This does not mean, as some suggest, that newer, more affluent suburbs can ignore the problems of older suburbs and central cities. Research has demonstrated that the most successful metropolitan areas are those where cities and suburbs are healthy and vital. Suburban areas adjacent to vibrant central cities have higher income, population, and employment growth than those surrounding stagnant central cities. Metropolitan areas where the incomes of suburbanites and city dwellers are more equal generally have higher rates of growth. Also, most evidence suggests that the complementary nature of city-suburb relationships is likely to increase in the emerging global economy.
Success demands healthy cities and suburbs.
Today, the region, rather than the city, is the basic geographic unit in which goods and services are produced. Workers are hired from a regional labor pool. Transportation and infrastructure systems are regional. That interdependence is clearly illustrated by the increasing mobility of the Bay Area's labor force. For example, Silicon Valley and San Francisco have significantly more jobs than employed residents.