Tor-Buff-Chester, meet Schengen
Richard Florida, the “Creative Class” guy, argues that Toronto is the heart of a new megalopolis (think Wash-NYC-Bos) that stretches west to London, ON, east to Quebec City, and south to Buffalo and Rochester. He argues that megalopolises are the real economic engines throughout the world.
One thing he mentions is bizarre to me - that Torontonians view their city as second-rate. I can tell you that Toronto is as world-class as a city can get, and Buffalonians are blessed to live so close to it. Even if you never go. Because with the strong Canadian dollar now, and our comparatively low sales taxes, Ontario plates have become ubiquitous throughout Western New York, but I haven’t crossed the border since early July.
The heart of Florida’s Globe & Mail article:
All of this convinces me that place, not statehood, is the central axis of our time and of our global economy. What it means for Toronto is simple: A mega-region needs to think and act like a mega-region, not like a bunch of separate cities with empty space between them. For instance, Tor-Buff-Chester needs regional investments in transportation – a real high-speed rail line between all the cities, for instance, and one that crosses borders. Mega-regions benefit from global hub airports like Toronto’s Pearson, New York’s JFK, Chicago’s O’Hare or London’s Heathrow. Direct flights from Pearson to Asia are a major plus for the entire mega-region. But the best way to get around one is not by plane or car but by fast rail. Europe has this one figured out.
Fixing the border problem will be key. As an American and frequent traveller to the States, I know that much of the problem is generated by Homeland Security paranoia of American authorities. But the mega-region needs to pro-actively figure this out. There’s lots of coverage of long lines of Torontonians trying to get to Buffalo to take advantage of the strong loonie. But huge amounts of trade go through those borders, and the ability of business travellers to get quickly from one destination to the next is critical to economic success of mega-regions. Tor-Buff-Chester needs fast, safe and efficient border crossings. It needs to be a priority to show the rest of North America how it can be done.
Both the Canadian and the US governments have been playing games with cross-border travel since 9/11. Certainly we need the borders to be protected, but let’s not kid ourselves. For every 60-minute delay at the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, there’s an unmanned border crossing between northern New York/New England and Quebec.
Florida hit the nail on the head with the high-speed rail idea. A MagLev or TGV type train traveling on a dedicated track at speeds of well over 150 MPH could whisk you from Buffalo to Toronto in less than an hour. Rochester’s high-speed ferry was a literal Failboat, but extension of high-speed rail means that Rochester is a little over an hour away. It’s currently about a 3-hour drive from ROC-YYZ, and about 2 hours from BUF-YYZ.
Either way, it’d be an easy commute, when you compare it to people who trudge two hours to Manhattan from places like Port Jervis or the Poconos.
The only thing, however, that would truly open up what Florida calls the Tor-Buff-Chester to joint development as a megalopolis would look a lot like the EU’s Schengen border regime.
Citizens of the EU do not have to submit to formal passport controls when crossing intra-EU borders. Instead, the member states executed a treaty whereby the border controls of the EU itself are harmonized and strengthened. Not only that, but member states are able to temporarily re-establish individual border controls when necessary, and their police powers are extended:
The agreement also includes consent to share information about people, via the Schengen Information System. This means that a potentially undesirable person cannot ‘disappear’ simply by moving from one participant country to another as each country will know the same about the person’s background. Previously, a criminal with police in hot pursuit would be safe once they managed to cross the border, but under the agreement, police from one nation can cross national borders to chase their target for up to 30 km (’hot pursuit’). The officers either have to wear their uniforms, or their vehicles have to be marked as police vehicles. The officers may only use their weapons for self-defence.
It’ll probably never happen because the political will in the US and Canada will probably never exist, but if the two governments could reach an agreement to ensure that all visitors to the US and Canada are subject to identical scrutiny, and that information about possible terrorists and other undesireables can be shared between the governments - i.e., Homeland Security and Immigration Canada work on the same playbook - we could allow for free movement between the two countries.
Until that happens, the megalopolis of the future - stretching from Lake Erie to the St Lawrence River - will have a barrier down its middle.
