Great communities hoping to prosper in times of economic change need a strong sense of direction.
For years, Pittsburgh was a steel town. It is now transforming itself into a computer software center. Miami was known for tourism and citrus but is becoming an international gateway to Latin America. Singapore, once a low-wage manufacturing site, is emerging as an international center for finance and research and development. Each of these regions made strategic choices and acted to carve new roles for itself in the 21st century.
For much of this century, Baltimore was a leader in America's great mass-production economy. Its steel mills, Social Security processing center and port provided good-paying jobs to Baltimoreans. However, it is now clear that the economy that served us so well is slowing and probably in permanent decline.
In this era of fierce international competition, rapid technological change and increasing specialization, what will be Baltimore's new place in the world economy? What new economic engine will drive the creation of jobs and economic opportunities?
Over the past several months, a task force of business, labor, education, government and community leaders, organized by the Greater Baltimore Committee, worked diligently to answer these questions.
In the end, the group found Baltimore's economic future in the life sciences -- medicine, health care, biotechnology, biomedical and environmental technology, and in the numerous manufacturing and service industries which support and supply this growing life sciences sector.
Clues leading to this plan for a prosperous, inclusive future were found throughout the region.
The region's new economic engine was seen in labs and classrooms at Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University and local University of Maryland campuses, where world-class research and teaching in medicine, biotechnology, biomedical and environmental engineering takes place every day.
It was evident in biological research being conducted by the U.S. Army in Aberdeen, W.R. Grace in Columbia and Becton Dickinson in Baltimore County. The answer was obvious in the growing number of biotech firms at area business parks making the region a major center of biotechnology, including Crop Genetics in Anne Arundel County and Martek in Howard County.
Baltimore's economic future can be seen in the brain power of Dunbar High School students, working with Johns Hopkins in their partnership on health science careers. The future becomes clear in the wonder of school children from Carroll County exploring marine life at the National Aquarium, the region's top tourist attraction.
Baltimore's next economic engine was uncovered in medical journals at Waverly Press, whose medical work has helped make printing and publishing the region's fastest-growing manufacturing sector. Baltimore's life sciences future is seen in medical and science-related facilities development, which is now leading source of construction jobs, with more than $1 billion committed locally to build new hospitals and research and scientific facilities.
The region's new economic focus is evident at the Convention Center, where medical and scientific meetings represent a major source of conventions and tourism dollars. The region's future has already been launched by new divisions of area accounting and law firms developed to service high-growth companies and in the health industry investment banking group at Alex. Brown & Sons.
Clearly, the life sciences are Baltimore's strongest foothold in the future and most promising new economic engine. To capitalize on the region's strengths and advantages, the task force developed a vision of greater Baltimore as an internationally recognized, global life sciences community within the next decade.
It is a future-oriented and inclusive economy. Through a commitment to intellectual and commercial leadership in the life sciences, greater Baltimore will capitalize on its world-class scientific, medical and university resources to bring the entire community into the high wage/high skill economy of the future.
Not all, or even a majority, of new jobs will be in medical or bio-related sectors. The Baltimore region will still be home to traditional industries such as steel and distribution, as well as other knowledge-based industries, including information systems and space technology.
But in this new vision, the life sciences emerge as the major new engine for the region's economy. The life sciences will drive the creation of new medical and bio-related jobs, as well as related jobs in manufacturing, business services, construction, tourism and a host of diverse industries.
Most important, the GBC sees a community coming together to create radically improved education, training and family-support systems. The GBC sees a community that offers every adult and child, regardless of race and income, bridges needed to achieve the good-paying jobs and high quality-of-life a global life-sciences community can provide.
In short, the GBC's vision is to make Baltimore where science comes to life.
To become a reality, a vision must be tied to tasks. The GBC believes that achieving such an economy in Baltimore will require action in four strategic areas.
* Developing greater Baltimore as a learning community.
We must move beyond current rhetoric about school reform and incremental efforts to improve education and training systems. The life sciences can become a new focus for energizing the region's education and training systems.
We need to redefine what people need to learn, how it should be taught and what the community's responsibility is in the process. We must insist on much higher standards of school performance and accountability, as called for in the Schilling-Sondheim proposals. We should dramatically restructure our schools to put more resources and decision-making in the classroom.
Specialized institutions, such as a bio-science high school, may need to be built. New training and retraining consortia should be considered by our community colleges. The New Community College of Baltimore might develop the life sciences as a focus of its redefined mission.
Education must come to be regarded as the responsibility of the entire community, not just the schools. Institutions key to the life sciences economy -- businesses, universities, laboratories, hospitals, museums -- should open their doors to give real-world learning opportunities for area children and adult learners. Work-based learning concepts such as apprenticeships need to be promoted for life science careers.
Educational success depends on supportive families. We must support at-risk families to ensure they can prepare their members for this new economy. A community whose economy is built around life sciences must make a special commitment to ensuring healthy families and children. The University of Maryland at Baltimore, for example, with its multi-disciplinary strengths in medicine, dentistry, social work and law, could take the lead on a family support initiative.
* Building a specialized life sciences infrastructure.
Gov. William Donald Schaefer and the General Assembly were farsighted in supporting the Christopher Columbus Center for Marine Research and Exploration and the Maryland Bioprocessing Center. Maryland's congressional delegation has helped attract the Health Care Financing Administration headquarters, the new Veterans Administration Hospital and, it is hoped, funds for a high-speed rail link between Baltimore and Washington.
These are giant steps in the right direction. We also must examine the need for additional facilities to support the development of commercial life science industries and firms in the Baltimore region.
We need to attract targeted federal agencies and medical and scientific associations. Baltimore's existing institutions -- ranging from the convention center to the zoo -- must examine how they can support this vision. The Science Center's planned expansion provides a wonderful opportunity to develop world-class life science exhibits.
* Building a more entrepreneurial business culture.
Success in the future economy will increasingly depend on Baltimore's ability to grow its own firms.
Progress can be seen at Johns Hopkins' Bayview campus, home to Nova Pharmaceuticals and several biotech firms, and at UMBC with its new incubator and proposed research park. But our universities must accelerate their commitment to commercialization and new business start-ups.
We also need to build on the work of the GBC's High Tech Forum in developing entrepreneurial support programs, with a special emphasis on the life sciences. Entrepreneurial education needs to be incorporated in business school curricula. And, special efforts must be made to involve women and minorities in entrepreneurship.
* Enrolling all elements in the community in this vision.
Young and old, black and white, men and women, city and suburb all must see a place for themselves in this new economic vision.
We seek support and endorsements from regional leaders. We challenge our major institutions to identify how they can help the region achieve this vision. By collaborating with groups such as Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, we must work to enable diverse elements of the region -- especially our children and the minority community -- to see how they fit into this new vision and bridges they can use to become part of it.
More than 30 years ago, the GBC defined a vision for greater Baltimore which led to the transformation of our downtown and dramatically altered the image and direction of the entire region. The challenge in achieving this new vision -- of the region as a global life sciences community -- is no less daunting. But the GBC commits itself to this task.
We invite and challenge all elements of the community to join with us in making this future-oriented and inclusive vision a reality.
Robert Keller is president of the Greater Baltimore Committee.