Metropolitan officials in the Sun Corridor of Arizona are increasingly working together to form a self-organized super-region, according to this analysis.
These communities are taking their lead from cities in the Intermountain West, where inter-metropolitan self-organization has resulted in such projects as the Denver area's FasTracks rail system.
"Now the sometimes fractious Sun Corridor of Arizona has become a hot spot of self-organized super-regionalism. Putting aside petty inter-metropolitan rivalries, leaders from Phoenix, Tucson, and other locales in the Arizona urban super-zone have increasingly been finding ways to work together--though not by fiat from some higher authority.
Prime past examples of the new spirit include the new joint University of Arizona-Arizona State University (ASU) Medical School in downtown Phoenix and the nationally significant Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) initiative. SFAz--initiated in the spring of 2006 by the three statewide CEO groups, the Flagstaff 40, Greater Phoenix
Leadership, and Southern Arizona Leadership Council--represents a unique multi-metro public/private push to make serious investments in the region's innovation capacity."
FULL STORY: Self-Organizing the Sun Corridor
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