Florida also maintains a blog at the Globe & Mail, so you can comment here.
dougk Says:October 31st, 2007 at 9:07 am
“…officers may only use their weapons for self-defence”
vis-a-vis u.s. and canadian offices who discharge their weapons impulsively?
Bahama Cruise Blog » Tor-Buff-Chester, meet Schengen Says:October 31st, 2007 at 9:39 am
[…] Stuck In Customs wrote something that might interest you todayHere’s a brief breakdownBoth the Canadian and the US governments have been playing games with cross-border travel since 9/11. Certainly we need the borders to be… […]
mike hudson Says:October 31st, 2007 at 11:54 am
First-rate cities, like first-rate cars and people, are few and far between. New York is first-rate, L.A., not so much. The Torontonians, being more cosmopolitan and well traveled than most Americans, realize this and accept it. What often strikes me as bizzare is when deluded Buffalonians attempt to compare the cultural and economic backwater that is their city to second-rate places like Boston, or even to third-rate places like Cleveland or Pittsburgh. Perhaps once the Bills relocate to Toronto for good, the people here will become a bit more realistic in appraising their own tenth-rate metropolis.
Mike Miller Says:October 31st, 2007 at 11:55 am
Bashar Issa believes that Toronto will be a major factor in the rebirth of Buffalo. He’s banking on it!
Russell Says:October 31st, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Perhaps there was a time in the 90s when Cleveland was head and shoulders above Buffalo, but that is not the case now. Cleveland is third-rate and Buffalo is tenth-rate? Have you been there recently?
But I agree that this megalopolis idea is dead on. Even just finally building the second span of the Peace Bridge would make a difference. It’s long been understood that linkages between WNY and Toronto are the keys to this region’s future. Too bad so many people want to drag their feet or obstruct that linkage and that was going on well before 9/11.
Jay Says:October 31st, 2007 at 12:52 pm
The Bills testing the Mega-Region theory right now and I think they will have success.
Looking Buffalo, Toronto, and Rochester as a Mega-Region is forward-thinking and is just the kind of conversation we need to happen. Too often people look at the border as a barrier and at times customs can reinforce this perspective, but in reality both sides of the border could expand their businesses to untapped customer markets right across the river.
Jay Says:October 31st, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Not only the Bills but MRI offices, Roswell, and BNIA already act as if we are a Mega-Region.
NFReporterSuxAss Says:October 31st, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I love hearing Mike Hudson talk as if though he knows what a first rate city is. After all, Mike, if Buffalo is tenth rated, where would you rate Niagara Falls?
Buffalopundit Says:October 31st, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Shared border management, which the Bush Administration has rejected, is one of the keys to WNY’s future.
Not just in terms of obviating the need to destroy an entire Buffalo neighborhood, but in order to permit cross-border commuting and work in the USA and CDN. No system is perfect - not Schengen, not ours, not Canada’s. So, if we abandon the notion that we have to turn this country into a nigh-impenetrable fortress, this area would be so much better off.
Mike Says:October 31st, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Are the Bills realy a big draw? Eight games a year? I think cross border shopping (1 or 2 times a week) is the real draw. The bridge is another issue, would it really be faster? or would it just be a larger parking lot? We have 3 bridges here in the Falls and they only use 2 of them. Maybe if they would hire a few more border agents, that would help. How many times do you go across the border and most of the lines are from very few booth’s being open.
Hudson is you hate this area so much, why run a worthless paper here? Maybe its because you are a 10th rate hack.
Jay Says:October 31st, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Here here BP! Shared Border Management should be the only alternative for the Peace Bridge.
Mike In WNY Says:October 31st, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Bring the trooops home, eliminate the DHS, role back the passport requirements and institute free-trade with Canada. Problem solved.
N Says:October 31st, 2007 at 7:23 pm
There is free trade between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. Just not freedom of movement or freedom of labor.
Also, Pundit, it’s important to note that non-EU citizens do not have to present passports when traveling between Schengen countries either. Once you get into one, there is freedom of movement between all.
