Quote Originally Posted by iheartthed View Post
The downside to huge organizations is that they become overly bureaucratic, and slow to respond to change... Sorta like what Detroit has been in recent history.
That was my sarcastic point. Name any organization that gets more efficient with greater size. Consolidation would work if you greatly diminished the role and scope of city government, however, when you expect it to provide every service under the sun, it's going to be a nightmare dealing with a bureaucracy of that magnitude.

Check out how London operates. It's been growing steadily for centuries, absorbing neighboring suburbs and towns along the way. Now you have the greater city of London with a mayor and assembly, 30-odd boroughs with their own councils and the ancient city of London proper basically with it's own government. Some share services, some don't. Some share educational systems, some don't. Some services are coordinated city-wide, some aren't. There is the Greater London Authority, which oversees the whole city, the London Council Association, which coordinates the local boroughs, the Local Government Association, which coordinates with other cities outside of London, and the National Association of Local Councils that lobbies the national government on behalf of the local councils, also located in London.

All these organizations and councils came to being after a multiple *consolidations* of councils and groups. After 60 years of effort, this is as small as they can get it. Aside from a shared police department and transit, I'm not seeing a whole lot of waste elimination going on. You think having one city council is tough to deal with? Imagine having 30!