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How Bankrupt American Cities Stay Alive - Debt [ST04]

Not Just Bikes · 2M views · 2021-04-05 · 11:01

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Overview

Not Just Bikes explains how many American suburbs, built all at once rather than incrementally, cannot cover their infrastructure costs and survive on growing debt. It draws on Strong Towns' work on the growth Ponzi scheme.

On Hacker News

Recommended as an introduction to the finances of suburban sprawl and its long-term consequences.

Recommended by 7 HN people across 5 months · HN mentions 2021–2024

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What people said

donjoe · 2022-01 · Strong recommendation

Well, this is exactly the opposite to an urban environment - this is urban sprawl. Is it better to construct and maintain 75 miles of roads (and all the other infrastructure) for a couple of hundred folks? I highly recommend this video on the finances around urban sprawl and their long term consequences: [VIDEO]

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benrbray · 2021-07 · Strong recommendation

The Not Just Bikes [1,2,3] YouTube channel also has an excellent series of videos based on work from Strong Towns. I link to these videos whenever a friend asks why I chose to leave the United States. :) [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK]

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crote · 2024-06 · Recommendation

In large parts of the United States it should affect single-family homes. A lot of cities constructed their suburbs with one-term fees and subsidies, but are charging extremely low taxes on the houses once constructed. In fact, the taxes are so low that they don't pay for the upkeep of the infrastructure required to service those houses. They are losing money on every house and are trying to make up for it in volume! The sole reason they have been able to continue is because the dense urban core is subsidizing the suburbs. But it'll inevitably end up with decrepit and neglected infrastructure, and cities going bankrupt. The only way to solve this is to increase the revenue per land area, which means a higher land tax, which in turn means a bigger tax increase per-person for single-family homes than for multi-family dwellings. If you want to know more, the following NotJustBikes videos are a good introduction of the subject: [LINK] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Not Just Bikes, played through YouTube.

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