Mike In WNY Says:October 31st, 2007 at 9:42 pm
N, Nafta is not free trade. Under NAFTA billions of dollars are given to Mexico to prop up the peso. U.S. government connected businesses have benefited at the expense of small and medium sized businesses. NAFTA was perpetuated on the U.S. citizens using the “Big Lie” theory and actually constitutes an increase in governmental power over trade.
Mike from Grand Island Says:October 31st, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Nice to see everyone playing in the economic geography sandbox.
It’s painful to me that the US and Canada can’t create a common Schengen type zone. How cool would it be if it were called the Buffalo zone in our case? I’ve often thought to myself how crazy is it that France and Germany have open borders but we have roadblocks w Canada. What the hell has happened to our country?
And I love the high speed train concept but I think we need to connect Toronto with a larger center of population gravity than just B-lo to pay for it. Boston or New York, TO, Detroit, Chicago makes sense to me in that regard. After 9/11 it became pretty clear that the country needed an alternative to air travel and so the exec administration and their congressional ditto-heads naturally announced funding cuts (if not the elimination) for amtrak.
Russell Says:November 1st, 2007 at 7:12 am
We weren’t capitalizing on this when the troops were home, before DHS existed, under the old passport requirements, or before Bush came to office so you really can’t say they are the impediments today.
Mike from Grand Island Says:November 1st, 2007 at 11:35 am
The train is moving and we are standing on the platform Russ. The bar is being raised all the time [I need to add these to Chris Smith’s thread…]. The point is we are not even standing still while the world is moving - we are going backward to more parochialism and less open borders.
They were impediments before and they remain impediments today.
Russell Says:November 1st, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Everyone is moving towards less open borders. The trend in the 90s was for more open borders, but the trend for the past few years has been to constrict that a bit, even in the EU. Look at the border restrictions still in place for the newer members, for example. Also look at many failures to further integration of the Union, even among some of the staunchest supporters like Denmark and the Netherlands.
My point was and is that even while borders were opening further, even in this country, our region was not capitalizing on that. If we get to the root problems, we can better position ourselves. Bush and all those other things were not problems when the train left in the 90s so I don’t think it’s helping us much to say they’re the problems now.
Mike from Grand Island Says:November 1st, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Thanks Russ but the votes you talk about by the danes and dutch was for the EU constitution not about the borders per se. Apples and oranges (for c smith) but your point is well taken about recent xenophopic developments in the EU. Having given you your props let me say that America and Canada are no way near the level of integration seen in the EU. The EU has a common currency for goodness sake. I’m not saying the EU is a paradise either - there is subtle racism / classism there to. Anyplace with a monarchy (NL and DK) inherently is OK with some people being born better than others. My prior point above is that if France and Germany can have seamless borders after having faught the wars they have, not just last century but for millenia, than we are woefully falling behind. Moreover, the concept of a multilingual America is scary to most Americans - Dem and Rep. I gleen from your comment that integration is not just about borders — i agree w that too. But to say getting stopped for an hour at the border w the risk of getting your car torn apart is not a trade impediment is kind of silly. The guys who run the peace bridge will attest that cross border traffic should be way up given the exchange rate but isn’t — i was in the room when it was said. That my friend is a problem. Also, take a peak at UB geography’s website - they did a study of it and found that it has been negatively impacted. This isn’t WBEN — it’s the truth!
dave in Rocha Says:November 2nd, 2007 at 9:08 am
A high-speed train linking TO-Buff-Rocha would make me as happy as a little girl. It’s too bad there’s a distrustful attitude between Buffalo and Rocha, let alone along the border.
Mike from Grand Island Says:November 2nd, 2007 at 2:57 pm
It’s funny that B-Lo and Rocha “don’t trust each other” and Amherst doesn’t want light rail from Buffalo and we can’t have regionalized government but two old enemies like France and Germany can have no borders and high levels of integration.
We are not Buffalonians — we are Bosnians. This is a mental thing — Afraid of others.