There is a serious challenge awaiting the next mayor.

		Jerry Paytas is director of the Carnegie Mellon Center for Economic Development (www.smartpolicy.org). The Race for Mayor This is part of a series of Forum essays about the 2005 Pittsburgh mayoral campaign. The primary election will be held on May 17 and the general election on Nov. 8. Previous installments What about the team?

A recent study from the Pittsburgh office of RAND Corp. documented our interdependence. The city generates $6.6 billion in earnings for suburban workers who commute into the city. While the city's population has been shrinking, these earnings still account for more than one-third of all commuter earnings in Allegheny County. It is time, now or never, to not only think like a region, but to act like a region.

The RAND study is too recent to have made an impact yet, but it is not clear what it will take to overcome the pervasive denials of our interdependence. Recently, at an event outside the city, some in the audience asked why people in other counties should care about the city's bankruptcy -- or why they should be concerned with the fate of US Airways. In order to vent their frustration, the board of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission had threatened to block the transfer of highway funds to the Port Authority, a move that would have punished the elderly, the needy and suburban workers. Can you hear the wake-up call, Mr. Mayor?

If the city collapses, much of the earnings it exports will go with it and it will be decades before the suburban communities can fill that gap. Furthermore, these suburbs will have to replace those earnings while they also confront new challenges driven by sustainability and global economic competition.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's 1999 report, "Now Is the Time: Places Left Behind in the New Economy," found that the problems that have plagued central cities throughout the nation are beginning to seep into the suburbs, especially the older, adjacent suburbs. Will our "urban problems" remain contained in the city when it lacks the resources and services to address them? More likely those "urban problems" will be exported to the suburbs, just as earnings are now exported. Can you smell the coffee, Madam Supervisor?

If these reasons aren't enough, there is plenty of practical and academic evidence that supports the need for regionally based development. The competition for businesses and residents that pits one community against another has polarized the metropolitan economy -- one community's gain is another's loss so that the region as a whole is not better off. Across the nation there is an emerging recognition that the communities within a region are in the same boat, even if they are on different decks. Development and growth are not confined to the political boundaries we drew 50 or even 100 years ago. The choices made by one locality affect its neighbors. One community may get the new big box retailer, but the surrounding communities get the traffic and storm runoff, without the tax revenues from the new development. These development spillovers reveal the need to work on a regional basis to resolve, or even better, to prevent these problems from occurring in the first place.

But folks around here are not likely to be swayed by academic arguments. Regional efforts in southwestern Pennsylvania are often criticized for focusing on the city to the exclusion of the rest of the region, or worse, expecting the region to support the needs and goals of the city.

They have a point. It is hypocritical to ask for regional tax dollars to support projects in Pittsburgh while we oppose vital projects outside the city and demonize the movement of city dwellers to the suburbs.

But it is also unfair and shortsighted for those same suburbanites to oppose transit subsidies while they live in communities that receive police, fire and health services from the state that are subsidized in part by city taxpayers. Not to mention the investment in roads and sewers funded by the taxes of a prior generation of city residents.

The point is not to adjust the balance sheet. Playing "My Fair Share" is a fool's game. The city is a gateway and magnet for the region. Part of its function is to attract new residents and generate new ideas for the benefit of the region. It is also a primary source of jobs for people around the region. That does not mean however, that the city is the only source of ideas and growth and our new mayor must have the humility to recognize the innovators next door. Our new mayor must signal that the city is ready to embrace the rest of the region and that the city is a part of the region and the region a part of the city. All municipalities in the region have to view each other as equal partners and recognize that everyone shares the benefits and costs of growth.

So please, Mr. Mayor, embrace the region and with perseverance, the region will embrace us.