The N&R’s Allen Johnson posts a teaser on tonight’s presentation in the Empire Room by urban analysts Joe Minicozzi of Public Interest Projects in Asheville and Charles Marohn of Minnesota-based Strong Towns.
Turns out Minicozzi and Marohn spoke in High Point earlier this week:
Marohn, an engineer and planner who operates Strong Towns, a Minnesota nonprofit that works with local governments to help them achieve financial strength, said cities have taken on increasing amounts of debt since World War II, which has facilitated growth, but at a cost.
“The growth creates what we call the illusion of prosperity,” Marohn said.
Cities have poured too much money into developing speculative business parks and building roads and utilities for subdivisions, and it is taking them decades to recoup the investments, as the costs to maintain the projects climb higher over time.
“‘If you build it, they will come’ has become the default development strategy for all local governments,” he said. “We feel we have to make things happen to try to induce development.”
Private sector debt has skyrocketed, as has deficit spending in the public sector, in particular the federal government, which has a national debt of about $16.7 trillion.“I took seven quarters of calculus, and that is an unfathomable amount of money,” Marohn said. “We have gradually switched to an economy that operates through debt accumulation rather than savings and investment.”
In his teaser Johnson notes that Minicozzi and Marohn “confirm” that Gboro “is making the right call to plan a performing arts center for downtown versus anywhere else.” Yet performing entertainment venues -performing arts centers, arenas and stadiums —are the prefect examples of the ‘build it and they will come’ mentality, with mixed results at best. And we know the city’s willing to go into more debt to finance at least a third of the PAC’s cost.
Like the man said, seven quarters of calculus it still doesn’t add up.
