A Ponzi scheme that's run out of steam
William Fulton at Citiwire argues that municipalities can no longer afford sprawl. "Conventional suburban communities, by contrast, are much more expensive to build and serve. In North Carolina, a study by the City of Charlotte found that a fire station in a low-density neighborhood with disconnected streets serves one-quarter the number of households and at four times the cost of an otherwise identical fire station in a less spread-out and more connected neighborhood. Another study in Champaign, Ill., by the respected consulting firm TischlerBise, found that growing within the city’s current urban service area would generate a tax surplus of $33 million, while sprawling beyond it would put a $20 million hole in the city’s budget." Cities and towns can stay in the black for a while by continually encouraging new growth, "but that's really just a Ponzi scheme," Fulton says. These days it seems like a Ponzi scheme that's run out of steam.
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