Consider what would happen if you and I were to buy one acre of land and divide it into 169 separate parcels and establish separate regulations for each parcel. That would be a terrible way to manage the land. But Connecticut differs from this example only in scale, not substance. The borders of Connecticut’s towns, most of which date to Colonial times, are an unworkable foundation for promotion and management of economic development. And while regional government would be better, we dismantled our counties in the 1960s, cementing the dysfunction.