[3rd&Brown]

Easton, Allentown, and Bethlehem are becoming a center of locus in their own right. It has the potential to be a super dynamic satellite region of Philadelphia (and New York).

I did wish that there was a bit more centralized organization to provide the region with a strategic focus, sort of how we have the PIDC, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the University City Science Center. If there were a few more major corporate relocations to the region from North Jersey and a strategic entrepreneurial alliance between some quasi public foundations and say, Lehigh (University), Lafayette College, Moravian, and DeSales, it could really take off.

My only hope is that there is enough momentum to pull areas further out, like Carbon and Schuykill Counties, into its regional orbit in order to provide more economic opportunity for a wider swath of the state. I think for sure we're already seeing it in southern Carbon County...but it remains to be seen how far it can go.

Does anyone know if there is a regional planning commission in the Lehigh Valley?