It appears that my post yesterday about an incomplete Google Maps page coincided with a brief moment of reorganization at Google. The incoming changes were larger and less superficial than I realized. Google Maps and Google Local have been totally merged. The two properties were always integrated, delivering results from the same engine, but using different interfaces. I always reflexively went to Maps, even for basic local searching. Now, the two addresses (maps.google.com and local.google.com) lead to the same interface.

Gone are the two search boxes (What and Where) of the old Local. Single-line searching is the norm, though Google does present the two-box interface if you click on a search category in the results list. Gone, too, is the Directions link from the Maps page; there is no dedicated interface for driving directions thast I know of. That's a shame, as Google seems to be dropping out of direct competition with Yahoo! and Mapquest in the driving-directions market. You can still get directions from any results bubble on a map, but one end of the trip (origination or destination) is filled in. You can't start with a blank page.
As the first comment below notes, the Directions link is now to the right of the Maps/Local search box, in small letters that I missed. Thanks for the correction, and cheers to Google for keeping the old functionality in the newly merged interface.
I am slowly getting used to seeing the map on the right, not the left.