Grist: The American suburbs are a giant Ponzi scheme

[marmar]

The American suburbs are a giant Ponzi scheme

by Charles Marohn
22 Jun 2011 9:40 AM


We often forget that the American pattern of suburban development is an experiment, one that has never been tried anywhere before. We assume it is the natural order because it is what we see all around us. But our own history -- let alone a tour of other parts of the world -- reveals a different reality. Across cultures, over thousands of years, people have traditionally built places scaled to the individual. It is only the last two generations that we have scaled places to the automobile.

How is our experiment working?

At Strong Towns, the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization I cofounded in 2009, we are most interested in understanding the intersection between local finance and land use. How does the design of our places impact their financial success or failure?

What we have found is that the underlying financing mechanisms of the suburban era -- our post-World War II pattern of development -- operates like a classic Ponzi scheme, with ever-increasing rates of growth necessary to sustain long-term liabilities. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grist.org/sprawl/2011-06-22-the-american-suburbs-are-a-giant-ponzi-scheme

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Oh My God!

If you only knew what I've been working on!

[BREMPRO]

2. this is one of those.. "OMG..why didn't we consider this before" articles

great analysis of our current housing problem.. a promise and illusion of prosperity and private profits in the short term, saddled with unfunded long-term public infrastructure costs...a flawed model for the "American Dream" build around debt, the suburban palace, private automobile, unregulated development, and inefficient tax base to support long term public costs for the infrastructure to support it...more debt.. . Our general character as a nation is revealed in this..ie.. short term profits over long term sustainability.. we need to begin change... now.. before it's too late!

[amborin]

3. suburbs or ex-urbs? Crabgrass Frontier is a good read....

[Yo_Mama]

4. Sadly, they are not nearly as a big a Ponzi scheme as some cities

You get Camden and Detroit and Buffalo when the necessary property taxation rate to keep things running gets high enough so that it makes buying a home with the expectation of building value in it impossible. Then homes go for rental values only.

Grist should apply its logic to those cities, and the new urban blight areas we have popping up.