Brookings Institution

Pratt Center and Brookings Institution release strategy for making cities the center of an industrial business boom

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Revitalizing American manufacturing is widely acknowledged as vital to our country’s economic recovery and long-term prosperity—but first, rusty old assumptions about what actually gets produced in the USA need to disappear and give way to policies that support today's budding businesses: small, speciality operations that are increasingly being located in the nation's cities. A report by the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program and the Pratt Center for Community Development, “The Federal Role in Supporting Urban Manufacturing,” describes the changing economic geography of America’s production sector—and how the federal government should work with state and local leaders to better support its growth and development.

The report looks at how cities, including New York, have made sure that budding manufacturing businesses have room and resources to grow. While conventional wisdom says that urban manufacturing is in decline because it's no longer necessary, the Pratt Center/Brookings research found that for decades urban manufacturing has been sidelined by government policies that control the money, land and other resources businesses need to succeed. The report outlines essential steps to put government to work in support of manufacturing instead of against it, and open up job growth where it's most urgently needed—in the cities where the workers, transportation and markets already exist.