The graduate students at the Toulon School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University have released their latest study of the Cascadia Megaregion, "Ecolopolis," which presents a vision for coordination and sustainable economic development in the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland megaregion. Building on two previous studies, the report includes a detailed sector-based economic analysis and recommendations for further strengthening Cascadia's economic "competencies" in areas of green building and architecture, creative services, agriculture and food production and high tech. It also makes recommendations for protecting Cascadia's renowned environmental heritage and reputation for sustainability, while improving flows and connections within the megaregion.

Download the Report.

The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program released a report this month titled "Mountain Megas: America's Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper".  The report was introduced in conjunction with a luncheon in Denver on July 22nd that brought leaders from the Intermountain West to discuss economic, social, and environmental challenges in five emerging metropolitan areas: Wasatch Front, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; Sun Corridor, Arizona; Northern New Mexico, New Mexico, and the Front Range, Colorado. 

As part of its Blueprint for American Prosperity initiative, the Brookings report calls for the federal government to provide leadership and support as these urbanized and rapdily changing areas emerge and expand. In addition, the report comes in anticipation of the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver.  Local leaders and officials are hopeful the presidential candidates and elections will make these emerging trends and challenges a national priority.  As one of the fastest growing regions in the country, the study suggests that these swing states represent a "new new West" that is urban, and require new and reformed federal-state-local partnerships.  Moreover, the research recommends that these collaborations should be issue focused, namely: transportation, infrastructure, innovation, immigration, and climate change. 

The event was attended by Jon Huntsman, Gov. of Utah; Bill Ritter, Jr., Gov. of Colorado, and John Hickenlooper, Mayor, City of Denver.  For a copy of the executive summary of the report, please click here.     

Photo: "Mountain Megas: America's Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper", July, 2008.

 

The Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University released a report in May titled, Megapolitan: Arizona's Sun Corridor. The study examines growth challenges in one of the nation's most rapidly growing regions: the Tucson-Phoenix corridor. Poised to double in population from 5 million to 10 million by 2050, the region will grapple with the environmental challenges of accommodating rapid population growth in a fragile desert environment. Ensuring an adequate drinking water supply and mitigating urban heat island effect without the use of increased vegetation (which requires additional water) are two big challenges. Urban form is another important consideration; detached single family homes are by far the preferred development type in this region, but their proliferation will contribute to sprawled development and make transit options less viable.

The changing demographic and economic environment in the corridor is prompting researchers and leaders to think about how the corridor can one day become a significant economic, technological and cultural center, while growing in a sustainable way. At a recent workshop sponsored by the Sonoran Institute and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, planners considered the implications of this emerging megapolitan region with the report's authors and local transportation and community leaders.

This collection by features essays by Edward Glaeser, "Do Regional Economies Need Regional Coordination?" and Saskia Sassen, "Megaregions: Benefits Beyond Sharing Trains and Parking Lots?" and discussion summaries from the February 9, 2007 conference, with comments by Sassen, Glaeser, Robert Yaro, Paul Krugman and Kip Bergstrom.

The full report can be downloaded from the Policy Research Institute for the Region website. 

On February 9 Regional Plan Association and the Policy Research Institute for the Region of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School held a luncheon forum for regional business leaders and scholars on "The Economic Geography of Megaregions."

The forum featured presentations by economists Saskia Sassen of the University of Chicago and Edward Glaeser of Harvard University, and responses by Paul Krugman of Princeton University and Kip Bergstrom of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council.

The presenters and discussants attempted to answer the questions:
o Can megaregion-scale agglomerations be encouraged?
o What are the advantages of doing so?
o What are the public policies and infrastructure investments to encourage agglomeration at the megaregion scale?

The papers from the forum can be downloaded here from the Policy Research Institute for the Region website.

11/20/07: The complete conference papers are now available online on PRIOR's website.

Image: Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs

This report, recently released by planning faculty at the University of Michigan asks three main questions: Why plan for megaregions? What are appropriate methods for planning at the megaregion scale? And when is the megaregion a useful scale for policy planning?

Click here to download the report.

The Brookings Institution has released a new report proposing a revitalization strategy for the Great Lakes megaregion.

The report is titled, "The Vital Center: A Federal-State Compact to Renew the Great Lakes Region." You can download the report (pdf) here.

Toulon School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University, September 2006. Download the report