Tom Murphy, former mayor of Pittsburgh and senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute, gave today’s keynote address at the GITA Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference. His talk centered on the converging forces that are altering the American dream, and are making us rethink our cities and our governance.
The converging issues are:
- global warming
- competing demand for energy
- lack of infrastructure investment
- development that is unsustainable (sprawl)
Murphy indicated that these four converging issues all have implications for the growing cost of energy, and that the combined effect will profoundly change how Americans live.
As a recovering politician, he railed against the myopic views of localities with competing tax interests, and highlighted cross-governmental projects that take on regional challenges. As examples, he mentioned:
- the Denver FastTracks bond that combines interests of 7 counties and 32 municipalities for light-rail expansion to serve the region
- the St. Paul, MN community tax pot that shares revenues between 188 municipalities in 7 counties
- the Cleveland park system with the combined Metro Park Fund that ensures that parks aren’t the last budget priority
Murphy also stated that infrastructure investment needs to be a priority. He praised California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his leadership in passing a $42.7 Billion infrastructure bond for his state. But, he also put this spending in perspective by talking a lot about the investment that China is making that far exceeds what America is doing.
One comment he made really brought the issue home. He indicated that China’s investment to create a deep water port off the coast of Shanghai has solved a major shipping bottleneck. The Chinese then realized that their distribution problems could be improved significantly if there was less of a bottleneck in the U.S. port of Long Beach, Calif., which receives 40% of North American freight. Murphy said that China offered to build a rail line between Long Beach and Chicago to ease the problem. Of course the offer was declined, but it brings to light the investment in infrastructure the Chinese are willing to make in order to compete in the global economy.
Murphy says that the “Big Lie” theory of government is waning, where investments that are made won’t have to be paid for by taxpayers. He sees a need for long-term thinking and larger regionalized decision making with “city states” that compete for jobs and growth.
He closed by stating that geospatial professionals are on the cutting edge of change, with the ability to show what will happen and how the world needs to change.
It was refreshing to hear such a frank call to action, and to here a topic that’s so central to the future of the geospatial industry. There were a number of spirited questions after the talk that delved deeper into China’s investments, clearly an issue that generates an interest in action. Feedback from others that attended indicated that the talk really resonated with them. It set a nice tone that will be explored over the next few days.
