Forging “Startup Cities” Through Urban Innovation Districts
The Brooklyn Navy Yard was featured in the New York Times last week after a coalition of advanced manufacturing startups located there joined forces to shift their production to personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers in New York City’s hospitals. The 300-acre complex that was once home to New York’s largest naval shipyard is now a staple of the city’s innovation ecosystem. The Yard, whose redevelopment was a product of a $71 million investment through Mayor Bloomberg’s Digital NYC initiative, now contains more than 400 technology and design-oriented businesses as well as New Lab, one of Brooklyn’s most prolific startup accelerators. What’s more, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation also recently partnered with an urban tech startup to pilot New York State’s first commercial self-driving vehicle system on the campus.
The transformation of the Brooklyn Navy Yard is emblematic of the broader trend of cities exploring public-private partnerships to create “innovation districts”. Innovation districts are distinct areas within cities where entrepreneurs, business incubators, anchor institutions, and corporate research entities co-locate and leverage their close proximity to accelerate ideas and enterprises. Economists assert that this configuration of innovative assets will facilitate knowledge exchange and productive interactions, amplifying rates of new business formation and patenting. A recent study by the Global Institute on Innovation Districts (GIID) found that there are 27 innovation districts in the United States today (including the Brooklyn Navy Yard).
The formation of innovation districts appears to have been a boon to incumbent research centers such as New York, Boston and Silicon Valley, which now receive the lion’s share of venture capital. However, the results have been mixed for cities that most would not think of as hubs of startup activity. For example, patenting rates in Chattanooga (a city that has invested heavily in its innovation district), are roughly a quarter of that in Knoxville (a city of the same size without one). In addition to these geographic disparities, many innovation districts are still working on increasing the representation of nonwhite and female entrepreneurs.
While it is encouraging to see cities pursue policies and investment strategies that seek to cultivate startup ecosystems, hasten the implementation of emerging technologies, and shift assets to support these aims, the innovation district approach has room for refinement in order to promote both geographic and socioeconomic inclusivity.
