By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

A decade ago, the economist Thomas Friedman wrote “The World is Flat,” arguing that a more interconnected world had put everyone on the planet on an economic even playing field. While many do not believe that globalization has created equal opportunity, inarguably our region now competes for jobs and influence on a global scale. Much as we cherish the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry as sports fans, the reality is Greater Boston finds itself competing economically with Barcelona, Sao Paulo and Taipei just as much as it does with New York City. We are part of a high-stakes economic poker game, and to make sure we continue to play a strong hand, the cities of Somerville, Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Quincy and Braintree have formed the Greater Boston Regional Economic Compact to ensure we meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The Compact will initially target housing, transportation, sustainability and economic development. This is not a mere handshake deal where we all insist how much we like each other; we’ve put real skin in the game and committed ourselves to a level of regional problem solving unlike anything Greater Boston has seen since the buildout of the MBTA. The reason why is simple: we all recognize there are issues we cannot tackle alone. City leaders and their staffs will meet regularly to address these topics and each city will strive to contribute a portion of the funds needed to hire a full-time Regional Compact Coordinator to work on these regional issues as a shared employee of all member cities.

Part of why we’re so interdependent requires a quick local history and geography lesson. Boston proper is a small city (46.4 square miles of dry land and 655,884 residents) in the middle of a much larger region that comprises smaller cities and towns like Somerville. Metro Boston consists of 4.6 million residents. More than 85 percent of the people who make up the Boston region and drive its economy live outside of Boston. It’s a function of history, where we formed smaller municipalities that could do a better job of looking after our local interests. The model works great in many areas. Our schools, public works and public safety are much more responsive to our local needs.

Yet in other spots around the globe, a place like Somerville would be a section or borough of a larger city. The land mass of the six cities in the Regional Compact is 91 square miles, far short of places like Houston, Bangkok and London that span roughly 600 square miles, while world cities like Istanbul top out at roughly 2,000 square miles and Beijing at roughly 6,500 square miles. That affords them a degree of economic planning we cannot match as separate municipal entities. Viewed from a global perspective, Boston is really a conglomeration of many cities and towns. According to The Economist magazine, the Boston conglomerate ranks as one of the world’s 43 alpha cities. That puts us among the elite when it comes to attracting investment, businesses, talent and visitors. Our ability to maintain and further that economic success will necessitate that the contributing municipalities work together.

Housing is a perfect example of why we need to tackle challenges regionally. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council estimates Greater Boston needs to build 435,000 housing units by 2040 to meet demand, including 9,000 units in Somerville. Our SomerVision community plan calls for 6,000 new housing units by 2030 (though the data strongly supports that we should up this to 9,000), there is a movement afoot in Cambridge to build 8,500 units, and Mayor Walsh has called for creating 53,000 units in Boston. Yet the combined efforts of these three cities will make only a slight dent in the larger problem. The only way we’re going to build the housing we need as a region is if we can get all hands on deck to address the issue.

And we will need to make sure we have the transportation infrastructure necessary to support that housing growth. Companies strongly consider mobility when choosing where to locate and create jobs. It’s one of the reasons the Green Line Extension is such a critical project. To avoid crippling congestion on our roads when we reach our new housing target in Somerville, those new residents cannot be largely car-dependent. The same holds true in every other community that forms Greater Boston’s urban core. Easy, reliable public transportation is a necessity if we wish to move Boston’s workers to their jobs and our economy forward. It is critical to our future sustainability.

Likewise, we need to address the environmental impacts of population and economic growth. The cities involved in the Regional Compact have been working to tackle these issues individually, but we need to measure and address our environmental impact at the regional level. This is even more important given the international accords to reduce carbon emissions signed last week in Paris. To do our part and play a leading role in making our cities cleaner, healthier and more sustainable, we will need all the regional stakeholders at the table. Big initiatives like this extend well beyond our city limits—and individual budgets.

The Regional Compact marks an exciting new era for Greater Boston. Historically we fiercely guarded our parochial interests. Yet the 21st century will require a new level of cooperation. Our standards of living and economic prosperity are more intertwined than ever. In short, it’s simple: to address the biggest problems we collectively face, we need to work as a team.