix B. Methodology and Bucket Tables ........................................................................................... B.1 Appendix C. Case Studies ........................................................................................................................... C.1 East Cleveland, Ohio .............................................................................................................................. C.1 Inkster, Michigan ................................................................................................................................. C.23 Chester, Pennsylvania .......................................................................................................................... C.38 Prichard, Alabama ............................................................................................................................... C.61 Appendix D. Comparative Financial Analysis .............................................................................................D.1 Financial Condition of East Cleveland,