.... The community is not the center of the megalopolis, as it was when the megalopolis was just a small city, but I'd still say the community centers on itself, which is all that really matters.

Entertain, if you will, the analogy of Falls Church, Virginia. Ted White has lived there most of his life, Ben Zuhl is currently living there, I've lived there, as has Dan Steffan and John D. Berry, but that's not what I'm driving at. Falls Church is a small city bounded on both sides by two county governments--Arlington and Fairfax. Falls Church has its own city hall, government, school system, fire department, police department, TV cable system--in fact, it provides for and taxes its residents in precisely the same way that Arlington and Fairfax County does for theirs.

Now, the residents of Falls Church know where their little city begins and ends. It's not all that hard to make the distinction. Route 7, which is called Leesburg Pike in both Arlington and Fairfax Counties, is the main east-west street, but in Falls Church it is called E. Broad Street and W. Broad Street. Route 28, Lee Highway in Arlington and Fairfax, is the north-south divider, and in Falls Church is known as N. Washington Street and S. Washington Street. Amusingly, on one of the borders of the city of Falls Church, the east side of S. Washington Street is in Falls Church but the west side is in Fairfax County (and so is called Lee Highway); adding to the confusion, the number system is different, so 612 S. Washington Street is opposite 7139 Lee Highway. But I digress.

My point is that it is possible to drive through Falls Church without realizing where the city begins and ends. Arlington and Fairfax County, which surround it, have little neighborhood communities near it that are practically indistinguishable--from Pimmet Hills to Seven Corners to Culmore to Bailey's Crossroads--and, as far as the Post Office is concerned, they are almost indistinguishable as well.

Now here, at last, comes the analogy. The "real" city of Falls Church is within the zip code 22046. But several of those nearby County communities are also considered "Falls Church" for mail delivery; businesses in Pimmet Hills and the others named above advertise that they are in Falls Church, rather than either Arlington or Fairfax County. But they're in different zip codes--22044 and 22042--and they get and pay for all of their community services in one of the two Counties.

So, unless you're paying strict attention to the name of the street you are on, you may not be aware of it when you come into the real Falls Church. In fact, as you approach the real Falls Church, you run into a couple of communities that feel they are "close enough" to the real Falls Church to call themselves Falls Church, for all that they are aware that they are really in Arlington or Fairfax.

More to the point, the residents of the real Falls Church know all about these distinctions. And they, too, know where they live--and are not in the least distracted by those who've built up around them but don't pay their taxes to the city.

--rich brown