A Regional Partnership

For 50 years, local officials have been doing business at COG.

IT WAS 1957, and local officials from the Washington region had gathered to talk about common problems. First, though, they had to introduce themselves to each other. From that inauspicious beginning rose an important partnership among unlikely governments -- one that has helped to shape the capital region. The 50th anniversary of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments is occasion to celebrate its accomplishments, and to goad it to meet future challenges.

COG truly has come a long way from that day in April 1957 when leaders from the District of Columbia and its then largely rural surroundings exchanged names and wondered about their differences. Today, it is the only forum in which public officials from the District, Maryland and Virginia come together regularly to talk about complex regional issues. Its contributions in areas such as transportation and growth, water and air quality, and social issues have been immeasurable. Consider its leadership in pushing for the Metro subway and bus system or its wisdom in seeing the need for an airport at Dulles when doubters could see only farmland. COG pushed for home rule for the District, and it focused early attention on HIV-AIDS and homelessness.

There are, of course, limits to COG's effectiveness. No group representing 21 governments from two states and the District is going to be able to reach consensus all the time. Regionalism does, alas, give way to parochialism, but we shudder to think what kind of public discourse there would be without COG. The problems that confront the area demand the kind of forward-looking research, analysis and discussion that have been a hallmark of the council. In fact, COG officials are using the anniversary as a call to arms on issues that need addressing, both in the short term and over the next half-century. Among those are winning a dedicated revenue source for Metro, preserving open spaces, providing more affordable housing and developing a regional approach to climate change. That ambitiousness is yet another affirmation of the Council of Governments' importance to the area. May it have many happy returns.