This is a tale of two cities. No, not Dickens’ phlegmatic London and passionate Paris. Nor the two neighborhoods Charles Murray contrasted in his recent bestseller “Coming Apart” — prosperous but isolated Belmont (actually, Mitt Romney’s home for decades) and needy and disorganized Fishtown.

These two cities have names you may not recognize but which you have probably read about in the last few years: Fremont and Williston.

Fremont, Calif., is the southernmost city in California’s East Bay, just around the corner from (well, a few freeway exits away from) Silicon Valley.