To the extent they ponder Reno at all, Bay Area residents might know the first big city beyond Lake Tahoe as a onetime gambling mecca where median home values have fallen 57 percent since 2005. A new planning study defines it another way: as the far edge of the "Sierra Pacific Megapolitan Area" that begins at the Golden Gate and encompasses 27 counties and 12.4 million people. Initially, "we did think that maybe San Francisco to Reno was a bit of a stretch," conceded Arthur C. Nelson, who with Robert E. Lang is the author of "Megapolitan America: A New Vision for Understanding America's Metropolitan Geography." "But by 2040, the reach of economic networks will extend from San Francisco and Sacramento to Reno, and vice versa." The book, published by the American Planning Association, is an effort to get Americans thinking beyond traditional regional boundaries.
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