I'm guessing governance is an issue at almost any scale. You hear of painful HOAs, of strata corporations (our equivalent), councils/towns, cities, etc. Where I

I'm guessing governance is an issue at almost any scale. You hear of painful HOAs, of strata corporations (our equivalent), councils/towns, cities, etc. Where I live (in Australia) there are constant issues with council staff running up legal bills (at taxpayer expense) over petty personality squabbles (e.g., someone said something abuse at a meeting and started a multi-year drama). It's idiotic, and seems to happen in more councils than not. My argument against the GP comment would be that regional areas would surely have the same problems of maintenance, just without the efficiencies of density. Maintaining longer roads, pipes and cables, still dealing with bridges, etc. Surely part of the solution is working out what level of 'polish' you want in your area (paved road vs gravel, as one example) and deciding honestly what scale of funding will pay for it now and in the future? The quality of roads, footpaths and services in my suburb are generally very good. My council rates (AU$2900/yr) scale with the valuation of my property. Concessions for pensioners, but no rate pausing or whatever some parts of the US have. Separately, we have a fuel excise (40-50c per litre of fuel) which is used to fund federal road projects. Obviously that has a limited shelf life with a shift to EVs and has already been in decline through the fuel efficiency of modern cars.