Regionalism, a value more frequently honored hereabouts in the abstract than in practice, paid off in a nice honor for St. Louis last week: The St. Louis region was named as one of 10 “All America” cities by the National Civic League.

In that, perhaps, is a message: St. Louis is far more than the 61 square miles that comprise the city of St. Louis. It is eight counties, two states, 720 governmental jurisdictions and 2.6 million people who can accomplish far more working together than separately.

The Denver-based National Civic League is a good-government group that supports community-building and political reform. It encourages collaborative decision-making; its last major effort here was in support of the failed 2004 effort to reform the St. Louis City Charter.

For 59 years, the NCL has sponsored the All-America City awards, honoring “communities that cooperatively tackle challenges and achieve results.” The emphasis is on collaboration among government, private organizations and community volunteers. There is also a strong tilt toward projects that affect and involve young people.

St. Louis (the region) was cited for three projects: Downtown Now, the public-private partnership created in 1997 to revitalize downtown St. Louis; the Great Rivers Greenway District’s “River Ring,” a 600-mile web of 45 hiking and bike trails now in the works, and “The Boomerang Press,” a project for young artists established by the St. Louis Art Works, a community arts collaborative.

Said Thomas M. Flynn, economic development director for Charlotte, N.C., and one of the jurors, “The St. Louis region did an exceptional job of working across governmental boundaries to take on projects that will have a lasting impact on their region. At the same time they exhibited great innovation and collaboration with their Boomerang Press project.”

The judges, a panel of experts in civic affairs, had particular praise for the River Ring, noting that “because it touches the jurisdictions of over 100 regional municipalities, plus state and national jurisdictions, it is a case study in successful collaboration.”

The project is funded by a one-tenth-cent sales tax in St. Louis, St. Louis County and county and St. Charles County. The Greenway District collaborates with the Metro East Parks and Recreation District, which levies a similar tax in Madison and St. Clair counties.

The big challenge for St. Louis remains taking regionalism far beyond bike trails and arts projects. In some minds, “regionalism” is code for “city-county merger.” That’s politically unlikely here, though it should be noted that Louisville, Ky., Nashville, Tenn., and Indianapolis all have adopted some form of metropolitan-wide government.

All of them are competitors for jobs and industry with St. Louis, and all have seen improvements in government efficiencies and economies because they took regionalism to scale.

However unlikely metro-wide government might be in St. Louis, there still are efficiencies the region could take short of merger — collaborative efforts on transportation, transit, economic development, tax incentives, police and fire protection and airport governance to name but a few. The entire metro region should celebrate its All-America recognition and strive to act more regionally more often.