In the Aug. 16 edition of The New Republic, Sarah Williams Goldhagen explores the causes of America’s collapsing physical infrastructure. (You can read the first paragraph here; then you have to subscribe.) She posits a number of causes, including the difficulty in a democracy of constructing large-scale public works without trampling on peoples’ rights, and the abdication of the federal government as a funding source. But the third point she raises should be of interest to anyone familiar with Ed Risse’s call for Fundamental Change in governance structures.
Goldhagen writes:
The country has undergone a structural transformation from city-suburb-exurb-farmland, a constellation that does not necessarily conflict with the tripartite local-state-federal structure of government, into metropolitan regions, a constellation that does conflict with that structure. We are stuck with the existing political, legal, and institutional structures of states (usually bigger than metropolitan areas), and municipalities (smaller and self interested) through which almost everything must be organized and funneled. Neither is the right kind of entity for managing a metropolitan region, but together they inevitably organize our thinking and, more important, our policy planning, which turns out to be too unfocused (in the case of states) or too hyper-focused (in the case of municipalities).
The recent creation of transportation authorities in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads partially addresses the issue here in Virginia. The authorities allow the state’s two most populous metropolitan areas to address their transportation needs on a regional basis
At this stage of development, however, there are two mega problems with the Virginia solution. First, regional transportation authorities have the power to raise taxes but are not accountable to the public in the same way that local governments are. Representatives are not elected directly, and the rules of open, transparent government do not necessarily apply.
Secondly, because transportation and land use decision making is so closely intertwined, it should be made at the same level of government. I know that the idea of transferring land use decisions from municipal to regional governments would strike some people as a horrifying prospect. Keep government close to the people, they would argue. (A valid point, I would add.) On the other hand, the munipical government boundaries we have now are artifacts of the 19th century, devised to serve a largely agrarian economy, not the economy dominated by sprawling metropolitan areas.
The writers of the Virginia constitution originally envisioned two types of municipality: cities to serve urban areas, which required a higher level of government services, and counties to serve rural areas. Cities were given more taxing power and legal authority, and counties less. As development spread beyond city boundaries, cities annexed the developed portions of their neighboring counties and extended urban infrastructure and services to them. The animating idea was that a single governmental entity would preside over a single urbanized area. For a variety of complex reasons, however, cities lost the right to annex. Thus, as urbanized areas grew, they came to encompass multiple jurisdictions.
The system we have today is not what the architects of Virginia’s system of local government intended. It is time for Fundamental Change in the institutions of governance. It is time to revise the Virginia Constitution. Virginia adopted a new constitution in 1971 to reflect the new realities of the Civil Rights revolution. Thirty-six years later, it’s time our system of local government reflect the realities of 21st century human settlement patterns.
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