It is not a snob thing, not a city-versus-country dispute. But urban areas of North Carolina, and there are more and more of them, do have special interests that they have to make clear to members of the General Assembly, many of whom are from smaller, less-populous places.

As mayor of Raleigh, Nancy McFarlane knows well those problems. There’s traffic congestion from the suburbs into town; with that come pollution problems and safety issues. There are zoning problems, and there are those in the General Assembly who want to permanently limit annexation and further curb the regulation of the billboard industry by taking away local control over some billboard placements, etc.

McFarlane is good choice of the mayors to represent their interests as head of the N.C. Metro Mayors Coalition, which will look out for the state’s cities on Jones Street. This need not be a series of confrontations.

In almost every region of the state, there is more urbanization, and that’s going to continue given the desire of new business to build near traffic corridors and airports. The cities’ interests should be the state’s interests.