THE VIDEO SHELF · municipal finance and suburban sprawl
Why American Cities Are Broke - The Growth Ponzi Scheme [ST03]
Not Just Bikes explains the Strong Towns argument that car-dependent American suburbs cost more to maintain than they generate in taxes. It describes the growth Ponzi scheme that props up municipal finances.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN keeps pointing to it as the clearest explanation of how low-density infrastructure is financed and why it is unsustainable.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Not Just Bikes
- Topic
- municipal finance and suburban sprawl
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 14
- HN mentions in dataset
- 20
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2021–2024
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
I don't think you understand how much it costs to maintain the infrastructure to your house. Not Just Bikes did an excellent series on this specific problem. [VIDEO]
kd913 on Hacker News · 2022-03
In We can do better than “same, but electric”> Do you have a citation for this? I don't have a citation for construction costs, and I will concede that there are many factors that may make some low density developments cheaper per unit then some higher density development. However, construction is only part …
ARandumGuy on Hacker News · 2022-08
In Too many Americans live in places built for cars – not for human connectionThis argument is commonly thrown around, but makes no sense in practice. The denser the place, the more efficient the infrastructure use. 50 families in a single apartment building use massively fewer pipes & power lines than 50 families in single family homes. But the …
flaque on Hacker News · 2021-08
In To save California, sacrifice single-family zoning
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.