From 1987 to 2007, Neal Peirce authored a series of impactful assessments of the civic, economic, and social health of more than two dozen metropolitan regions across the United States. These were called “Peirce Reports,” and later “Citistates Reports.”
These reports almost always represented a collaboraiton of three parties. There was Neal and his close colleague Curtis Johnson, along with a team of journalists they would assemble to interview dozens of local government, business, and civic leaders and write up their findings. A local foundation or business group would often sponsor them to come to town and do the work. And a major local newspaper would publish the articles, usually in its Sunday edition, and sometimes over a month of Sundays. Peirce Reports got noticed. And because they could be blunt about a region’s strengths and weaknesses, they would often spark a robust regional dialogue about what to do next.
The Phoenix area was the first metro area covered by a Peirce Report, in 1987. (See a PDF of it here or a plain-text version here.) The report provoked local leaders at the time to create the “Phoenix Futures Forum,” a wide-ranging effort to engage residents about the region’s goals for the future.
38 years later, the business group Greater Phoenix Leadership asked the Neal Peirce Foundation to look back at what had changed since the Peirce Report and take stock of the region’s future challenges and opportunities. That report, “Peirce Report, Revisited: Greater Phoenix Grows Up,” is here. Organizations interested in collaborating with the Neal Peirce Foundation on similar projects can contact us at peircefoundation@gmail.com.
The Neal Peirce Foundation aims to pull all of the Peirce Reports into an archive here. Check back soon for updates!
Baltimore (1991)
Boston
Boulder (1995)
Charleston (2007)
Charlotte (1995)
Dallas (1991)
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Lexington
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale
Nashville
Nebraska
Owensboro, Kentucky (1992)
Philadelphia (1995)
Phoenix (1987) (PDF / plain-text)
Raleigh (1993)
Reading
St. Louis
St. Paul
San Antonio (2001)
San Diego
Seattle (1989)
Spokane (1994)
New England