Democratic and Republican mayors join forces in creating megaregion alliance

Centered on Atlanta, Charlotte

Vilas Bhuchar, Nov 30, 09.

Shirley Franklin, Atlanta’s Democratic mayor, and Pat McCrory, Charlotte’s Republican mayor, joined other regional mayors in Greenville last week to launch the “Piedmont Alliance for Quality Growth – Mayors, Business, Academia”, according to a story on Citiwire.net.

Essentially, the new organization will serve as a “megaregional” alliance from which various cities can work together to manage growth more effectively:

Working in tandem, with bipartisanship rare in today’s America, Franklin and McCrory have been pushing for a common action plan to build imaginative and “green” infrastructure systems for the South’s dominant “megaregion” string of metro areas, centered on Atlanta and Charlotte but extending as far as Raleigh on the east, Birmingham on the west.

Franklin is quoted as saying, “I used to think of the Atlanta metro region as my sphere. But now I know - I’m in a megaregion which will increasingly influence the ability of America to prosper.”

McCrory adds, “Shirley and I are very competitive for jobs. But if we don’t have our energy, transportation and water needs of the future in focus, our economic and quality of life future is in jeopardy.”

The story uses increasing population and traffic as examples of issues the Piedmont Alliance will be able to more effectively handle by having city leaders work together rather than independently of each other:

With 4 million more people projected for the region, plus an anticipated increase in truck traffic to and from Southeast ports, the maps of likely interstate roadway traffic show horrendous 20-25 year increases. Passenger rail is a clear alternative for intercity trips. But the region’s few trains are slow and infrequent. Planning for quality regional rail service – not to mention the true high-speed trains now becoming the international norm – is anemic, lagging behind other U.S. megaregions.

Finally, the story notes that, “the new Piedmont Alliance is loosely affiliated with America 2050, a public policy group focused on rapid rail and other strategies to make the U.S. more competitive and sustainable in this century.”

(Photo Credit: james.rintamaki)