Here's a pretty remarkable statistic - nearly half of Indiana's well-educated population lives along a corridor that stretches across eight counties anchored by Tippecanoe County to the north and Monroe County to the south. This is the subject of a PCRD publication called Indiana's Knowledge Corridor (available here) written by Purdue Economist Brigitte Waldorf. The report has some specific recommendations for leveraging this asset:
The growth and increasing concentration of the highly educated population in the knowledge corridor provides an opportunity for unprecedented economic growth and a boost to Indiana’s ability to compete in the global knowledge economy. To facilitate further growth, the report recommends assigning special status to the knowledge corridor as a coherent regional entity, aggressive marketing of the corridor’s locational advantages, and support for improved transportation infrastructure.
OK, what now? How do leaders in Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Monroe, and Tippecanoe Counties come together to figure out how to leverage this asset? How can we get the "Indiana Knowledge Corridor" to become the next Research Triangle or Silicon Valley?
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