New Jersey

Our sister town is South Orange. While there are two town councils, we share a municipal court system that was merged around 10 years ago.. Our fire departments were combined a few yers ago to form the South Essex fire department.

Our two towns are run by one Board of Ed. This is a substantial savings. We don't pay for two superintendents and their staff to sit drinking coffee in two heated or air conditioned buildings.

There are many "SOMA" signs around the towns to support the shared sense of community.

So why doesn't this happen more often? Well, let's take schools. How do we know that our neighbors in Millburn won't go about wanting us to pay for books like a biography of Harriet Tubman or books supporting lifestyles that Jesus wouldn't approve of? Or even worse, teaching about that stuff?

Fortunately, M/So are known to be two of the most supportive communities of gays and minorities in the nation. I now this because the NYT says so,

Also, there are a lot of people who would like the ego trip of being the mayor or a town council member.


Attend a few council meeting and get to work on this. It can be done.