article

A new map for America

[WHAT]

1. ] by PARAG KHANNA @nytimes.com - Rethinking the Map: How the lower 48 could be realigned into seven mega-regions.

[WHY]

1. ] 

[WHERE]

1. ] READ THE FULL ARTICLE
1. ] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/opinion/sunday/a-new-map-for-america.html?_r=0

[WHEN]

1. ] 2016-04-15

[EXAMPLE - SUMMARY ]

1. ] the 50 states continue to drive the political system. But increasingly, that’s all they drive — socially and economically, America is reorganizing itself around regional infrastructure lines and metropolitan clusters that ignore state and even national borders. The problem is, the political system hasn’t caught up.
2. ] America faces a two-part problem. It’s no secret that the country has fallen behind on infrastructure spending. But it’s not just a matter of how much is spent on catching up, but how and where it is spent. 
3. ] Advanced economies in Western Europe and Asia are reorienting themselves around robust urban clusters of advanced industry. Unfortunately, American policy making remains wedded to an antiquated political structure of 50 distinct states.
4. ] The states aren’t about to go away, but economically and socially, the country is drifting toward looser metropolitan and regional formations, anchored by the great cities and urban archipelagos that already lead global economic circuits. 
5. ] The Northeastern megalopolis, stretching from Boston to Washington, contains more than 50 million people and represents 20 percent of GDP, ] Greater Los Angeles accounts for more than 10 percent of GDP. 
6. ] These city-states matter far more than most American states — and connectivity to these urban clusters determines Americans’ long-term economic viability far more than which state they reside in. America is increasingly divided not between red states and blue states, but between connected hubs and disconnected backwaters. 
7. ] smaller American cities are increasingly cut off from the national agenda, destined to become low-cost immigrant and retirement colonies, or simply to be abandoned.
8. ] Congress was once a world leader in regional planning. The Louisiana Purchase, the Pacific Railroad Act (which financed railway expansion from Iowa to San Francisco with government bonds) and the Interstate System of highways are all examples of the federal government’s thinking about economic development at continental scale. The Tennessee Valley Authority was an agent of post-Depression infrastructure renewal, job creation and industrial modernization cutting across six states.
9. ] Congress was once a world leader in regional planning. The Louisiana Purchase, the Pacific Railroad Act (railway expansion from Iowa to San Francisco )and the Interstate System of highways are all examples of the federal government’s thinking about economic development at continental scale.
10. ] We don’t have to create these regions; they already exist, on two levels. First, there are now seven distinct super-regions, defined by common economics and demographics, Within these, in addition to America’s main metro hubs, we find new urban archipelagos, including the Arizona Sun Corridor, from Phoenix to Tucson; the Front Range, from Salt Lake City to Denver to Albuquerque; the Cascadia belt, from Vancouver to Seattle; and the Piedmont Atlantic cluster, from Atlanta to Charlotte, N.C. 
11. ] China is transcending its traditional internal boundaries to become an empire of 26 megacity clusters with populations of up to 100 million each, centered around hubs such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing-Chengdu. Over time these clusters, whose borders fluctuate based on population and economic growth, will be the cores around which the central government allocates subsidies, designs supply chains and builds connections to the rest of the world. 
12. ] As of 2015, Italy’s most important political players are no longer its dozens of laconic provinces, but 14 “Metropolitan Cities,” like Rome, Turin, Milan and Florence, each of which has been legislatively merged with its surrounding municipalities into larger and more economically viable subregions.
13. ] Connectivity isn’t just about infrastructure; it’s about strategy. It’s not just about more roads, rail lines and telecommunications — as well as manufacturing plants and data centers — but where those are placed. Getting that right is critical to getting the most out of public investment. But too often, decisions about infrastructure investment are made at the state (or even county) level, and end at the state border. 
14. ] TO make these things happen requires thinking beyond states. Washington currently provides minimal support for regional economic efforts and strategies; it needs to go much further, even at the risk of upsetting established federal-state political balances. 
15. ] Upgraded transportation corridors between New York, Washington and Atlanta could finally lift Appalachia’s isolated and stagnant towns stretching from New York to Alabama by facilitating investment in farms and vineyards, food processing and eco-tourism. 
16. ] The 21st century will not be a competition over territory, but over connectivity — and only connecting American cities will enable the United States to win the tug of war over global trade volumes, investment flows and supply chains. More than America’s military grand strategy, such an economic master plan would determine if America remained the world’s leading superpower.

[HOW-TO]

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ID: 5061

NAME: a-new-map-for-america

DESCRIPTION: ] by PARAG KHANNA @nytimes.com - Rethinking the Map: How the lower 48 could be realigned into seven mega-regions.

AUTHOR: article.author/s

EDITOR: article.editor/s

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STATUS: Write

PRIORITY: -5

OWNER ID: 75

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