The $130.4 billion of American Rescue Plan (ARP) fiscal relief funds (FRFs) available to local governments would seem tailor made for cities like Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis to deploy in transformative ways. For “legacy cities,” decades of economic decline have generally meant an array of ambitious revitalization plans are queued up but languishing, due to lack of funding and/or political will. Ironically, these informal wish lists of critical projects (e.g. addressing neighborhood revitalization, minority small business growth, workforce training and retraining, and placemaking) may better position these legacy cities to leverage FRFs in more innovative and transformative ways than more prosperous cities—if civic, business, and political leaders act strategically and collaboratively to prioritize and sequence these projects.
Legacy cities can think big for transformative impact with ARP funds (brookings.edu)
