Regional Collaboration

In today’s world, heft matters. The East Central Iowa region, when taken together, has significant assets and potential influence. It offers a substantial workforce and an excellent education system. However, there are some perceived gaps between rural and urban areas, and between the two anchor metropolitan centers of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Past efforts to build a cohesive regional approach have had some successes and challenges.

How important do you think it is to take a regional approach (spanning the urban corridor and surrounding rural counties), and how do we best overcome the challenges of collaboration?