The ReSET - Designing Innovation Districts to Benefit Everyone

2/27/17

Newt Fowler

Inclusive Innovation. As I discussed in my last column, with the right bold thinking, innovation districts – concentrated, place specific, focused efforts to build and support innovation communities – can profoundly impact a region. When designed well, innovation districts can be a significant driver of economic growth for regions such as Greater Baltimore. But as a Brookings Institution Report explains, there is a difference between growth for growth’s sake and growth “that raises standards of living for all.”

Expanding the Economic Pie. The key to innovation districts is to drive not only growth of favored business sectors (for Baltimore, cyber, health care, ed-tech…) but to do so in a way that includes advancement for the economically disadvantaged. It’s not only the right thing to do, as this Brookings report underscores, those regions which “increase the economic participation in their communities” do so because it makes their region more competitive. Those regions which align their economic development incentives well ensure that economic growth isn’t limited to the few. For those that think that advanced industries are ill-suited for the under-employed, the Brookings report reminds us that “half of the jobs in advanced industries do not require workers to have four-year college degrees.” The challenge lies in developing a strategy and programs that include everyone.

Episodic Excellence vs. Deep Prosperity. Greater Baltimore, like many regions, can celebrate many “wins.” But regions that are setting the stage for sustainable, inclusive growth focus on something profoundly different than the latest relocation or expansion. They’re focused on building structures that ensure all participate and prosper. The Brookings Report continues, “ignoring intraregional disparities and concentrated poverty can drag down a region’s overall economic potential, as well as perpetuate cycles of disinvestment in certain areas, primarily central cities but increasingly older suburbs as well.”

The End In Mind. There are conversations building in Greater Baltimore on how innovation districts might help regional growth. The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, whose board I’m on, is hosting one such conversation on placemaking and innovation districts in March. For me, a critical part of this conversation must be how to invest in and engage the human capital already here, and in particular our underemployed. As the Brookings Report warns, “the economic potential of every metro region depends on its effectiveness at mobilizing talent and equipping workers with the skills demanded by the leading industries in their community.”

Losing Ground. Many in economic development think it’s someone else’s problem to tackle skills training; it isn’t, and those regions who realize that the path to accelerated growth must include all its citizens are leading the metrics for growth by any measure. “The proliferation of low-wage, part-time employment, declining labor force participation rates, and the erosion of incomes and stagnation in wages require more intensive, nimble, and creative responses from a wide range of institutions than current systems allow.” Failing to include our own economically disadvantaged citizens in the promise of an innovation district and in opportunities for jobs in our advanced industries will ensure Greater Baltimore continues to underperform relative to other regions.

With more than 30years’ experience in law and business, Newt Fowler, a partner in Womble Carlyle’s business practice advises many investors, entrepreneurs and technology companies, guiding them through all aspects of business planning, financing transactions, technology commercialization and M&A. He chairs the Board of TEDCO and serves on the Board of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore. Newt can be reached at nfowler@wcsr.com.

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