Two cities founded around the same time, while on the surface may not seem all that similar, actually share both a long history and many of the same challenges.

For Metro Leadership Visit 2022, nearly 90 business and community leaders headed to Boston for two and a half days of immersion into the community, their challenges and successes.

At the heart of this trip is the connections – new and old. Connections to opportunities and people, ideas and innovations. The energy was abundant from the group, eager to learn, experience and simply spend time together bettering our region.

There is no opportunity quite like the Metro Leadership Visit. From a private tour of Fenway Park and sundaes in little baseball helmets, to a morning of insightful sessions in TD Garden’s 1928 Club and hearing the brilliance of MIT.

However, the true vibrance lies in the small moments – sharing dinner with a fellow member, listening to Mayor Tecklenburg play the piano, figuring out the T together or an early morning run through the city lead by CSU’s Dondi Costin. This trip was full of experiences, memories and inspiration.

Mamie Bush, Hilton Garden Inn Charleston Waterfront/Downtown, said it best, Metro Leadership Visit is all about “connections, collaboration and community.”

So what did we learn?

At the core of everything we heard and explored was resiliency. The Boston region is centrally focused around propelling a resilient community. Often in our region, resiliency is focused on flooding – Boston has expanded that definition. For Boston, they are working on resiliency from water, climate change and equity. But it was also seen in their housing attainability efforts and badly needed transit improvements. And even in their innovation-centered business community.

Our President and CEO, Bryan Derreberry captured some key nuggets from the trip.

Here’s the top 10 key points:

• Innovation thrives on proximity.

• The most environmentally green building is the one that is already built.

• Harbor wide resiliency is Boston’s next Big Dig.

• The Greenway is not a museum to trees … think about all the different ways you can innovate and invite people into these shared community spaces with intentionality.

• Packages are not born in the back of the Amazon van . . . You can’t love them and hate truck drivers.

• MIT Ethos . . . Minds and hands . . . transformed America . . . won wars . . . drove technological change…created most innovative square mile in the world.

• Don’t confuse motion with progress or symbolism with substance.

• Equity is about an investment in our collective future.

• Entrepreneurial ecosystem needs to be undergirded by placemaking . . . Making all neighborhoods vibrant is a regional economic imperative.

• Double down on the workforce development equation to get at the heart of educational and aspirational disparities.

Let’s dive a little deeper.

The region is home to about three million people, with approximately 700,000 living in Boston city limits. However, the population grows to 1.2 million during working hours. Their economic drivers are life sciences, healthcare, higher education and finance. Boston shares many of our top challenges: education, housing affordability and transportation. A key difference between our cities is our form of government. While South Carolina functions on a county government system, Massachusetts does not. Rather they work on a town meeting form of government – serving as both a legislative entity and an event for eligible voters to have their voice heard.

Infrastructure

“I believe that no matter what issue you are dealing with, there is something in the solutions toolkit that is related to the infrastructure of your city,” James Rooney, President and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Boston’s ability to invest in infrastructure has fueled their economic mobility. Not only do they have a long-standing transit infrastructure, but the Big Dig project transformed the landscape of the city. Literally removing what they referred to as a giant green monster that divided the city and destroyed neighborhoods created an opportunity for healing. Moving the dividing highway underground and creating a greenway overtop, removed the physical divider, increased quality of place and brought a new vibrancy to the community. Not without controversy, the Big Dig was, without a doubt, transformational.

Armed with a Charlie Card, attendees were encouraged to use the T transit system to get to the various venues throughout our stay. While the T is an incredible asset, it is also one that is currently causing a lot of headaches. The system is showing its age and, due to a focus on growth rather than maintenance, there have been many issues and lines have been shut down for repair. Boston’s next big challenge is improving their aging transit system.

Housing

Like our region, and many other communities in the nation, Boston is also grappling with housing affordability. A rather small city with only 48 square miles, they have to look outside of their city limits to build. Given they are one of only two cities that doubles in population every day, the regional connection to transit is a key part of their housing plan.

