Brookings Institution selects Chancellor Cantor for panel on major metro study

The Brookings Institution selected Syracuse University Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor to serve on a distinguished panel assembled to discuss its recently released major report, “The State of Metropolitan America: On the Front Lines of Demographic Transformation.” The event, held Tuesday, May 11, in Washington, D.C., drew attention to demographic and social forces that the report identifies as reshaping America’s metropolitan areas.

Five categories of transformative change were described as having altered the dynamics between cities and suburbs. They are: growth and outward expansion, population diversification, aging of the population, uneven higher education attainment and income polarization.

“A crucial conclusion of the report is that these forces present challenges to metropolitan areas that require shared responses and common ownership of the solutions,” says Cantor. “This is an important affirmation of the approach that Syracuse University, the City of Syracuse and the Central New York community have taken to tackling the challenges we face, emphasizing the power—indeed, the necessity—of cross-sector collaboration.”

Brookings Vice President and Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program Bruce Katz said that the transformative trends “are happening at a faster pace, a greater scale and a higher level of intensity in our major metropolitan areas .… A new metro map of the nation is emerging that unites far flung communities by their demographic similarities rather than their physical proximity.”

The panel was hosted by University of Southern California professor Robert Suro. Joining Cantor were Jennie Chin Hansen, immediate past president of the American Association of Retired Persons; Abby Joseph Cohen, an executive from Goldman Sachs; and Ronald Brownstein, National Journal columnist. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter offered closing remarks. The report is receiving extensive coverage by the national media—The Washington Post, The New York Times and numerous other media outlets.

For more information, see http://www.brookings.edu/events/2010/0511_metro_demographics.aspx.