The Real Reason Your City Has No Money

Charles Marohn · 10 Jan 2017 · strongtowns.org ↗

3 korrents from this piece

Charles Marohn did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
American cities built roughly two dollars of public infrastructure for every dollar of private investment, and that ratio is what bankrupts them.

Their wordsThis thinking is how you end up with two dollars of public infrastructure for every one dollar of private investment.

Interesting
Our reading
Nearly every American city is functionally insolvent, because replacing the infrastructure it has built would cost more than its entire private tax base is worth.

Their wordsIt's a predicament that nearly every American city, with very few exceptions, finds itself in.

Interesting
Our reading
America's accumulated road, pipe and pavement is a bad investment, and no federal spending programme can make it a good one.

Their wordsAll this infrastructure is a bad investment. America needs a different model of growth and development.

Interesting