The overwhelming majority of municipalities in the United States will be bankrupted by the cost of suburban sprawl maintenance in due time, depending on the age of their infrastructure (some places right now, others in 5-20 years). Suburban roads and sewer pipeline are vastly inefficient systems in terms of cost to maintain versus the tax revenue cities are willing and able to generate to pay for them (property taxes on low density suburban homeowners, especially). Federal subsidies incentivize this but also towns and cities encourage it by letting suburban developers build what they say the market wants and ignoring the huge costs to taxpayers down the road to pay to service those subdivisions. Most places either aren't equipped to analyze the consequences of these decisions or are going about studying it incorrectly based on false assumptions.
A handful of urban planning professionals and groups have been sounding the alarm (Joe Minicozzi of Urban3, Strong Towns, Verdunity), but the reach of their voice is too small and the enormity of these brutally uncomfortable facts is scary to consider.
If you're an active citizen I strongly encourage you to read about what Strong Towns calls "The Growth Ponzi Scheme" and try to get your local leaders to examine your municipality's long term infrastructure costs. People think there's an infrastructure crisis right now with bridges and shit, but just wait until the bill comes for all those endless suburban roads. It's insane to think about.
The overwhelming majority of municipalities in the United States will be bankrupted by the cost of suburban sprawl maintenance in due time, depending on the age of their infrastructure (some places right now, others in 5-20 years). Suburban roads and sewer pipeline are vastly inefficient systems in terms of cost to maintain versus the tax revenue cities are willing and able to generate to pay for them (property taxes on low density suburban homeowners, especially). Federal subsidies incentivize this but also towns and cities encourage it by letting suburban developers build what they say the market wants and ignoring the huge costs to taxpayers down the road to pay to service those subdivisions. Most places either aren't equipped to analyze the consequences of these decisions or are going about studying it incorrectly based on false assumptions.
A handful of urban planning professionals and groups have been sounding the alarm (Joe Minicozzi of Urban3, Strong Towns, Verdunity), but the reach of their voice is too small and the enormity of these brutally uncomfortable facts is scary to consider.
If you're an active citizen I strongly encourage you to read about what Strong Towns calls "The Growth Ponzi Scheme" and try to get your local leaders to examine your municipality's long term infrastructure costs. People think there's an infrastructure crisis right now with bridges and shit, but just wait until the bill comes for all those endless suburban roads. It's insane to think about.