This special issue of Ecoso contains contributions to the debate on the report "Option for Effective City Government" prepared by the Melbourne City Council in 1992 in which the Council reveals a plan to establish a Central City Council with contracted boundaries (see Ecoso 2/21 "Democracy a loser to property vote"). Community groups have answered this threat in various ways. One of the most significant is the "Committee for Government Reform of Central Melbourne" which is convened by Angela Munro. Other contributions include reports by Maurie and Ruth Crow, one from Ecoso 2/10 (August 1975), and the second from the report "A Charter for a Central Region" published in 1966.