I meant to reply to this post and never did.
Yes, on the surface, Philadelphia County presents a bad example. And it is a mess.
BUT.
There is an very wide difference in circumstances between Philadelphia County and Allegheny County. Moreover, there is a county in a much more similar position to that of Allegheny County and that is Duval County, Florida.
Philadelphia County is 143 square miles, the second smallest county by area in Pennsylvania. Meaning that it encompasses the urban core of the Philadelphia metro area and ONLY the urban core. It is severed from its suburbs and exurbs and even much of its industrial base by not only county lines, but by the State line.
Allegheny County is 745 square miles and already encompasses the urban core of Pittsburgh, virtually all its industrial base, its suburbs and several of its exurbs, in addition to rural areas.
With that said, lets go to the example of Duval County, Florida. Duval County was a patchwork of many cities and towns with Jacksonville at its center. It was disorganized. It was corrupt. Parochialism reigned supreme. Then the corruption exploded into a major scandal in the mid 1960’s. And for once, the Florida Legislature struck while the iron was hot. They passed legislation and a consolidation referendum was held, which was overwhelmingly approved. The consolidation became effective in 1968 and the consolidated City of Jacksonville and Duval County prospered since then, free of corruption and parochialism. The Jacksonville we know today would not have been possible without consolidation.
Duval County and the City of Jacksonville present the valid model for what Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh could become with consolidation.
The issues that hold back Philadelphia County are inapplicable to Allegheny County.
While consolidation in and of itself was not a magic bullet for Duval County, it opened the door for cohesive policies that turned Jacksonville around.
I think that would be the case for Pittsburgh as well.
And I think it would be the case for many other areas, for example Orange County/Orlando, Hillsborough County/Tampa, Miami-Dade County/Miami.
I would note that Georgia, in the face of declining rural population, is looking at consolidating counties, reducing its total number of counties and in some cases forcibly merging them with municipalities. Dwindling rural populations may force some political hands.