f the five biggest U.S. metros were all countries, they’d be among the top 30 largest national economies in the world. The New York City metro area would be the 10th largest global economy, just ahead of Canada. The Los Angeles metro area would be 18th, just ahead of Turkey. Chicagoland would be 22nd. When you take that into consideration, it starts to make sense that U.S. cities could themselves contribute a lot toward global aims like the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).