Re-mixing city vs. re-mixing the cities: interactive cities, zipped regions and regional coalition model. The case of Orange County as a successful illustration of regional coalition model

Social and urban stratification can pose a serious threat on attracting the masses into urban spaces, hence onsustainable existence of urban fabrics. This can further develop into possible safety and security risks ontheir dwellers and users. It may happen directly or indirectly by intensifying the visible or invisibleboundaries between the cities and their outskirts, as well as those between the districts, boroughs, andneighborhoods within the cities. This is because those intensified boundaries physically restrict futuredevelopments and predispose them to failure even before gestation.Traditionally authorities in larger cities have learned to deploy ‘inclusiveness' so that the development planscan be carried out under a larger yet more unified umbrella of planning and managerial tasks. Quite thecontrary, the smaller cities in most cases cannot come into the same point of agreement to make a coalitionwork, due to decentralization prescriptions along with many other reasons e.g. limited human resources,budget and time.This paper aims to investigate Orange County in Southern California as one of the most successful regions inovercoming the aforementioned problem. The paper starts with an analytical history of demographic andgeographical changes in the region. Contemplating on potentials of the region, it will then discuss how theentire region has been shaped based on the coalition at the scale it was formed. Finally, it concludes with acoalition model for regional planning and suggests its application to the similar situations for acquiring arecord of success in regional developments.