Peirce Report

The Peirce Report

Recognizing the burgeoning trends in our region, a 1999 study sponsored by the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies and published in the Tennessean was the impetus for the formation of Cumberland Region Tomorrow. The Peirce Report gathered a broad perspective on the region’s assets and challenges, highlighting possible strategies available to deal with those challenges. A one-day Regional Planning Summit sponsored by Vanderbilt University and the Greater Nashville Regional Council was organized around issues raised by The Peirce Report. Local and national speakers spoke about the current state of the region and shared best practices from other regions faced with similar growth issues.

Taming the Sprawl
by Neal Peirce & Curtis Johnson
September 19, 1999

Just a century ago, St. Louis was busting its buttons with pride, riding the cutting edge of growth into a new century -- not unlike Nashville and the region around it today. That metropolis on the Mississippi was already an industrial and cultural colossus preparing for the world to come calling when it hosted its 1904 Exposition and Olympics. (click here to read the rest of the article)

Hurtling toward Atlanta's Fate
by Neal Peirce & Curtis Johnson
September 26, 1999

Middle Tennessee has been a strong runner in the great growth race of the '90s for key investments, higher paying jobs and signature companies. The region is poised to break out of the pack with a spectacular sprint into the 21st century. (click here to read the rest of the article)

Stepping up to Stop Sprawl
by Neal Peirce & Curtis Johnson
October 10, 1999

Some politicians, many highway engineers, would have you believe there's only one solution to the traffic nightmare that's now starting to seize the Nashville region: more roads. Others would suggest public transit's the only answer. Both are wrong. (click here to read the rest of the article)

Neal Peirce is a foremost writer among American journalists, on metropolitan regions including their political and economic dynamics, their emerging national and global roles. With Curtis Johnson, he has co-authored the Peirce Reports (now called Citistates Reports) on compelling issues of metropolitan futures for leading media in 25 regions across the nation. Reports of recent years include Boston Unbound, released in May 2004, a series for the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier, published serially in September and October 2007, and a series on the Charlotte Citistate for the Charlotte Observer and other papers of that region (a reprise of the authors’ 1995 Charlotte region report, published in autumn 2008).

Peirce is also a principal author of a major report and forward look at global urban challenges, Century of the City: No Time To Lose, based on the Rockefeller Foundation’s 2007 Global Urban Summit in Bellagio, Italy. He has since spoken in the United States and Europe on its themes and implications.