ABSTRACT
Development opportunities were more prevalent on the fringe of metropolitan areas. Few citizens were willing to, or showed interest in, limiting or guiding land development patterns. Fragmentation frustrated efforts to generate metropolitan visions of a desirable future. More metropolitan governance capacity would be extremely helpful, fortunately some useful actions pertinent to climate change and oil depletion do not require creating new metropolitan governments. Metropolitan governance is a weak link in this network of collaborations. There are no directly elected general-purpose metropolitan governments in the United States. Metropolitan areas contained within one or two counties, such as San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Buffalo, can become effective at "metropolitan" government through county mechanisms. The federal government insists that metros coordinate their transportation planning through so-called metropolitan planning organizations. California does not have metropolitan governments, which complicates the setting of regional targets called for in its Global Warming Solutions Act.
