Best regional/metro government in North America? (schools, live)

[Folks3000]

By regional here I mean metropolitan government. Think the Met Council in Minneapolis, Metro Council in Portland, the Uni-city of Toronto, Metro Vancouver, etc.

Here is a little explainer on Metropolitan Governance:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y9sfehajwc...nance.pdf?dl=0

I'd like to get this group's feedback on what you think are the bad/good/best metropolitan governments in North America and why? What works well, what doesn't work well? What would you change about yours (for those who live under one)? If you don't, do you think it could be a good idea, what aspects of it are positive/negative?

[CXT2000]

I can tell you a bad one is Montreal (coming from someone working in municipal politics there). Not only do you have a mayor, but you have borough mayors and demerged city mayors, and then governance for the agglomeration of Montreal, and then one for the metropolitan area. I hate it, I'm a firm believer in a one island, one city and moving Montreal towards a NYC model of 5 borough for the whole metro. I've always proposed this so it makes everything more efficient and centralised but nope, they prefer a bloated and decentralised government that is way too large for the city size.

[missionhill]

Best/most effective I don't know. My impression is that it's not very advanced in most parts of US. Canada more so. In the US there's too much city-suburb tension around class and race for localities to join together in a metro government. New York consolidated its in-state metro back in 1898 but the metro has grown hugely since then and there's no metropolitan / regional governance apparatus covering that territory. Like other places there's regional transportation-- commuter railroads managed by the states of NY and NJ. The Regional Plan Association is a civic/business sponsored group that advises and advocates but has no teeth. There was a Tri-State Regional Planning Commission in the 1970s and early '80s but it dissolved around then. Boston has a similar organization to Regional Plan, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Boston area has regional water and sewer and metropolitan park and transit systems run by the state, but each of the ~100 municipalities provides its own police, fire protection, library, schools, public works, etc. Same in Hartford Connecticut but with a weaker central city relative to Boston the unequal distribution of resources across municipal boundaries seems more acute. Washington DC area has very strong regional transit in Metro and the strong county governments there provide a measure of regional governance that you don't have farther north. I always hear about "Miami-Dade County" as if that were a political thing. Maybe it is. I've heard Indianapolis consolidated with its suburbs. I've heard Twin Cities have a very strong park district. Cook County Forest Preserve is another strong regional park district.