Here’s another perspective on Richmond and Hampton Roads — as the southern anchors of the Washington-Boston mega-region. Home to 56.5 million people, the mega-region has an economy the size of Germany.
Technically, in the taxonomy of economic geographer Richard Florida, the southern anchor of the Washington-Boston corridor is Washington. But, then, he did publish the photo above in his Atlantic Cities blog post on the topic, so maybe Richmond and Hampton Roads warrant a second-tier plug-in status.
According to the Associated Press, regional leaders in the Norfolk-Virginia Beach MSA are soul searching over whether to brand themselves as “Hampton Roads” or “Coastal Virginia.” Perhaps they should be asking themselves how to hitch themselves to North America’s largest and most economically productive mega-region.
–– JAB
