4 ms·
It's not just Jackson, or the state of Mississippi. The US has overbuilt infrastructure since WW2. All of it was built on the assumption that infrastructure inv
by burlesona 4y ago
It's not just Jackson, or the state of Mississippi. The US has overbuilt infrastructure since WW2. All of it was built on the assumption that infrastructure investment always leads to a massive expansion of the tax base and easily pays for itself, when in reality more and more of our investments have had a negative ROI. This is going to be the new normal for the US as many cities have continues to expand outward for decades, incurring ever greater maintenance liability, without accompanying economic growth to support the maintenance burden.
You've seen a lot of Strong Towns posts on HN, this is the issue that ST was founded on and the focus of it's advocacy.
The best short explainer is here: https://youtu.be/7IsMeKl-Sv0 https://youtu.be/7IsMeKl-Sv0
You can read a lot more about maintenance here if you're interested: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/tag/Maintenance https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/tag/Maintenance
- stainforth 4y agoSometime in the 70s there was a reduction of federal funding and thus an expectation that the state could shoulder the costs of infrastructure. Combined with white flight that took potential tax base elsewhere, it became very difficult to support maintenance at this level. https://www.mississippifreepress.org/11498/under-the-surface-part-3-a-legacy-in-decline https://www.mississippifreepress.org/11498/under-the-surface...
- smileysteve 4y agoThe most important part about white flight is that each of these suburbs went to create even less sustainable infrastructure (via increased points of service and decreased population that is the single family home).