Despite losing more than three million manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2005, the urban corridor stretching from Chicago to Pittsburgh remains the second most powerful economic center in the world according to a recent article by Richard Florida, author of the 2002 best-seller The Rise of the Creative Class.
Defined by clusters of hardworking metropolitan areas like Cleveland and Detroit, talented people, and a spirit of innovation, the super region generates approximately $2.3 trillion in economic activity each year. That's second only to the Boston-New York-Washington corridor, which produces approx. $2.5 trillion in annual economic activity.
Florida refers to these super regions as a Mega, or "a vast expanse of trade, transport, innovation, and talent." He also suggests that Mega regions are the new organizing unit of the global economy, not nations, states, or cities. Florida counts 20 Megas worldwide, including Beijing to Shanghai, the Euro-sunbelt stretching from Barcelona to Marseille, and So-Cal running from L.A. to San Diego across the border to Tijuana.
The principal challenge confronting the Great Lakes Mega as it pursues prosperity in the new knowledge economy is to think like a unified region, rather than a disparate group of competing individuals, cities, and states.
