Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Giant cities and metropolitan communities have unique structural, cultural, political, and governing and management features. They are organized into substructures or districts with various degrees of local autonomy and administration, yet, their governance systems may also be mixed or unitary, or a hybrid. Sustainability has become the most pressing challenge facing all such giant cities. Yet, giant cities offer tremendous opportunities for labor migrations, capital inflow, structural arrangements in finance, transportation, innovations in technology, intellectual capacities as educational institutions grow in size and quality, and they attract among the best and brightest into cities. How governance and administration systems are sustained with innovation, service delivery, economic development and so on depends on how the giant cities and metropolitan communities map out their long strategic and short term approaches in governance and management. This paper covers these issues and suggests a new strategy of embracing the One Belt and One Road initiative China has started with multi-trillion dollar investments that would bring economic developments to all continents of the world without losses to any sectors in those areas. The One Belt, One Road strategy is based on the two legs of ancient Silk Road and the Modern Maritime project reaching and enhancing virtually the entire globe. Five major giant cities are discussed in this paper---Tehran, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, and New York City.