Harrisburg/York/Lancaster (Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon: commute, metropolitan area, areas)

[Craziaskowboi]

Harrisburg is 25 miles from York, and York is 25 miles from Lancaster. Lancaster is 35 miles from Harrisburg. All three cities appear to be growing toward each other. Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York Counties combined have a population of 1,637,460. That's more than the metropolitan areas of Birmingham, Buffalo, Hartford, Jacksonville, Louisville, Memphis, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Providence, Richmond, Rochester and Salt Lake City. Those counties have a combined area of 3,922 square miles, and considering large portions of Cumberland and Perry Counties are thinly populated, all those people are packed into an area that's even smaller.

Add Adams County and the regional population is 1,738,867, passing the Virginia Beach/Norfolk metropolitan area, and coming within 20,000 of the Indianapolis metropolitan area. In other words, there's a lot of people in southeastern Pennsylvania outside the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Are there any regional collaborations between those three cities? If not, has anybody talked about them? It'd be a good way to gain clout at both the state and federal level. (NOTE: I didn't include Reading in the group of cities because it's increasingly in Philadelphia's orbit.)

[PreservationPioneer]

I visited York earlier this year, and was surprised how easy it was to drive from Harrisburg to York. I seem to remember it only took about 20 minutes, if that, and it was an easy commute. I also drove from York to Gettysburg, and that wasn't a bad drive, either (very pretty!).

[ki0eh]

//www.city-data.com/forum/harri...las-vegas.html

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

//www.city-data.com/forum/harri...las-vegas.html

I like the "Smart Market" moniker for the region. That's what I will call it from now on.

http://www.smartmarket.org/index.cfm

[ki0eh]

It might be better if a name had some geographic or cultural distinction. (Not "Susquehanna Valley" because the river is too long and other areas well up into NY state also try to use it.)

[pman]

Lancaster does not have a branding problem.