According to this blog post from the Brookings Institution's Mark Muro, metropolitan areas are taking the lead in luring business.
"[S]mart consortia of regional leaders have come together to apply the methodology of private-sector business planning to the business of revitalizing regional economic development. In that fashion, smart regions are pursuing a disciplined, rational process to prepare tailored, data-rich, highly specific challenges to federal, state, local, and philanthropic players to "invest" in their "bottom-up" plans for economic growth (with a firm promise of return on investment).
So who's doing them? Three diverse metropolitan areas-Northeast Ohio, Minneapolis Saint Paul, and Seattle-are applying the new methodology, and are working intensely and pragmatically this year while Congress bickers and the nation drifts."
