No force comparable to globalization has emerged to sweep away old ways, inefficiencies in government or terms of social contract. There's a deep mismatch between the level of challenges and the way American society is organized, collectively, to deal with them. They are the real labor markets, the functioning economic communities, the commute-sheds, the environmental basins. And neighborhood, because they're where people live, where place and relationships matter more than politics.
Neighborhoods are the building blocks of a successful region.
Multinational corporations are showing less willingness to pay for the trappings of the nation state. A politics of austerity and social retrenchment pervades federal and state politics. Washington, struggling with its deep debt and seeking balanced budgets, has made discretionary spending its first target. And many of the local corporations which were once civic mainstays and funders have been absorbed by the multinationals. Regional and local leadership is more critical than ever.