As a service to the economic-development community, I have revised, updated, and relaunched this website’s accompanying database of metropolitan geography components. The tables in this database may be useful to economic geographers and economic developers, particularly those looking for a quick and ready reference to metropolitan areas they are not already familiar with. Some may find the tool useful for scoping out benchmarks or competitors, or for just getting a better handle on already-familiar geographies and their components.

The database is simply a skeleton without actual demographic data, intended to exhibit the relationship among various federal geographies and taxonomies in a way that is not easily available on any single government website. The tables have now been updated with 2013 OMB metro area definitions and 2010 and later Census data files, and every “place” record now includes a Google Maps URL. ((I built these tables for my own use and reference, and make no warranties of any kind as to accuracy, completeness or suitability for any particular analytic purpose.)) Instructions including video screencasts are here. I hope some of my readers may find this database useful, and I welcome feedback using the contact form or in the comments. ((While not implying any endorsement by them, and retaining complete responsibility for any and all errors, I’d like to acknowledge encouragement and/or critical feedback I’ve had from: Martin Grueber of Battelle Memorial Institute’s Technology Partnership Practice; Dr. Joshua Drucker of the University of Illinois at Chicago; Dr. Kent Gardner of CGR; Kevin Jack of the NYS Department of Labor; and Dr. Dror Etzion of McGill University.))

I am pleased to announce announce three new business and professional affiliations:

• I have joined the board of directors of ITAC, the Industrial & Technology Assistance Corp. ITAC is a long-standing nonprofit consultancy aimed at helping small and mid-sized manufacturing and technology companies grow and thrive as contributors to a vital NYC economy. It is a node on the federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership network and a Regional Technology Development Center funded by the State of New York. This puts it at the heart of several rapidly accelerating trends such as cleantech and the “maker” movement. The president of ITAC is Sara Garretson, one of the City’s clearest and deepest thinkers about technology-based economic development.
• I am now affiliated as an independent consultant with Public Works Partners, a new management consultancy formed as a merger of two practices with which I have previously worked. Public Works Partners does projects in strategic planning, program design and implementation, process redesign, performance improvement, and financial management for government agencies, institutions of higher education, community-based non-profits, and business corporations. Its principals are (alphabetically) Mark Foggin, Celeste Frye and Scott Zucker, three exceptionally energetic, focused and effective consultants with long experience in and around NYC government and the private sector.
• While I am not primarily a business-development consultant, I do occasionally mentor and advise startups that I find unusually interesting. One such firm I am now advising is Calcbench, a new venture that aims to derive and vend valuable insights from “open data” on public companies made available in XBRL format from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The data challenge is significant, and the backgrounds of principals Pranav Ghai and Alex Rapp — both with deep technical talents and practical experience in the financial sector — strike me as perfectly suited to the task. I have been honored to refer them directly and indirectly to sources of potential financing and partnership, and to render some inside commentary. Keep your eye on these folks, and if you’re interested in finance, sign up at Calcbench for what is (not for long) a free account.

Public Works Partners and Calcbench both maintain blogs (here and here), ITAC can sign you up for emails here, and all three have Twitter accounts (here, here and here).