The Citistates Group

The Citistates team is headed by writers Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson. Farley Peters, a veteran government activist, serves as business manager and speaking agent for the Citistates Group.

Photo Credit: Citistates Group Journalists Curtis Johnson (left) and Neal Peirce, are co-authors of the “New England: New Century - New Game” series.

Neal Peirce authored the 1976 book, The New England States, with a broad look at New England as a whole followed by chapters examining “people, politics and power” in each of the six states. He also wrote Over New England, companion to the New England Public Television program. He lives part of each year in New Hampshire and writes the country’s first nationally syndicated column focused on states and cities, distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group.

Curtis Johnson, with Peirce, co-authored the 1993 book: Citistates: How Urban America Can Prosper in a Competitive World. A former chief of staff to a Minnesota governor, Johnson served four years as board chair of the Twin Cities’ Metropolitan Council.

The Citistates team is the only group in the United States with a track record of preparing journalistic, region-wide-based series looking at current and future strategic issues for metro regions – or “citistates,” as they call them. Their reports have appeared in 23 major metropolitan dailies, among them the Arizona Republic, Seattle Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, and Miami Herald. Most recently, a major series based on their recent “Boston Unbound” report was printed in the Boston Globe last autumn.

The New England Futures Project

Based on close to 400 interviews and contacts across New England in the last three years, the New England Futures Project is represents a highly unusual -- apparently unprecedented -- journalistic effort to (1) assess critical challenges shared by a major region of the U.S., and (2) make the copy available to all interested media, with publication dates coordinated to provide a rolling multi-state debate on future choices.

The sponsoring Partnership for New England includes the Vermont-based Institute for Sustainable Communities (which will coordinate follow-up public debates across the region), the New England Council, the New England Initiative at UMass Lowell, Mt. Auburn Associates, the New England Association of Regional Councils, and the Orton Family Foundation. Financial backing comes from community foundations in all six states, the Bank of America Foundation and others. (Click here for full list of all those involved with the project).

For more information about the Citistates Group, please visit their website at www.citistates.com.