GREAT CITIES

Latest in a series This is the second in a series on how Cincinnati might better compete with its sister cities in the region. Sunday's Forum section compared those cities with Cincinnati. The Sept. 5 Forum section will focus on whether Cincinnati should change its form of government.

U.S. mayors are trying to push a cities agenda to the forefront of the presidential campaign and prod President Bush and John Kerry into vying to outdo each other with promises to strengthen metro economies.

"I would love to see that competition," Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic told the Enquirer editorial board during his mid-August Ohio bus tour with other mayors through this "battleground state." As president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, he makes a persuasive case that the federal government should invest "where the winners are" - in metro areas.

About 83 percent of Americans live in a metro area; metros generate 85 percent of U.S. economic output and account for 48 of the world's top 100 economies. A study by Global Insight showed Ohio's three largest metros - Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati - accounted for more than 50 percent of all goods and services Ohio produced in 2003.

But the mayors' 2004 challenge is more than just breaking through a cluttered presidential campaign obsessed so far with the candidates' past military service. Between 2000 and 2004, Ohio metro employment fell 3.7 percent, compared with 0.3 nationally. In the next four years, economic forecasters say Ohio metros will grow only about half as fast as the rest of U.S. cities. There also is a worrisome 15.6 percent Ohio wage gap. Average wages of jobs lost was $41,774, while the average wage of jobs that will be gained through 2006 is expected to be only $34,942. That slippage is why Cincinnati and other Ohio cities keep courting higher-paying high-tech businesses.

Whoever wins this presidential election, along with state legislators and Congress, need to recognize metro economies' clout and "invest" strategically to keep them strong.

Chicago's Mayor Richard Daly, Akron's Plusquellic and other U.S. mayors are pushing for more federal jobs initiatives including the Senate's six-year, $318 billion highway bill, which Bush has threatened to veto as too costly. They call for a national infrastructure investment plan to help finance major projects in U.S. metros such as drinking water and wastewater plants and schools. They ask for more federal incentives to help small businesses, which create many of the new jobs. The mayors beg for relief from federal unfunded or underfunded mandates and cost shifts from federal and state governments to the cities.

Toledo Mayor Jack Ford and other Ohio mayors also decry the state legislature's power shift toward townships and rural areas. Townships hurt not just cities but themselves if, when vying for state dollars, they brand center cities as the opposition and obstruct metro economic growth.

But cities also need to help themselves. They need to keep growing their tax bases to generate the new money needed year after year to rebuild downtowns and neighborhoods. They need to make every dollar count by investing in revenue-producing development. Roads and rentals aren't good enough. Stronger metro economies make for stronger neighborhoods and a stronger nation.