And as Wal-Mart continues to expand, other cities may well pass similar big-box laws.

ECONOMIST: Wal-Mart and the Big Apple

Pass them and free the cities and towns to manage their own budgets.

FORBES: Et Tu, Chafee, Mi Fili?

The NBA has committed teams to several midsize cities the other leagues pass over, such as San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Orlando and Sacramento.

WSJ: Seattle and Sacramento Have a Tug of War Over the NBA's Kings

If however, we look pass the collapsed buildings and the tent cities we will see that the quake also left behind an opportunity.

FORBES: Haiti's Second Revolution

As we venture down the extraordinary Icefields Parkway in vans with our super-active, super-attentive guides, Dani Houston, Felicia Perricelli and Andrea McLeod, (pluck is their natural personality) the huge cascading walls of rock we pass look to have the remains of ancient mountain top cities.

FORBES: Canada's Magnificent And Priceless Water Supply

At the eight or nine security checkpoints through which you pass on the road from Erbil to Sulaymaniyah, the two main cities of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, as international documents officially call it, you never spot the name of Iraq on a military or police badge.

ECONOMIST: Iraqi Kurdistan