<story><title>Rewarding Neglect and Punishing Investment in Struggling Neighborhoods</title><url>https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/3/7/rewarding-neglect-and-punishing-investment-in-struggling-neighborhoods</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tomohawk</author><text>Big fan of land value taxes.  They apply pressure to make the best use of the land rather than sitting on it.  However, I&amp;#x27;m not sure it will help cities like Baltimore, where they were unable to turn things around even by giving away houses for $1 and no taxes for a few years.&lt;p&gt;In a city, you&amp;#x27;re more dependent on the government to take care of things, and in most US cities, with single party control, it does not happen.  They don&amp;#x27;t take care of crime.  They let infrastructure decay.  The schools are crap (despite high per-pupil spending).  They make crony deals with the unions on pensions and benefits that are not possible to fund.&lt;p&gt;Not feeling safe and with a bleak future for their kids, people move out.  I&amp;#x27;ve seen this happen over and over again with coworkers who initially were big on city living, but eventually moved out when they got mugged or had kids.&lt;p&gt;The result is insane taxes as population leaves, and subsidies from the surrounding areas to try to keep the failed city afloat.&lt;p&gt;The high taxes and obvious government incompetence then act as a moat to keep people out.</text></comment>
<story><title>Rewarding Neglect and Punishing Investment in Struggling Neighborhoods</title><url>https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/3/7/rewarding-neglect-and-punishing-investment-in-struggling-neighborhoods</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>patio11</author><text>&amp;quot;At the same time, the city&amp;#x27;s infrastructure is aging and requires more maintenance than it once did.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The thing which is aging is more likely the base of city employees and retirees who were promised defined benefit pensions which were underreserved for and routinely looted, over a period of decades.&lt;p&gt;Erie, for example, has an unfunded liability of about $90 million against a total annual budget of ~$115 million. (As is typical, the lion&amp;#x27;s share is police&amp;#x2F;firefighters.)</text></comment>