Neither fully urban nor completely suburban, America's older, inner-ring, ?first? suburbscontaining nearly 20 percent of the U.S. populationhave a set of challenges very different from those of the center city and fast growing newer places.  Yet, first suburbs exist in a policy ?blindspot,? with their needs largely ignored.

The Brookings Institution?s Metropolitan Policy Program in February released ?A Fifth of America? (http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20060215_FirstSuburbs.htm) an analysis of first suburbs throughout the nation.  This paper defines first suburbs, examines their similarities and differences, and, finally, sets out a policy agenda tailored specifically to these distinctive places.

Brookings also held a forum (http://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20060215suburbs.htm)headlined by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York), Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) and county executives from Allegheny, Arlington, Dallas, King, and Nassau countiesto examine their similarities and differences, and, finally, delineate an agenda tailored specifically to these distinctive places.

The nation's first suburbs began drawing people out of big cities in large numbers half a century ago, but now have deteriorating roads, commercial strips and housing.  These communitiesalso facing demographic changes such as growing numbers of poor, elderly and immigrant residents?are staring down a looming set of challenges that threaten their overall stability,? wrote report authors Robert Puentes and David Warren.

Clinton and Rep. Peter King (R-New York) have introduced a bill for federal assistance of $250 million to older suburbs for economic redevelopment programs. "Most first suburbs don't qualify for existing federal programs," Clinton said at the forum.

?We believe that this distinctive status of first suburbs are still not recognized or understood by many, and that status comes at a heavy price,? said Bruce Katz, director of the Metropolitan Policy Program. ?Federal and state spending, infrastructure policy, tax expenditures, all these taken together set the rules of the game that tend to facilitate sprawl, promote concentrated poverty, and first suburbs are basically caught between these powerful forces.?

The report urges first suburbs to provide more apartments and assisted living, integrate new immigrants, promote business development, and fight poverty and blight.  Challenges to implementing these solutions include fragmented, parochial and often competing local governments. 

The report points to Arlington County, Virginia, a first suburb of Washington, DC, as an example of how other communities can focus on plans that identify important pockets and corridors of urbanity where they can encourage growth that increases densities in appropriate places, creating an environment where transit and greater housing options thrive.  It also identified Long Island, New York as a first suburb that is beginning to confront these challenges (Click here to view report)

To view the report and related information, visit http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20060215_FirstSuburbs.htm.

To read a transcript of the forum, visit http://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20060215suburbs.htm.