Merged Urban Centers Examples
As we mentioned earlier, there are now and there will be in the future mergers and acquisitions that will change the list of the top 33 MSA’s. The Dallas Ft Worth area is a classic example of two urban centers that have merged to form One MSA.
NASA photo of the Dallas and Ft. Worth
Dallas and Ft Worth MSA Contiguous Overlay Zone Map and
NASA photo of the Dallas and Ft. Worth
The yellow outline is the approximate size of the state of Connecticut
The OMB has seen fit to merge the Dallas MSA with the Ft. Worth MSA to form one higher ranked MSA. The larger Dallas MSA gravitational pull has brought the smaller Ft. Worth MSA into its orbit and has increased its political, economic and social clout. As you can see, the City of Ft. Worth, which is a fully functional City in its own right has been completely consumed by the larger Dallas metro area. To use the biological analogy, this is an ameba with two fully functioning nuclei’s.
NASA Photo of Washington D.C and Baltimore at night.
MSA's of Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Another area that could be consolidated in the future is the Baltimore MSA and the Washington D.C. MSA. The maps above graphically show the special relationship and linkage of the Baltimore and Washington D.C. urban centers. It may be inevitable that the Washington D.C. and Baltimore MSA’s will eventually become one MSA entity. This could be the fate of the Baltimore MSA, unless it can maintain its own strong gravitation center relative to the Washington D.C. MSA.
If they remain separate MSA’s, then in addition to providing Baltimore with their own Senator, one of the major benefits of the Constitutional Amendment would be that Washington D.C. would also finally get their own Senator who would be a true voting member in the U.S. Senate.