Panethos<p><strong>Abutting cities that really should merge</strong></p><p>In these days of tight budgets, regional competition, and occasional regional cooperation, it seems appropriate that some adjoining cities should seriously consider merging. Being codependent whether they want to admit that or not, merging can give these separate cities more prestige and power as a unified force. </p><p>For example, merging Lafayette and West Lafayette, Indiana would instantly create the third most populous city in the State of Indiana. While right now the area only has direct flights to Chicago O’Hare, as the third most populous city, Greater Lafayette could potentially attract flights to other Midwest hubs like Detroit and St. Louis. In other cases, a larger population can be attractive to businesses considering a local expansion or relocation to the area.</p><p>Largest cities in Indiana in 2025 per <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/indiana" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">World Population Review</a>:</p><ol><li>Indianapolis = 874,037</li></ol><p>2. Fort Wayne = 273,736</p><p>3. Greater Lafayette (if Lafayette and West Lafayette merged) = 116,510</p><p>4. Evansville = 113,971</p><p>Lansing and East Lansing would also jump into third place in Michigan if they merged giving the area more economic and political clout. Bloomington-Normal would become the sixth largest in Illinois just ahead of Peoria-East Peoria in seventh if they were combined. In Colorado, Pueblo would leap from 10th to 7th place in the state if it and Pueblo West were unified. </p><p>Merging is something the communities listed below along with their citizens, civic and political leaders, as well as chambers of commerce should seriously consider. There are likely many other examples across the country. The easiest cases could potentially be those cities where one of the two does not have a strong and distinct central business district nor a long history as an independent community – Pueblo West, Prescott Valley, and Spokane Valleys being three examples from the list below.</p><p>Food for thought for those who feel streamlining government and services is beneficial and for those who advocate for their community to become a state, regional, or national leader. Whether political turf battles would allow such steps to ever happen is the great unknown. </p><p>Peace!</p><p>——-</p> Source: maps.google.com <p>Lafayette-West Lafayette, Indiana into<strong> Greater Lafayette</strong> </p><p>Lansing-East Lansing, Michigan into <strong>Greater Lansing</strong> </p><p>Bloomington-Normal, Illinois into <strong>Greater Bloomington</strong></p><p>Pueblo-Pueblo West, Colorado into solely <strong>Pueblo</strong></p><p>Prescott-Prescott Valley, Arizona into <strong>Greater Prescott</strong></p><p>Spokane-Spokane Valley, Washington into solely <strong>Spokane</strong></p><p>Tuscaloosa-Northport, Alabama into solely <strong>Tuscaloosa</strong></p><p>Little Rock-North Little Rock, Arkansas into solely <strong>Little Rock</strong></p><p>Peoria-East Peoria, Illinois into solely <strong>Peoria</strong></p><p>Las Vegas-North Las Vegas, Nevada into solely <strong>Las Vegas</strong></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/cities/" target="_blank">#cities</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/civics/" target="_blank">#civics</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/geography/" target="_blank">#geography</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/government/" target="_blank">#government</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/history/" target="_blank">#history</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/land-use/" target="_blank">#landUse</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/mergers/" target="_blank">#mergers</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/planning/" target="_blank">#planning</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://panethos.wordpress.com/tag/politics/" target="_blank">#politics</a></p>