On the Right Bank Written February 14, 2023   The Ohio River begins in western Pennsylvania.  Getting in your car to explore the river valley, you'd leave the city of Pittsburgh (gold) and follow PA 65 (red) along the northern shore headed downstream. Every 6800 feet on average, there's another boundary to cross.  You'd pass through the Allegheny County municipalities I've listed in the right column, then the Beaver County towns in the other column. That's 17 municipalities in only 22 miles!  On average, each of them is only 1.1 square miles in area and is home to just 2,618 residents. Ambridge Baden Conway Freedom East Rochester Rochester Bellevue Avalon Ben Avon Emsworth Kilbuck Glenfield Haysville Glen Osborne Sewickley Edgeworth Leetsdale   Haysville, the smallest of these riverfront towns, has only 81 residents and an area of 192 acres.  I'd estimate that only 32 acres are actually developed, leaving 100 acres as forest and 32 as water. Why are all those backwoods and a chunk of the river included as part of Haysville?  Pennsylvania law doesn't allow for unincorporated territory, so every square foot of land and water must be assigned to some municipality or other. However, state law does allow any municipality to terminate itself by merging with one or more neighbors.  That might seem like a good solution for struggling little towns.  So why couldn't that 17-entity string simply combine into one very skinny city — Right Bank, Pennsylvania, or perhaps Rive Droite — with a population of over 44,000? The geography would be very impractible, of course.  Also, Pennsylvania's most recent municipal consolidation was approved in 1997; it doesn't happen often. Why not?  Well, to take one example, Haysville doesn't want to vote itself out of existence.  After all, it has history, being named for the Captain John Hay who led a unit in the Mexican War and later built a hotel and spa on the hill.  There was once a railroad station.  The people of Haysville are reluctant to lose their identity and become mere Glenfielders! Here's a story from several years ago, when the population was only 78. Recently, I actually paid a visit to South Avenue. It turns out to be only wide enough for one car.  In some places there's room to pull over, but not when I was in the location indicated by the green arrow.  On my right was deep gravel, the "ballast" of the railroad tracks, and on my left was the steel wall of the industrial buildings. Fortunately an oncoming truck saw me approaching and stopped to wait for me, as indicated by the red arrow. All the folks in the neighboring towns likewise have their hometown pride, based on historic early settlements every mile or so along the river.  And in some cases, the personalities in the various governing bodies simply can't get along.  “Functional” consolidation is more commonly accomplished.  To realize economies of scale, most of these boroughs and townships have dissolved their tiny individual police forces and other departments, relying instead on the State Police or the county or the Quaker Valley Council of Governments. Nevertheless, Haysville's elite ten percent (all of whom are shown above) serve as council members and other borough officials.  They don't want to lose that status. And Pennsylvanians have always been attached to the idea of local representation.