For local governments, the Growth Ponzi Scheme has allowed national politicians to promise a free lunch while forcing those lower on the food chain to absorb the long term costs associated with hitting this quarter’s GDP targets.
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New growth creates an illusion of wealth. Local governments experiencing growth look and feel successful. They have high revenues and very little immediate costs associated with them. Long term, as the liabilities start to come due, it is revealed that a free road isn't really free.
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Our national transportation obsession has been about maximizing the amount that you can drive. We now need to focus on minimizing the amount you are forced to drive.
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There are a handful of ways engineers deflect criticism. Here are five that we’ve heard time and time again.
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Last month the ratings agency Moody's downgraded the credit rating of Ferguson, Missouri, to junk status. Let's not pretend this is solely the result of the events of August 2014.
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Strong Towns advocates are jiu jitsu warriors -- outnumbered and outgunned -- tactically striking the weakest spot of the current myth: that the American development pattern builds wealth.
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We should be planting trees in places where they can provide shade for people walking instead of a prozac substitute for people driving.
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We all have biases and we all have reflexive reactions to some statements and situations. That's human. As Strong Towns advocates, let's resist the human impulse to dogma first and think later. We need to keep our minds open to the great ideas that an incremental, chaotic-but-smart approach can reveal.
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Modern economic development practices are the result of some incredibly perverse incentives. As a society, we lament short-term thinking yet, again and again, we demand of our economic development staff: what have you done for me lately?
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The Governmental Accounting Standards Board now requires cities to disclose, as part of their financial reporting, the amount of money lost to tax subsidies. This is a significant development.
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It might be role of O'Toole, and those who would follow him, to simply serve as a warning for others. That's a useful role in society.
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Cities can experience growth and job creation today quite easily if they are willing to take on a disproportionate amount of long term liabilities. In other words, I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for growth and jobs today.
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Last Thursday I was part of a debate with Randal O’Toole – the self-identified Antiplanner from the Cato Institute – in Lafayette, Louisiana. I’m going to take the opportunity to reflect a little bit on things from my perspective.
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MoDOT management gives every indication that they have a serious cultural problem, a deep misunderstanding of their role and responsibilities. This needs to change before they get another dime.
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Following a Curbside Chat earlier this year, Waco, Texas, is taking some difficult and important steps towards getting their financial house in order.
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I don't yearn for another bubble. I know the pain that will eventually come from that. What I want is a world that is real, one with a solid financial foundation that we can use to build strong cities, towns and neighborhoods.
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If someone lives in a place dominated by state/fed money where progress is continually are thwarted by state/federal mandates, it is not hard to imagine where the healthy skepticism of government would originate.
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When the media imposes a narrative on your narrative.
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Video from the CNU session on reaching conservatives.
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In the lead up to CNU 23 in Dallas next week, the American Conservative asked me to write a feature story on the New Urbanism. This was quite an honor. The piece ran in this week's print publication and is also now available online.
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