On 1/20/2017 3:09 PM, Jim Nichols wrote:
Glad to hear that Calif. is frugal, as well. The plastic stickers discolor fairly quickly. Perhaps Calif. doesn't
worry about county ID strips.
The importance of counties, politically, administratively and culturally, varies a great deal across the US. We had a
tour of the offices of Portland Co, ME. with a friend who was a county commissioner. I was amazed at how inconsequential
counties are there. They have courts and a jail and do other minor administrative things. Virtually all sub-state
government power is in townships. Unlike the West, virtually all land is in townships that are geographically much
larger than the towns in them. If a township doesn't like the county it is in, a referendum can move it to another one.
In Calif, counties are important, and some are huge, and/or have huge populations. They run courts, collect taxes and
apportion those due back to cities and provide all services for the large areas outside the incorporated cities within
them. I think that's a lot like the Midwest and South. But very few have any social/cultural significance. People speak
of Napa Valley, not the County. Lake County is about the only one that comes to mind as a reference. There are some sub
county differentiation; West Marin is a part of Marin County that is culturally and politically quite different than the
rest, for example.
Jut a couple of miles from us, you drive from Alameda County into Contra Costa County, but there's no sense of change or
difference, nor have I known anyone who seems to think there's any difference of note. There are other administrative
oddities about, as well. When you cross that line out of the City of Berkeley, you enter an unincorporated part of CC
County, but everyone calls it Kensington, and it doesn't rely on most county services. It has (is?) what it calls a
Service District, that has police and fire departments, maintains roads, etc. All it uses the County for is courts and
county jail.
Putting the county name on license plates here just wouldn't mean anything to
most folks.
Differentiated Moose
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What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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