A blog entry on Richmond's advantages within its region

See this piece by Bobby Thalheimer.

And pair it with a column "Can We 'Flip' the Pyramid to Make U.S. Metros Thrive?" by Neal Peirce on the new Brookings Institution initiative focusing on metropolitan regions, what Peirce calls citi-states, as the primary economic unit at the sub-national level.

From the column:

This week the Washington-based Brookings Institution delivered a startling message -- not Washington-centric but metro-centric. It's time, says Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program, to shift our mental image away from the 50 states (though they remain a big factor) to the nation's 363 metropolitan regions, especially the biggest 100.

Metropolitan regions, says Brookings, are where America's economic muscle, its wellsprings of innovation, high skills, advanced research and development, and its ability to compete in a toughly competitive new global economy are overwhelmingly focused. The top 100 metros, for example, are home to 65 percent of the national population. But they account for 74 percent of our gross domestic product, have 77 percent of America's good-paying "knowledge jobs," represent 78 percent of patent activity and 94 percent of venture capital funding.

Brookings asserts: "Metros are not part of the national economy. They are the national economy. ... America is a metropolitan nation."