Regional Collapse We Keep Pretending Isn’t Happening

Something’s gone wrong in the way we structure governance; so wrong that it’s now normalized for elected leaders to turn to govern through coercion rather than consensus

So wrong that the people who actually build and sustain the economy (workers, founders, educators, families) are often the last ones consulted about how that economy is governed.

And that’s why I want to explore something with you, as you might be thinking, “what does this have to do with startups?” When policymakers refuse to work together, we all suffer. Entrepreneurs, you, perhaps, can help bring about change.

If you’re watching the events unfold in Texas, you’re watching the canary in the coal mine of American regional governance.

In July and August 2025, Austin’s city council (where I live) unveiled what’s being called a “nuclear option” to force passage of a tax rate increase: a plan to cut every general fund department equally if voters say no in November. Police, fire, EMS (critical services) threatened not for budgetary necessity, but to create pressure. Meanwhile, Texas state legislators, faced with a redistricting proposal likely to entrench one-party control for the next decade, once again fled the Capitol stalling the legislative session and igniting the same constitutional chaos we’ve seen before.

You’ll notice, please, I’m not picking on a party in name, and I won’t have that discussion with you; if you know what’s going on, appreciate that my goal here is for us to consider the implications of the actions of policy makers, and collectively encourage solutions.

That’s not just dysfunction. That’s evidence that the structures we’ve inherited no longer serve the ecosystems in which we’re operating. And that’s precisely why I do the work I do.

These Aren’t Isolated Incidents, They’re Symptoms

Just as I’ve recently explored how venture capital is a symptom, not a cause, public policy is important in innovation and entrepreneurship because lawmakers’ actions result in consequences. We all experience symptoms of their decisions.

It’s tempting to read Austin’s budget standoff or the Texas redistricting standoff in the Capitol as isolated dramas. They aren’t. They are exactly what you get when governance is built around jurisdictional control instead of ecosystem function. As you’re reading with me, in whatever city or country you find yourself, consider how what’s going on here are examples of and lessons for what might be happening in your part of the world. The redistricting fight isn’t just about party power, it’s about whose voices are counted, which communities are fractured, and what regions get locked out of influence for another generation. And when elected leaders abandon the Capitol to prevent a vote, they are signaling that the system has no legitimate resolution mechanism. That, too, is a structural flaw.

These systems no longer reflect how people live, work, move, or build. And the consequences aren’t theoretical; they’re in your tax bill, your broadband connection, your grants, your commute, and your civic resources.

The Real Policy Failure: Civic Fragmentation

What we’re seeing in Texas is what happens when cities grow more influential than the regional structures surrounding them (and when state legislatures become more performative than functional). Redistricting, like taxation, is now a performance art. We see this playing out on social media not just in Texas, but with California, Florida, and Federally; theatrics win elections, not governance. And the side effect is that the very people who power our economy (founders, employers, educators, families) have no consistent platform to align their regional interests.

Regional interest being of particular note, again in our case here, because economic development functions regionally, not locally, and entrepreneurship thrives well beyond the borders of a city. Without consistency in our platforms for conversation, connection, and decision making, we waffle and under-perform in driving the economy.

This is what civic fragmentation looks like in practice: a city punishes residents with flatline cuts to critical services while its neighbors watch helplessly; a legislature redraws districts to nullify influence while the representatives of those areas flee the state to protect some semblance of democratic integrity.

No amount of political will can fix that. You have to restructure how decisions get made.

Cities Aren’t Sovereign, They’re System Nodes

Ecosystems aren’t defined by zip codes. They are shaped by supply chains, school districts, commuting corridors, and capital flows. They exist in the real lives of the people who move between Pflugerville and Austin, between Bastrop and Buda, between South Dallas and downtown Fort Worth, every single day. But our governance models are still organized around arbitrary boundaries, where one side of the road might be represented, and the other cut out entirely.

Redistricting matters because of that. When legislative districts are gerrymandered to the point where functional ecosystems are divided by political borders, representation becomes a farce. That’s not democracy. It’s a denial of the ecosystem logic that actually underpins modern regions.

What Ecosystem Work Really Means

In my work, we don’t really advocate for cities though we’ll work with them. I don’t even advocate for startups in isolation. I advocate for ecosystems, the integrated platforms of talent, capital, policy, infrastructure, and culture that drive long-term prosperity. That requires recognizing one fundamental truth:

Cities are not self-contained. They’re operating systems embedded within larger systems.

And yet, we keep treating them like they’re kings of their own castle. As if decisions made inside city hall (or inside the Capitol) don’t ripple through every other town and industry nearby.

That’s why regional power structures need to evolve.

The Solution: Ecosystem-Level Governance, Outside the System

What needs to happen now isn’t another coalition or chamber task force. It’s the establishment of external civic operating systems, built not to win elections or chase incentives but to align the forces that actually move a region.

In many respects, this is already familiar, because we’re talking about something similar to Economic Development Zones or how Trade Associations address considerations regionally, beyond districts or city borders. How it might work:

• A multi-city civic platform of electeds, employers, educators, and organizers who operate outside of any single city’s jurisdiction but within the functional region it influences.
• A mechanism for shared fiscal influence, so that if a city threatens to cut services, the surrounding cities funding its talent, housing its workers, and educating its kids have a say in what gets cut and what doesn’t.
• A regional narrative infrastructure that challenges the manipulative storylines that fuel tax increases, political walkouts, and performative posturing.
• A policy leverage machine, not to lobby but to coordinate; ensuring that regional economic development, workforce, and innovation aren’t held hostage by dysfunctional politics.

Why This Must Be Built

Because if you don’t build it, this is what keeps happening:

• City councils threaten vital services not because they’re broke but because they lack the civic architecture to prioritize.
• Legislators redraw maps with surgical precision to eliminate accountability, and when challenged, the procedural response available is to leave the session.
• Tax hikes are floated while essential reforms (like franchise tax restructuring or land value shifts) go ignored because they don’t fit the campaign season.

And the startups you’re backing? The workforce you’re educating? The capital you’re deploying? All of it gets diluted by governance systems that are too fractured to function.

What Redistricting Teaches Us About Ecosystem Control

Let’s not kid ourselves: redistricting isn’t about geometry; it’s a shift of power. And when that power is abused, it shows how much of our civic infrastructure is built to suppress ecosystem function in favor of institutional control.

When lawmakers flee to prevent quorum, it isn’t just a political maneuver, it reveals a structural flaw that should concern everyone: when the procedural defense is to leave the room, the process of service and compromise-based governance is broken.

That’s not a solution. That’s a sign the system is breaking down.

Supporting Better Governance

If you’re working in economic development, venture capital, or civic leadership, stop playing defense. You cannot keep trying to fix cities from within the systems that are designed to exclude, fragment, and isolate. You must build around them.

And starting is simple, we don’t need to have everything solved; start with these questions:

Who are the five people, outside your city, who influence what happens inside it? Who’s organizing them?

If the answer is “no one,” your region is running without an operating system. And what we’re seeing in Austin, in the Texas Capitol, and across the state right now is exactly what happens when systems stall.

Governance today isn’t just a political issue, it’s an ecosystem imperative. If we’re not solving for that, we’re not solving anything.