ABSTRACT
The absence of 'jobs stories' comparable to the 'investment stories' raises a series of questions that guide the following reexamination of the Cities' Congress. This chapter argues that generating new jobs is an essential component of recovery. It then examines several approaches to job generation, including general service sector revitalization, high-tech manufacturing and research and development (R&D), public policy-induced job development, and self-help job development. The problem of 'dependency' was a central theme of the Cities' Congress beginning with Porter's assertion that recovery was synonomous with 'independence from external subsidies'. Unemployment is a major social problem both with deep historical roots and with ties to the national and international economies. The chapter looks at some of the approaches to recovery being undertaken by cities represented at the Congress. Creation of construction jobs is often pointed to as a positive indirect benefit of downtown revitalization.
