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Prosperity Gap Predicted for South Puget Sound Growth helps towns flourish in the North but South Puget Sound is having less success Copyright 1998, The News Tribune Reprinted with permission. |
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By Tamyra Howser The News Tribune Rapid growth in flourishing communities north and west of Seattle might create a vast social gap between those areas and older cities such as Seattle and Tacoma. That was the message brought to the area by Myron Orfield, a Minnesota lawmaker and author who recently finished a three-month study of this area. "A ring of trouble has started from Seattle to Tacoma to Olympia and to Bremerton," he said during an interview. "The trouble is moving south. In the northeast area, the growing economic resources are in Redmond, Bothell and Bellevue." Orfield has seen this division happen in areas such as Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Milwaukee. Poverty has shifted away from central cities to older suburbs, which have fallen into decay because of high taxes and declining local resources. Taking its place are the newer suburbs, which have flourished because of low taxes and better services, sucking people and revenue away from the older communities. Now, the Chicago metro area is at a growth standstill, and the Cleveland metro region population has shrunk 12 percent in 20 years. Orfield sees that happening today in Tacoma, Federal Way, Auburn, Kent and Bremerton. Meanwhile, the northeast communities of Bellevue, Redmond and Bothell prosper. The 37-year-old author of "Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability" presented findings from his study of the area this week at the "What Future for the Puget Sound" conference held at the University of Puget Sound. About 150 people, including Pierce County Executive Doug Sutherland and King County Executive Ron Sims, attended the two-day conference. Throughout the nation, older suburbs -- once places where people sought to live -- are now areas where money is short, businesses are crumbling and people are leaving, Orfield said. It's starting to happen here, he said. The signs are evident: Employment through 2000 is projected to grow 1.71 percent in the northeast while Tacoma will grow a mere 1.02 percent and Renton and Tukwila will see growth of 0.56 percent. Childhood poverty is increasing and median household incomes are decreasing. People are moving to the north, Orfield said, leaving behind south Puget Sound. "The South Sound has no tax base and lots of problems," Orfield said. "You'll need to increase tax rates to get high services. But at the northeast side, services are high and taxes are low. It's hard to compete." What Orfield recommends are two solutions: a strong political alliance between all the cities -- poor and rich -- and a shared tax base. This tax base would take 40 percent of the total tax generated from the wealthier communities. The money would form a pool to be shared by the older, poorer areas. The plan wouldn't dramatically hurt the flourishing cities, he said. "Bellevue wouldn't be poorer and will continue to grow richer, but not as fast ... . It'll reduce disparities and differences between cities." Tax-base sharing is a cousin of Washington's school of funding system, Orfield said. Money is distributed throughout school districts to bring poorer school districts up to the budget levels of wealthier ones. In Orfield's home state of Minnesota, where he is a state legislator, his theories have been put to work in Minneapolis and St. Paul and their suburbs. So far, it's working, he said. Suburbs that could have faded away are stable. The Puget Sound region is one of 23 major metropolitan areas Orfield is researching. He was drawn to this region because of its intense growth, he said. "This is the opportunity to get in front of this issue during this boom time and avoid the separation," he said. "Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Los Angeles allowed themselves to be divided, and now, dozens of communities are rotting," Orfield said. "Don't let it happen to you." Copyright 1998, The News Tribune Republished here with the permission of The News Tribune. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the written permission of The News Tribune. << Back to Press Clippings |
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