If they're in the international game, it's the regional platform that launches everything they do. Environmentalists, who often ignored regional issues in their single-minded focus on such issues as air and water quality, or toxic wastes, have in recent years begun to embrace the sprawl issue, with its focus on the shared land use issues of regions. Builders of modern Internet connections are identifying the region too. Geography is still vital. Cities, Fearey noted, are too small to suffice as full-purpose electronic platforms.
States are too large, too distant from the focus of local needs.
Regions or citistates are the right size. A low-voltage Citizens Forum created in the 1980s for Charlotte and surrounding Mecklenburg County has been expanded dramatically to 14 counties in both North and South Carolina. The territory is so large that computer linkages are being used to keep members in touch. Other new leagues have recently emerged in such cities as Cincinnati, Oklahoma City and Mobile. Citizens leagues, Dodge notes, fill the gap and let people talk about solutions that encompass entire citistate areas.