Nation's Cities - April 30, 2012

2 NATION’S CITIES WEEKLY
April 30, 2012

NEWS ANALYSIS
Competitors or Collaborators: What Does it Take
to Achieve Regional Economic Success?

by Christiana McFarland
Much has been written from the per-
spective that regional economic success
relies on strong collaboration among key
regional stakeholders, including politi-
cal leaders, the business community,
higher education and many others. This
certainly is true, but what if we dig a
bit deeper into the dynamics of these
regions? In practice, it is often the case
that in regions well known for coop-
eration, competitiveness is actually a
dominant feature of the economic devel-
opment landscape, as noted in a recent
Public Administration Review article by
Lee, Feiock and Lee (2012). In fact, it
is this competitiveness that sometimes
drives regional behaviors, particularly
when local goals can only be met with a
collaborative approach.

cities of Seattle, Everett, Bellevue
and Tacoma; and the Greater Seattle
Chamber of Commerce, other business
leadership and union leadership.
Despite strong regional awareness
and interests among all the key stake-
holders in TDA, there is an innate local-
ism driving participation. Communities
participate in TDA not only because
they recognize that local partnerships are
necessary to retain the region’s future
competiveness, but because many do
not have the capacity to pursue activities,
such as maintaining international trade
relationships, needed to enhance their
community’s local economy.
“Although local elected officials and
staff are often best suited to initiate these
relationships, sustaining them requires
more expertise and time than our local
government alone can offer,” comment-
ed a councilmember from Bellevue.

Details: A version of this article,
titled “Commentary on Competitors
and Cooperators: A Micro-Level Analysis
of Regional Economic Development
Collaboration Networks” by Christiana
McFarland, J. Katie McConnell and
Christopher Hoene, was published in the
Public Administration Review Volume
72, Issue 2, American Society for Public
Administration (2012).
Christiana McFarland is program
director for finance and economic devel-
opment at NLC and can be reached at
mcfarland@nlc.org.

COLUMNIST
Making the Case: America’s Regions on the Rise

by Neal Peirce
“America’s Metro Regions
Take Center Stage.”
That’s the title of a new
report I’ve been working on
with colleagues. And we know
that some people will immedi-
ately retort:
“Metros? You can’t be
serious. How about Obama,
Romney, congressional stale-
mate, the tea party, states
in budget crisis — and all
the other news flavors of the
moment?”
And our reply: Flying
almost undetected under the
news radar, America’s metro-
politan regions are becoming
central to today’s American
story — and future.