Change in the wind ? City and County Merger inches closer (Philadelphia: school districts, university)

[RockLobster]

Thank you Mark DeSantis for bringing the benefits of City and County merging to the forefront during the past mayoral campaign. With a study of city and county cooperation in merging done by the University of Pittsburgh complete, Mayor Luke now agrees with the idea of bringing both government entities together. Republican mayoral DeSantis has been a strong supporter of merging the city with the county. Now mayor Luke's eye's have been opened with the results of the report.
The report done by PITT is available @ http://www.pitt.edu/news/citycountyreport.pdf

[gameguy56]

I like DeSantis. The guy is smart and seems to really care about Pittsburgh

[BrianTH]

As the report notes, it would be very helpful for the city and county to enter some sort of formal agreement, and ideal for the proposition to be put to the voters in some way.

Incidentally, I am one of those people who also think the region suffers from way too many other municipalities and school districts, but as the report noted, addressing that issue was not part of their mandate. Still, my ideal proposition for the voters would go beyond just Pittsburgh in terms of municipalities.

[Geeo]

Finally some movement on this. OK, the studies are all done (and have been for years), everybody knows it's the right thing to do, and there seems to be a will to start the process. Now the parochial politicians will start weighing in and the small town mayors and others who want to retain control of their fiefdoms will say that things are fine just the way they are. Hate to be pessimistic, but that's the usual playbook that hinders progress around here.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Geeo

Finally some movement on this. OK, the studies are all done (and have been for years), everybody knows it's the right thing to do, and there seems to be a will to start the process. Now the parochial politicians will start weighing in and the small town mayors and others who want to retain control of their fiefdoms will say that things are fine just the way they are. Hate to be pessimistic, but that's the usual playbook that hinders progress around here.

That's part of why I think getting this before the voters is crucial--it would make anyone who tries to stand in the way look like they were trying to thwart the will of the people.

[kpoeppel]

Let the mad-dash of people to Butler and Washington counties commence!

Anybody remember what happened to the Philadelphia city/county merger?

[Geeo]

Many of the growing cities have this form of government: Charlotte, Louisville, Minneapolis/St. Paul (to an extent), Miami/Dade, Indianapolis, and a few others. It will probably be a gradual process to gain economies of scale, but it would go a long way in demonstating that we've left the past behind and are ready to move ahead.

[gameguy56]

Originally Posted by kpoeppel

Let the mad-dash of people to Butler and Washington counties commence!

Anybody remember what happened to the Philadelphia city/county merger?

You mean in 1855?

[BrianTH]

Also Denver, Honolulu, San Francisco, and New York. And Boston until 1999, when Massachusetts began abolishing counties.

[kpoeppel]

Originally Posted by gameguy56

You mean in 1855?

No, I mean in 1952.

http://www.alleghenyinstitute.org/briefs/pitttest0407.pdf (broken link)