This is Planet Money from NPR.

When we met Grant Goings a few months ago, he was holding a copy of the local newspaper

and he was so proud of the story on the front page.

It was about this new kind of municipal uber system in his town.

So for like a buck 50, you can call a come pick you up, take you to where you're going.

We're super excited.

Goings is a total wonderful civics nerd.

And for the past 15 years, he's been the city manager of Wilson, North Carolina.

The city of Wilson has a population of about 50,000 people.

Its downtown is full of these giant old brick warehouses that used to be filled with tobacco,

but now there's a microbrewery, a few barbecue restaurants.

The city has managed to transform itself into a manufacturing town.

They attracted bridge-shown tires and merc pharmaceuticals, but they were starting to worry about

keeping those businesses.

Because by the time Grant got to Wilson in the mid 2000s, the city had a problem.

It's internet.

They were hearing from businesses that the internet, not so great.

And maybe worse, they were also hearing from the little league parents.

Facilities would go down frequently and so someone would be halfway through Registry

to Kid, they would be some type of breaking service they'd have to start all over again.

Crashed little league registration in 2005.

I mean, come on.

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