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<br />The Economic Setting
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<br />4. The Economies of Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan Areas Are Becoming
<br />Increasingly Integrated
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<br />Viewing the Upper Rio Grande Basin in the context of the interactions
<br />among the nearby metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas is important
<br />because, as Peirce (1993) and others have observed, the ability of the nation
<br />to compete effectively in the global economy will be determined largely by the
<br />ability of its different economic regions to be competitive. Peirce uses the
<br />term citistate to refer to a region centered on a major metropolitan area, and
<br />observes that a citistate is important because it is the unit of economic
<br />organization where many ofthe most essential economic decisions are made:
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<br />The inescapable oneness of each citistate covers a breathtaking range.
<br />Environmental protection, economic promotion, workforce preparedness,
<br />health care, social services, advanced scientific research and development,
<br />philanthropy-success or failure on anyone of those fronts ricochets
<br />among all the communities of a metropolitan region. No man, woman,
<br />family, or neighborhood is an island. There are compelling reasons why
<br />center cities, for example, need and depend on their suburbs, and equally
<br />compelling reasons why the suburbs need a healthy center city.
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<br />This argument, which is consistent with conventional regional economics
<br />(see, e.g., Hoover and Giarratani 1984), extends not just from center city to
<br />suburbs, but also from a metropolitan center to the surrounding non-
<br />metropolitan areas, and from a relatively small metropolitan center to the
<br />adjacent larger ones (Galston 1992). Decisions regarding the management of
<br />nonmetropolitan resources, such as the Upper Rio Grande Basin, will affect,
<br />not just the economic well-being of the residents of adjacent nonmetropolitan
<br />towns, such as Socorro, but also the well-being of the residents of nearby
<br />metropolitan centers, such as Albuquerque, and the well-being of distant
<br />regional centers, such as Phoenix. Insofar as the management ofthe Basin
<br />reinforces (undermines) the fundamental economic strength of the
<br />metropolitan centers, it will brighten (cloud) the overall economic outlook
<br />for all residents of the region.
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<br />The economy ofthe study area is highly concentrated in the area's four
<br />metropolitan centers: Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and EI Paso.
<br />Nearly all of the households, jobs, and economic activity in the study area
<br />occur within these four areas: the data in Table 2.1, for example, show that
<br />approximately 98 percent ofthe population in the study area resides in the
<br />counties that constitute the area's four metropolitan statistical areas
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