The regions of the New York City metro area are all parts of the immense agglomeration that constitutes the most influential of world cities, each with a distinctive character of its own. Each region has different contributions to make and different roles to play. Each faces its own strengths and weaknesses, has its own distinctive style, and searches for its own opportunities both as part of the larger metropolis and within its own boundaries.

As a world city, New York can’t afford to ignore the Big Five tech firms — Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook. With a combined market value of about $4.2 trillion, these five goliaths account for more than twelve percent of the dollars in the United States stock market. What they do and where they do it involves the whole society and is very important in the world economy.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey seems to be having cold feet in regard to construction of a $40-million, 20,000-square-foot terminal addition to house a permanent federal inspection station for processing international passengers at Stewart International Airport.