There's an increasing trend where the region becomes more important as geographic scale to solve problems. I think it is a good trend: many problems affect areas that don't correlate to the state or county level. The focus is on the stakeholders and on the problems instead of on the arbitrary borders of government. When cities work together, they can work together instead of each city doing its own good and nothing else. Often the entire area benefits. The only problem is the policy makers: it requires more work and effort to work together and there isn't an easy way of doing this. Where do you draw the line, who do you involve? What do you want to solve, who's paying? These are challenges to be tackled, with apathy and egocentrism as an enemy.