In the zones

Masson's Blog continues to collect all the time-zone reaction from around the state (note especially the map in this post, which gives an easy-to-grasp picture of where we are right now). Except for the justifiable consternation over the possibility of St. Joseph and Elkhart counties being in different zones, most of the reaction seems to me to make too much of the issue, which has played about as well as a political process can.

For this to be easy, you'd have to make the case that Indiana should be either all Eastern or all Central. Given the state's position at the point where the two time zones come together, that's a tough case to make. Counties adjacent to bordering states are going to want to go with the zones in those states. Out to a certain point, counties adjacent to those bordering counties are going to want to fall in line (again, with the obvious and problematic exception of St. Joseph County). If you accept that two zones make sense, then somebody has to make the decision. No matter where the lines are drawn, or by whom, some people near those lines are going to be upset.

It would make sense for the governor just to declare we want the state to be one zone or the other, and ask the Department of Transportation to act accordlinngly, only if Indiana's interests were all that mattered. But time zones affect the whole country, so it's a legitimate federal issue along the lines of establishing a national currency. The DOT is making its judgment based on a sensible criterion -- patterns of economic activity -- and seeking local input to try to determine those patterns.

This may all be very messy, but it's federalism in action. Sometimes, it seems there's not actually a lot of that left.