Text BoxWith a long history of red lining and segregation, their programs and efforts are using data intentionally to ensure they are not repeating the same bad policies. Inclusionary zoning policies are working and has really been the only way they have seen affordable housing produced in their wealthiest neighborhoods. Another key strategy is that the state incentivizes communities to rezone areas around transit stations to allow for multi-family, denser development and then they let the private sector do their job. Their biggest challenge – how to focus their efforts with so much work to be done.

Innovation

We spent the second half of day two in Cambridge, learning about innovation and the life sciences sector. Kendall Square is considered the most innovative square mile in the known universe. But what has made it successful is that Kendall Square doesn’t invest in technology per se, rather it invests in the infrastructure that allows them to be resilient to change.

MIT’s ethos is minds and hands and it is that ethos that transformed not just Kendall Square, but our nation. Per capital, more life sciences is delivered from Kendall Square than anywhere else by a factor by two and a half. Another important contributor to their success has been creating community. They want integration between life, institution and innovation – people have to want to be there and be inspired by their environment and the people in it to innovate.

Attendees also heard from Ben Armstrong, MIT Industrial Performance Center, on the Work of the Future. When it comes to automation, it is not inherently a job destroyer, and the problem is not that people can’t keep up with technology but rather that business isn’t moving fast enough. Adopting new technologies creates new jobs where new skills are required, and more skills equates to higher wages.

What was probably most insightful was Ben dove into the Charleston region citing a high growth per capita income and educated workforce. However, our greatest opportunity is growing the middle – using programs like our world-class youth apprenticeships to meet demand for middle wage jobs in manufacturing and logistics. Unfortunately, when looking at the data, our region stands out as highly unequal. High wage individuals are driving up the economy while others are being left behind. A critical challenge we must continue to address.

Equity

In 2020, Boston declared racism a public health crisis. The city believes that racial justice must be at the core of all their efforts and they have lived that by investing the resources and talent to make an impact. They have even built a strategy, Resilient Boston: An Equitable and Connected City. Boston’s leadership understands and values that they must have needed and sometimes painful conversations and are focused on pushing equity in all that they do.

Like us, Boston is not yet where they need to be as a city. Out of 40,000 small businesses, roughly 30% are owned by people of color. And out of $4 billion spent in contracts, only .04% is going to black-owned businesses and only .08% going to Lantinx-owned businesses. Equity is about the investment in our collective future and all efforts should be focused on people. By focusing on growing a minority business ecosystem and diversity supplier programs, they are creating opportunity for business growth that lifts up the entire community.

“We need to look at it from the perspective that when one neighborhood thrives, another thrives. Cities change, great cities evolve. We are a region and we are interconnected – we have to continue to recognize that,” Mayor Habib, City of Goose Creek.

Climate and Flooding

Along with a racial resiliency plan, Boston also has the Climate Ready Boston plan. Like us, they experience sunny day flooding and king tides. Harbor wide resiliency is their next Big Dig and needs to be done in a comprehensive fashion, not to mention it will cost billions of dollars.

While it is a project with lots of obstacles and challenges, they are getting started. They have strategies and are working towards implementation efforts. There is no silver bullet, but you must start the conversations and explore innovative tactics to address climate change and water flow. At the end of the day, it is everyone’s waterfront, and you need to engage everybody in the conversations. A top takeaway is that water wants to go where water once was. Being intentional about where the water wants to go and working with nature, rather than against, is important.

Boston did not disappoint. Thank you to our sponsors for believing in the impact of the Metro Leadership Visit and investing in our region’s advancement. And thank you to each of our attendees who took time away to be engaged, learn and connect.

Now, let’s get to work.

Metro Leadership Visit presented by

Metro Leadership Visit Sponsors: Hilton Garden Inn, Digit Sells, Lee & Associates, Office of Senator Tim Scott, AT&T, Chernoff Newman, RND Consultants, Charleston Parks Conservancy, McMillan PLLC and Terracon