The 2030 Group is an organization formed to focus business, civic and elected leaders on issues of regional cooperation across the Washington Metropolitan area. As you know, your positions on long range planning for housing, transportation, education, workforce and environmental issues are very important to not only your direct constituents, but those throughout the region.
Earlier this year, the 2030 Group invested in research on the growth trend projections for this area over the next 20 years – spearheaded by Dr. Stephen Fuller of George Mason University. The results of Dr. Fuller’s research were startling: in the next 20 years, our local economy is expected to grow by 94%; generate 1.6 million net new jobs; and increase in population by 1.67 million people, creating 694 thousand new households. (For more information on this report, please visit www.The2030Group.com).
According to a recent public opinion poll also commissioned by the 2030 Group, a majority of our region’s residents prefer a strengthened governance structure to handle these issues. Results of this survey are available on our website.
We wanted to provide you with an opportunity to share your position on regional governance prior to this year’s election to help educate the public and voters on your stance, and are asking for you to consider responding to the following short questionnaire.
Bob Buchanan, President, The 2030 Group
Washington Region in the Next 20 Years
David Schwartzman's Responses (submitted October 19, 2030)
Survey
The 2030 Group’s 2010 Candidate and Elected Official Survey
Please respond to each of the following questions in approximately 250 words.
According to a recent study by Dr. Stephen Fuller of George Mason University, our region can expect to grow by 94%; generate 1.6 million net new jobs; and increase in population by 1.67 million people, creating 694 thousand new households. How do you envision the greater Washington Metropolitan area working more cooperatively over the next twenty years to handle the expected growth in the region?
The foundation for enhanced cooperation between the different political jurisdictions in the greater Washington Metro area is an equal partnership, a relationship which does not presently exist because of the second class citizenship of DC residents. I stand for the same rights of U.S. citizens living in Washington D.C. as citizens in the 50 states, rights which by the achievement of the unfinished agenda of the civil rights movement is DC Statehood, not only full voting rights in the U.S. Congress, but also sovereignty over our legislation and budget without Congressional interference. Achieving this goal, hopefully in the near future, will set the stage for a sustainable economy, rapidly transitioning out of our present mode so highly dependent on fossil fuels, especially coal with its greatest insult on the biosphere and human health.
This future will require truly smart growth, increasing population density in green urban centers, with a reduction in sprawl and indeed restoration of forest and watershed areas open for recreation and enjoyment of more pristine nature. This transition should entail a rapid and radical reduction in carbon emissions, a requirement for the prevention of catastrophic climate change (“C3”). Therefore, extrapolations of population and employment from the present mode of production and consumption are likely to be misleading; either we will face a drastic reduction in quality of life not far from 2030 if we fail to reduce carbon emissions and lower atmospheric CO2 levels in time, or we will enter a much more just society if we succeed.
Thinking ahead over the next two decades, do you support a regional plan that will maximize opportunities for a stronger regional economy, especially when it comes to workforce education/training, transportation, environmental and housing decisions?
Yes. This will be imperative in the next two decades to create the material basis for an effective C3 prevention program (see #1), given the short time we likely have left to succeed (see Jim Hansen’s seminal papers). Such a regional economy will emerge from an equal partnership for green development.
Workforce education/training should increasingly focus on the creation and implementation of solar power, mass transit including light rail and clean bus service, energy conservation in buildings and infrastructure, water harvesting and agroecologies in and surrounding urban areas (including vertical farms), creating abundant employment (green jobs). Solar power in our region will likely focus on wind farms, thin-film photovoltaics on roofs, and even energy tapped from ocean currents and waves. Urban organic waste will increasingly be composted and recycled back into organic agriculture.
The successful implementation of these green technologies will require increasing emphasis on a bottom-up management structure, with optimal decentralization, anticipating an unprecedented growth of solar, farming and food coops, networked into a regional governance system which can contribute to a consensus plan for the regional economy. We already see the embryo of this future in the solar coop of Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Washington DC and food coops in DC and Takoma Park MD. Of course information technologies will be used to maximize free creative time, eliminating the most dangerous and boring occupations. Science, culture, sports and recreation and ongoing education will be increasingly integrated in the lives of our residents. More at: davidschwartzman.com.
Currently there is no funding structure to implement plans which are of benefit for the entire region. Would you support a reallocation of existing funding and/or a newly dedicated source of funding for a regional, authoritative structure so there is greater collaboration on regional issues?
The solutions outlined in my previous answers are likewise a response to the challenges posed by the Region Forward report by the Greater Washington 2050 Coalition (Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments). Of course COG presently lacks the capability to implement a regional plan of the type posed by this question. Once DC Statehood is achieved, a fair and progressive income tax structure on a truly equitable reciprocal basis will be possible for the first time, noting reciprocal taxation of income at its source occurring in other contiguous states such as New York and New Jersey.
I testified to the DC City Council on this issue on July 13, 2009: (http://www.dcstatehoodgreenorg/testimony/statehood_economic_impact). As a National League of Cities study (1993) cited in my testimony put it: "the capacity and willingness of cities and suburbs to work cooperatively to effectively address their common economic needs will be an important determinant of their mutual economic future. Where suburbs turn their backs on core cities, or cities refuse to cooperate with their suburbs, they are undermining their own economic prosperity."
Another promising mechanism for generating needed revenue for subsidizing and expanding regional mass transit is a regional congestion charge. I testified to MWATA on April 1, 2010 proposing once again the desirability of implementing this approach, or if DC is forced to go it alone, a downtown congestion charge (http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/testimony/2010_04_01_wmata_rate_hikes). A regional tax on the corporate sector, incorporating a carbon tax approach, would be another potential revenue source for green development.
