In the new global economy, America is economically as healthy as its cities and metro areas are healthy. In addressing the conference, both Vice President Al Gore and Texas governor George W. Bush pledged that mayors will help to form the new federal administration, clearly acknowledging the economic and social importance that cities now play. Additionally, he believes that in a world increasingly dominated by e-commerce, metropolitan and regional economies will stagnate if we do not maintain the ability to move goods and services readily between cities and regions.
Coles is one mayor who can talk lucidly about the challenges of e-government.
But he, like a number of other mayors, sees e-government as only part of the bigger challenges ahead for government. The idea that cities form much of the backbone of America's new economic health is more than one mayor's bias. These competitive advantages make metro areas the engines of U.S. economic growth and the source of new high-technology industries. Figures compiled in the study show that metro areas now generate more than 80 percent of the nation's employment, income and production of goods and services. As such, public and private-sector investment aimed at promoting national economic growth should focus on metro areas, the report argues, since these contain the bulk of the nation's productive assets.