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How Suburban Sprawl Works Like a Ponzi Scheme

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Started 7 months ago by Walker
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Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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How Suburban Sprawl Works Like a Ponzi Scheme
KAID BENFIELD
OCT 04, 2011

It will not be news to anyone who is reading this that the United States remains in the midst of the deepest economic crisis in my lifetime. (I guess it turns out that you can’t start two major wars while cutting taxes and failing to regulate financial institutions, at least not without paying a steep price. Surprise.) Getting out of this mess and becoming more economically resilient will require a basket of solutions, including a serious look at the way we have been growing our cities and towns.

Indeed, my friend Charles Marohn and his colleagues at the Minnesota-based nonprofit Strong Towns have made a very compelling case that suburban sprawl is basically a Ponzi scheme, in which municipalities expand infrastructure hoping to attract new taxpayers that can pay off the mounting costs associated with the last infrastructure expansion, over and over. Especially as maintenance costs increase, there is never enough to pay the bill, because we are building in such expensive, inefficient ways.

READ MORE: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2011/10/suburban-sprawl-ponzi-scheme/242/

Posted 7 months ago #
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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I think we read the same blogs. :-)

I almost linked to this article in the Occupy Wallstreet thread as the core principles of why things are not what they used to be (and ain't going back) are the same.

A.

Posted 7 months ago #
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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I don't agree with using the term 'Ponzi Scheme,' btw. That is getting way overused and misplayed. There has been no intent to pay off current players with future income. It is that the almost universal assumptions about growth, more specifically about how growth manifests have been overturned. Both metaphorically and physically, you don't need space to grow. Consider a library of books vs the digital repository. Diminishing requirements of space both in the personal and commercial fields have led to a contraction that was not expected.

A.

Posted 7 months ago #
cheap
Westgate
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Andrew Hall said:
There has been no intent to pay off current players with future income.

isn't that what the Columbus City Council just accomplish when they voted to purchase the Arena?

Posted 7 months ago #
James
Upper Arlington
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I'd think the recession would have put the brakes on much suburban expansion.

Posted 7 months ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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I'm with Andrew on the critique of the term "Ponzi scheme" in this context; some people attempt to use it as an all-purpose epithet for any unsustainable process or phenomenon, and its meaning is not quite that broad.

As for encouraging limits on suburban sprawl, the authors write like they're trying to get positions with McKinsey or some other chintzy consulting shop. "Solutions," "strategies," etc. The sole policy initiative necessary to encourage a slowdown or reversal of suburban sprawl is to stop subsidizing it. The authors touch on this with their suggestion to halt construction of suburban infrastructure projects that increase long-term obligations, and with their call for an accounting of short and long term obligations (to the extent that local governments are not already doing this). However, a mere accounting doesn't suggest any particular action, and the point about stopping infrastructure construction seems a bit unfocused or poorly worded: expanded infrastructure construction in existing neighborhoods increases long-term maintenance obligations as well (just not quite as much on a per-capita basis, hopefully). Still, in absolute terms, it still costs more to provide infrastructure to 100,000 people in a given area than 50,000 people in the same area.

Posted 7 months ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
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To Rethink Sprawl, Start With Offices
By LOUISE A. MOZINGO
Published: November 25, 2011

IN an era of concern about climate change, residential suburbs are the focus of a new round of critiques, as low-density developments use more energy, water and other resources. But so far there’s been little discussion of that other archetype of sprawl, the suburban office.

READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/opinion/to-rethink-sprawl-start-with-offices.html?gwh=88694CAD3B9CE58C1A3C97A54409C446

Posted 6 months ago #
TomOver
herenowbeyond.org
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This calls to mind the desirability of systemic change.

In terms of addressing what some of us consider large problems such as economic crisis, climate change, or peak oil, individual and group actions aren't, by themselves, enough.

For example, concerning the goal of having modes of transport less destructive to the environment and public health, many people continue to drive, not because they're lazy, ignorant, or evil, but because cycling can be too dangerous and too time-consuming within the current design of our cities and towns.

(I'm car-free in Columbus because I've built my life around it. It's unreasonable for me to expect--as I've done in the past---that level of commitment from everybody else.)

Whether the problem is urban sprawl, economic meltdown, or transport and food systems heavily dependent on finite, climate-damaging fossil fuels, big problems require political solutions involving people taking to the streets instead of sticking only to our computer screens, bar stools, boardrooms, or conference tables.

Posted 6 months ago #
Mercurius
First Avenue
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Evidently, according to the NYTimes, Columbus is making more of that paradigm shift than I thought? I'm not sure I agree with the article though; they are still building like crazy on Stringtown Road.

Posted 6 months ago #
GCrites80s
5xNW
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Rave is new to town and probably saw less competition there than in other parts of town.

Posted 5 months ago #
turnedNOTburned
Grandview/Columbus, Ohio
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Best. Analogy. Ever.

Posted 5 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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GCrites80s said:
Rave is new to town and probably saw less competition there than in other parts of town.

Yeah, their only competition is Star Cinemas:

http://www.starcinemas-ohio.com/Grove%20City.htm

How long until it closes?

Posted 5 months ago #