This past weekend I had a chance to visit the exceptional exhibit on Charles Darwin and the origins of his Theory of Evolution at New York?s American Museum of Natural History. Darwin?s thinking about the origins and evolution of life on the planet was a product in part of the realization by 19^th century natural scientists that the Earth was a lot older than the six thousand years noted in the Bible.

This reminds me that some of the readers of this newsletter might have gotten the incorrect impression that the regional stewardship movement was a little more than five years old, dating back to the establishment of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship in 2000. In fact, the oldest member of ARS and the group that I lead, the Regional Plan Association (RPA), will celebrate its 84^th anniversary next year. RPA has had a remarkable record of achievement in shaping the nation?s largest metropolitan area, the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region in a positive direction since the organization?s founding in 1922. As RPA?s President, I?ve been thinking about ways that RPA, America?s metropolitan regions and the larger regional stewardship movement of which we are a part, have evolved, and how we must adapt to help our regions succeed in a rapidly changing world.  

At RPA we recently had a major achievement, with the approval on November 8 by New York state voters of a $2.9 billion Transportation Bond Act that rounds out a larger $21 billion, five-year capital program for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved by the state legislature earlier this year. Voters approved the ballot question by a 55-45 majority statewide, by a 2:1 majority in the New York metropolitan area, and a 3:1 majority in New York City a resounding public endorsement for improving New York?s transportation infrastructure. The two largest projects included in the program were cornerstones of RPA?s 1996 Third Regional Plan: the Second Avenue Subway, which, when completed, will carry more than one million daily commuters the length of Manhattan Island and the East Side Access Project, which will bring more than 80,000 daily Long Island Railroad Commuters to Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan?s East Side. These projects represent the first major expansion in the region?s transit system since the 1930s, and the culmination of nearly a decade of civic advocacy.

To promote public awareness and understanding of the importance of the ballot question, RPA helped lead The Vote Yes for Transportation Campaign, a statewide coalition of business, civic and construction industry groups. A major player in this coalition was the Empire State Transportation Alliance, a consortium of business, labor, civic and academic leaders convened, co-chaired and staffed by RPA and New York University?s Rudin Center for Transportation in 2000. The Vote Yes campaign gained the enthusiastic support of Governor George Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Democratic rival for Mayor for the ballot question. And it worked closely with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York State Department of Transportation to advance a sophisticated $2 million statewide campaign of paid advertising, unpaid media and public events.

Several factors played a role in the success of this effort. First, we needed to build and sustain a broad, cross-sector alliance of the region?s business, civic and labor communities. Second, we needed to be persistent in promoting our goals over a period of several years, which is what it nearly always takes to make change in large, complex metropolitan regions. And third, we needed to collaborate with progressive state and local officials across political boundaries on a shared agenda.

So what are the implications of this experience for regional stewards across the country? And how can we expect to see our movement evolve in coming years? Every metropolitan area in the United States faces a daunting array of economic, social, environmental and transportation challenges that cross political borders and agency jurisdictions and that require long-range investments like the ones approved this month by New York?s voters.

Regions exist in a Darwinian world, in which those places that can adapt to changing world markets and rapidly evolving environmental and social conditions are the ones that will succeed.  And we know that to successfully adapt, regions will need bold and patient, persistent leadership. But it?s often hard for term-limited politicians and business leaders focused on quarterly earnings and competitive challenges in their own industries to take the long-term outlook and provide the necessary leadership required to accomplish positive change across large, complex metropolitan areas.