Downtown Denver saw an economic recovery faster than m most other cities, business analysts found. (Photo By Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post)
It didn’t take long for Chris Linsmayer, the former deputy communications director for the Colorado Democrats, to bring a national voice about America’s economic future back to Colorado. This week, the Roosevelt Institute in New York City, Linsmayer’s new employer, released a collection of briefs this week forecasting the United States’ economic future and policy changes that could make it brighter.
One paper, in particular, hits close to Linsmayer’s hometown: . That’s not news to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.
As he prepared for his re-election run last year, he spoke to The Denver Post editorial board about his belief in that — because cities can respond to economic trends at the local level better than government at the national level.
“What you’re seeing now, and we’re doing it here in Denver, are cities driving their own economic growth and becoming the engines that are powering their recovery,” Hancock said in a statement Friday about the Roosevelt Institute’s report, which explores cities as incubators of policy that can provide platforms for innovation when the federal government can’t or won’t.
“With the political gridlock in D.C., we can no longer rely on them to get the job done, so we have to get it done ourselves, and Denver is at the forefront of showing how local strategies are creating jobs and vibrancy.”
Studies have shown Denver had one of the fastest recoveries from the recession, including that ranked the city’s economic bounce-back as the fourth-strongest in the country.
Bo Cutter, senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. (Photo courtesy of the Roosevelt Institute)
“Cities like Denver and Boulder have been leaders in encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Bo Cutter, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and director of the Next American Economy program. “These thought briefs offer a blueprint that can help Colorado lead the nation towards a truly 21st century economy.”
Tech-savvy is an asset Colorado cities can built their economic future ony, the brief suggests.
“Emerging trends in city governance, rapidly developing information and communication technologies, and new entrepreneurial models for business platforms could help shape a positive outlook for the economy in the year 2040,” states the brief by Julia Root of . “The urbanization occurring across the nation and world is unlikely to slow down.
“The good news is that cities and citizens are becoming more sophisticated at developing and using tools and disseminating new ideas. Urban areas are increasingly efficient at tapping into talent and resources and developing new assets for the 21st century.”
According to an e-mail from Linsmayer, other briefs address:
Gig economy: Denise Cheng, a fellow in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation, studies the continued expansion of the gig economy – when more people are juggling freelance and part-time jobs, or “gigs” — and
Jobs in the cloud: John Zysman of U.C. Berkley and Martin Kenney of U.C. Davis in the era of big data and cloud service.
Unions: Michelle Miller, cofounder of Coworker.org, predicts what the .
Education: Chelsea Barabas with the examines the future of workforce development and necessary .
Capital: Richard Swart from U.C. Berkley explores the struggle many startup businesses have .
