This post is fourth in a series: 5 Key Elements of Great Cities

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Assets for Strength

This series so far has discussed a framework, a vision and a mindset – these first three elements are future focused, whereas the last two elements (assets and approach) are slightly more present focused. The first three elements (framework, vision, mindset) are absolutely critical ingredients to evaluate on the path toward urban greatness, but a great city must first identify and understand how urban assets work in order to realize and maintain the city’s full potential. A city’s assets can be categorized into inherent assets and created assets. A city’s most obvious inherent assets typically were responsible for the creation of the city in the first place, however often a combination of both inherent assets and created assets helps to bring the city to the height of it’s original glory. Either way, only cities that are able to recognize and admit to the continually changing relevance of their inherent or created assets allow themselves the opportunity to adapt quickly enough in the 21st century to avoid failure. Just like any company, cities must regularly evaluate the performance of their assets.

A great city is differentiated by its simultaneous versatility in adapting to the changing relevance of it’s inherent assets and a persistent focus on maintaining or enhancing the level of achievement (competitiveness) of it’s created assets. But this alone is not enough. A great city must clearly demarcate the difference between their inherent assets and created assets, or risk being lulled into an unstable confidence (Think: Detroit’s 20th century worldview of the automakers as an inherent asset instead of always remembering they were a created asset). To a certain extent, either type of asset can eb and flow in relevancy based on human technology of the day and social, economic or political forces, but to a large extent a city has no control over the relevancy of an inherent asset, it can only predict and adapt. A created asset needs considerably more attention to continue at peak performance or to simply remain relevant and competitive, and even then, a smart city knows when a created asset has reached the end of it’s useful or relevant life. At that point it is time to move on and often too late to diversify.

Selected examples of inherent assets:

• Geographic/Environmental: This was the original urban asset – from the basis of the first complex polities from Sumer in Mesopitamia to the founding of modern metropolises such as New York. Geography was the guiding force, whether it was a natural deep harbor, a fertile river valley, a strategically defensible plateau or climate, weather, fresh water, timber, minerals, and other natural resources. The weighting of relevancy of these has changed over time as transportation, information, communications or even air conditioning technologies make some of these more or less relevant than before. A city may have no control over those changes, but it must be able to predict, accept, and adapt.
• Political: It is true that laws can change, but a city’s core political assets rarely change, at least in the Western world. In the U.S. and Canada, state and province boundaries are unlikely to change, and even within states, county and often city boundaries rarely change dramatically. The core basis for government in the U.S. is the Constitution, a significant asset which is not changing drastically. One excellent example of an inherent political asset is The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The size of the political boundaries of Rhode Island and the size and dominance of the City of Providence within it, would allow the state to operate as a city-state – a single coordinated, highly efficient, highly effective, highly focused polity. The potential strength of this inherent political structure, enshrined in the state’s very name, has not yet been fully realized.
• Mindset: Some social assets are inherent, such as a society-level mindset – as discussed in the previous post.

Selected examples of created assets:

• Transportation and Energy: transit, trains, airports, intermodal connectivity, walking, biking, and roadway infrastructure. America’s transportation assets at local, state, regional and national levels are underperforming, and uncompetitive. Transportation is an asset that the U.S. has not maintained and never properly diversified. The U.S. has been largely unable to acknowledge until recently the irrelevancy of it’s 20th century transportation model, which is the first step toward ensuring the lasting relevance and thereby competitiveness of this asset and the nation as a whole. A similar story has played out in the energy sector.
• Industry: a single industry city may owe it’s glory to that industry and a few corporations, but that industry or company is a created asset, not an inherent asset. Therefore, it can disappear at any moment, and needs to be maintained, be nurtured, and be flexible so it can remain strong in a world of constantly changing relevancy. Ensuring the continuity of a city relies on that flexibility and the diversity of industries to shield it from changing relevancies.
• People: Some social assets such as education levels, skills, poverty and public health are not predetermined and can be changed, therefore these are created assets.
• Art & Architecture: These are constantly changing, but necessary to establish the character and self-worth of great cities.

So what do your assets do for you? A city’s assets are its catalysts for success, and ultimately the foundation for its strength. Evaluating, strengthening,  pairing, enhancing the value of these inherent and created assets properly and in real time is what great cities do. So how many do you need? Many catalysts are safer than just one. Remembering to continuously rediscover your inherent assets and re-evaluate your created assets in changing global political, economic, social, and environmental dynamics is also a hallmark of great cities of unabating strength.

Cities in the 21st century will only be as strong as their ability to blend their inherent assets with their old and new created assets in order to offer solutions to the global problems facing the world today, serving as models in this century of cities. The extent to which a city is able to achieve this will determine the extent of it’s success and depth of its strength. We are facing global/universal problems today including climate change, fresh water scarcity, housing, food, public health, energy, and much more.

Successful 21st century cities = matching inherent assets + created assets with global problems and addressing them with local solutions that can be replicated, exported and scaled up.

As I said in my initial Challenge Detroit video, “Detroit’s success will depend on having a leading role in contributing innovative solutions to the global problems of the next 40 years. Is it going to be a hub for new kinds of 21st century mobility, scaled-up local urban agriculture, inexpensive, super-flexible adaptable housing, or will it take advantage of it’s position on the world’s largest surface fresh water system? Every city evolves. They are not static. They are not museums  They celebrate the time and place in which they exist and the capacity of their people.” Since arriving here, I have been asking many people what they think Detroit’s greatest assets are, but I will leave that for a post on another day.

up next: An Approach for Success