COMMENTARY: A Metro Area Is More Than Just the Central City

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COMMENTARY: A Metro Area Is More Than Just the Central City

Even though we call our annual Best Metros for Business Expansion and Relocation competition the “Mayor’s Challenge,” the term “mayor” is often a misnomer. Why do I say that?


	[ 7/18/2004 ] By: Bill King
	[ 0 Talkbacks / Add Talkback ]

Metro areas are rarely made up of just one political jurisdiction. Rather, most MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) include numerous counties and smaller cities, each having its own formal government.

While one or more major cities in each metro usually give it its formal name to the outside world, an MSA is more like a sports team than it is a fiefdom under the benign rule of one person: the mayor [of the namesake city].

Clearly, a vibrant downtown area is crucial to the health of the overall metro area because it is the part of town most visitors see. Much of the reputation a community has with the outside world is based upon the look and feel of its downtown.

This is the part of the region where people and businesses can be packed in greater density. For law firms, banks, corporate headquarters, financial centers — not to mention the Bohemian arts community — the downtown area provides a sense of exhilaration and rapid pace, not to mention convenience, that many find conducive to their business and lives.

But an MSA is not just the region’s major city (say, Detroit or Dallas or Kansas City). It’s also the suburban cities and the unincorporated parts of the county. While most big cities have seen their populations decline, or at best stagnate, during the past several decades, the outlying suburbs have experienced explosive growth during the same period.

Suburban growth is not just residential sprawl. The suburbs are an integral part of any metro area.

Jobs have migrated out to the suburbs as well, as people trade in an hour-long commute in bumper-to-bumper traffic to downtown for a 15-minute commute to their new suburban office, which is often nearby the kids’ day care or school, as well as being conveniently close to the dry cleaners, grocery store and other amenities that are part of the fabric of everyday life for most Americans.

The unincorporated parts of the county are also a critical part of the overall metro. After all, that’s where most of the unused land is — the greenfields.

That’s important because, while the suburbs are often most attractive to technology businesses looking to set up a corporate campus in an idyllic setting, there’s enough NIMBY (not in my back yard) spirit in the suburbs to force companies to locate their manufacturing facilities or distribution centers farther out of town — to the unincorporated areas of the county, where land is cheaper, roads and infrastructure can be built to suit, and zoning is a lot more flexible.

It takes all three parts — the downtown, the suburbs and the unincorporated sections of the county — to make a region thrive. That’s where teamwork comes into play. All three have their strengths and weaknesses, but if they cooperate and help each other, the entire region will prosper.

If they choose, however, to squabble amongst themselves, then the entire region is doomed to watch jobs and people go elsewhere.

Bill King is the chief editor of Expansion Management magazine and can be reached at BillKing@Penton.com.
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