{Self-delusion is very attractive when the present is so unattractive. In a nearby – to me – Kentucky town that devolved, is has meant the self-destruction of many streets within the community as the county ends up not having the money either to maintain streets and small cars end up getting beat up and garbage and emergency services end because the roads are too bad. And drugs in the community – whew – no law enforcement to prevent a new market!}

 

But some in Cary say deorganizing is a way to give the community a new lease on life, not to abandon it.“I think it’s going to bring more people in,” said Kai Libby, 55, a retired Border Patrol agent who became the town’s first assessor last year to help shepherd the deorganization effort through the multistep process (and thus eliminate his own position).Mr. Libby and his wife, Tina, who led the withdrawal of Cary from its school district, live in the only house on their road, with four dogs and stacks of documents related to deorganization near their kitchen table.“There’s privacy, and it’s so quiet,” said Ms. Libby, 51. “We want to stay here. And to do that, it needs to be affordable for us to stay here.”

Source: In Maine, Local Control Is a Luxury Fewer Towns Can Afford – The New York Times