Consider the evolution of local community organization. In the early industrial town the workers commuted to work on foot. Consequently workers tended to live in close proximity of their workplace. With improving transportation and communication the organization of cities has tended to become much more spread out. First, the trolley and then, the commuter train allowed the more affluent to move out along the tracks. The spread of the automobile and telephone created the vast suburban sprawl of post WW II society.
Positive aspects: The current suburban sprawl has many desirable features.
Negative aspects: Nevertheless, this transportation-oriented form of local organization has many undesirable features. First, the transportation system must be built to handle the morning and evening rush hour traffic. As soon as the transportation system is improved developers rush to build to take advantage of the improvement. Soon congestion returns. Second, social organization based on travel for each household activity is extremely energy inefficient and leads to massive pollution. Finally, massive traffic flows in urban neighborhoods divides urban neighborhoods and leads to increased crime.
Currently, most metropolitan regions are composed of governments of various sizes. The fact of this variation and the fact that public goods can in varying degree be provided by private companies. For example, private garbage collection is recognized as being more efficient than public garbage collection provided the private collection is not a mob business. It is important to note that small government units provide most local public services through contracts with private firms and larger governmental units. For example, a small village might purchase police services from the county sheriffs department. The political economy of local public services is very complicated and in many respects resembles a market because dissatisfied customers ``vote with their feet'' if they move to a different governmental unit. Thus competition is a very important aspect of local public services because local governments are constantly trying to acquire business relocations based on good services and amenities and low cost(taxes).
Almost all of these governments are much larger than the neighborhood where people live. This raises a fundamental conflict between economic values and the values of local communities. Just because a business is legal, does not mean it is desired. An example is a massage parlor in a neighborhood with families with small children. Current organization places the economic freedom of the individual in direct conflict with communities values. Currently most neighborhood associations are in constant conflict with city hall over economic freedom versus the community issues. As long as transportation is very important for economic freedom, the promotion of the community is in conflict with economic freedom, especially if the community wants to restrict transportation.