Posted on 06/28/2005 6:23:55 PM PDT by calcowgirl
Regionalism - dealing with public policy issues on a level that goes beyond city or county boundaries but is smaller than the state as a whole - gained an official toehold in the 1960s and 1970s with the reorganization of major state agencies along regional lines and the creation of multi-jurisdictional umbrella organizations ...
(snip)
Regional "councils of governments" that had hitherto been mere gatherers of information and debating forums began exerting some real influence, especially in the transportation field and thus indirectly on land use patterns. As they did, local politicians began jockeying for influence within those COGs, as they were dubbed. As the multi-county Sacramento Area Council of Governments began exerting more authority on land use and transportation issues, for example, fast-growing suburban communities began demanding more seats on the SACOG board, diluting the dominance of Sacramento's city and county governments.
State government's political sclerosis is, if anything, becoming more acute. And given the astonishing breadth of California's cultural, economic, political and geographic diversity, perhaps it's impossible for state-level policymaking to flourish again. But ad hoc regionalism appears to be gaining strength, and two events last Friday indicate that the state's most productive role may be to foster that regionalism, rather than even attempt to address major policy issues on its own.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made both announcements - that he had signed an executive order creating a state partnership with the San Joaquin Valley to plan for the future of that long-neglected region, and that he and San Francisco Bay Area politicians had settled a lengthy stalemate on financing seismic improvements to the Bay Bridge and other spans.
(snip)
Regionalism has its potential downside, diminishing an already battered sense of statewide community. But it may offer California its only realistic hope for restoring effective governance ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Walters showing his true colors.
Regionalism has a downside - no kidding, it runs directly contrary to the state consititution. Has the (regional) Coastal Commission worked out - HELL NO! We sure don't need more of the same.
May I suggest something you'd never think of... Conservatism?
Just think more little Caltrans projects...planting on-ramps while ignoring potholes.
This is right out of the FDR/Eleanor Roosevelt-WJC/Hitlery Clinton handbook for Gore's "Re-inventing Gubermint manefesto!!!"
This is about the biggest pantload he's manifested yet!!!
This has been repeatedly proven to Dan and everyone else that it's impossible to dilute said dominance!!! They have the bucks and the ballots and "Cows Don't Vote" decision on their side. The rest of us rural-sexuals can't even afford to buy an even break from those billious arrogant bastids!!!
He has written countless times about the perversions of prop 13 and "the fiscalization of landuse policy!" I keep thinking there might be a possiblity of some "redeeming social value" in his essays and then he does this baffling bull chit!!! Inexcusable!!!
Sometimes Walters gets it right. Most often, I think he's hoping for Utopia.
Regionalism equals regional fascism.
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