Background:
For the last handful of posts and continuing today, I’ve been writing about the
StrongTowns philosophy of town building.
My goal has been to encourage readers in the North Bay to attend at
least one of the three StrongTowns/Urban3 meetings to be held January 19
through 21 in Santa Rosa.
More
information about the meetings and about StrongTowns is on this page. Please note that there have been several
changes since my last post. First and
most importantly, RSVPs are now required.
A link is provided on the page.
Also, the room will now open at 5:30pm for networking, with the meeting
content beginning at 6:00pm. Lastly, all
three meetings will now be at Bike Monkey.
I don’t know
how many attendees the Bike Monkey room can accommodate, so I encourage signing
up soon.
Back to the
task of motivating readers to partake of StrongTowns.
Several
years ago, a reader took issue with the StrongTowns assertion, an assertion
with which I concur, that ill-conceived infrastructure decisions had long-term
municipal cost implications. Her words
were “All of the costs of building those road improvements are borne during the
year they’re built. All of them!”
I know the
reader well. Indeed, I spent much of
Christmas Day with her. But she was wrong. Perhaps in the terminology of her field of
economics what she wrote was correct, but from a lay perspective she was wrong.
But it was
hard to formulate the proof of her wrongness.
I tried a couple of times, tied myself in knots, and surrendered in
disappointment. Plus, arguing about
municipal infrastructure over the Christmas dinner table is considered bad
form.
But then it
occurred to me that the old Greek, Aesop, would have known how to tell the
story. And so today I offer the fable of
the Town, the Bridge, the Past, and the Future.
The Town was
a tidy place, tucked next to a wide, wide river and hemmed in by steep canyon
walls that rose thousands of feet, leaving only a modest plain next to the
river for the Town.
The Town had
offices, factories, and shops, but most of the plain was large, comfortable
lots with small cottages. The Town
thrived by fishing in the river and mining in the canyon walls.
One day,
perhaps under the influence of the shop owners who always wished for more
customers, the Past decided that the Town should grow. But there was no more room on the river plain
and none of the Town residents wished to give up their lots, so the Past was
stumped.
However,
there was an island in the river that would be big enough for more small
cottages on large, comfortable lots. A
Builder came to the Past and said, “If you will build me a Bridge, I will build
small cottages on the island and the shop owners will have more customers.”
The Past
said, “But the Town cannot afford a Bridge.”
However, the
shop owners had planned ahead. “The
Capitol City will give us money for a bridge.
They will call it ‘economic development’.”
And so it
was that the Engineer and the Contractor built the Town a fine bridge. When they finished, they said “The Bridge
will last a hundred years if you care for it well.”
The Builder then
crossed the bridge and built the small cottages on the large, comfortable lots
and all were happy. The shop owners had
more customers and the prosperity of the Town seemed assured.
But as the
Past became the Present and then the Future, the prosperity waned. The fish from the river and the minerals from
the canyon walls brought less money to the Town. The people grew weary of paying the Town to
maintain the streets to their small cottages on large, comfortable lots and gave
less money to the Town.
And so the
streets grew bumpy. Even worse, the bridge,
without the care the Engineer and the Contractor said was needed, grew old.
After only
seventy-five years, not the hundred promised by the Engineer and the
Contractor, the Bridge was worn-out and need lots and lots of repairs.
But when the
Town looked in its treasury, it had no money to pay for the repairs.
So the
Future called the moneylenders and said “Who will loan us money to repair the
Bridge?”
And the
moneylenders said “We have seen your empty treasury and fear you will not pay
us back, so will not loan you money.”
The Future
called the Capitol City and said “You gave us money to build the Bridge. Will you give us money to fix it?”
The Capitol
City said, “Oh no, maintenance is a local responsibility.”
Then the
Economist offered an opinion “All the costs were borne by the Past. The Bridge is no longer a good use of the
Town’s treasury. We should allow it to
fall into the river.”
The Future
was aghast. “Those are our friends and
neighbors on the island. And they’ve
been paying their taxes, even if not enough.
We can’t leave them to starve on the island.”
The
Economist shrugged and went away.
So the
Future grew pensive and sat on a boulder by the river, looking at the Bridge
and seeking ideas.
A week later,
he snapped his fingers and said, “Building the Bridge was a mistake. I shall build a time machine and go back to
the Past to tell them.”
And so it
was. The Future arrived in the Past just
as they were about to tell the Engineer and the Contractor to build the Bridge.
“Wait!”,
said the Future, “Do not build the Bridge.
The Future will not have the money to maintain it. It is not a good thing to build.”
The Past
scoffed, “The Bridge will be a good thing for us. We do not care about your problems. We only care about our needs. We will build the Bridge.”
The Future
thought quickly and said, “Then build more homes and shops on the island. That will bring more taxes so we can maintain
the Bridge.”
But the Past
said, “Oh no, we like our small cottages on large comfortable lots. We do not care about your problems.”
As the Future was thinking of what to say next, he was pushed out the door that was locked behind him as the Past told the Engineer and the Contractor to build the Bridge.
So the
Future returned home, dejected. After
sitting by the river looking at the Bridge for another week, he had a new
idea. He would build more homes and
shops on the islands to create more taxes.
He would then pledge the new taxes to the moneylenders so they would
loan the money for the Bridge repairs.
The Future
loved his new idea. He called other
towns to ask for their opinion. The
other towns said, “That is a very good idea.
It is called “redevelopment”. But
other places have used redevelopment to build wasteful things like golf
courses, so the Capitol City will no longer let us use redevelopment.”
Again the
Future retreated to his rock by the river.
As he became morose, he again called the Capitol City, “Are you sure you
can’t help us repair the Bridge?”
And the
Capitol City replied “Oh no, maintenance is a local responsibility. But if you have another island in the river,
we will give you money for a new bridge.
We would again call it ‘economic development’.”
The Future
threw his phone in the river. Then he told
the people of the Town to stockpile extra supplies of baling wire and duct tape
to keep the Bridge aloft for awhile longer.
He also
joined StrongTowns.
In my posts
to date, I’ve presented myself as fully aligned with StrongTowns. But there are points on which I’m
uncomfortable with the logical conclusions of some of their thinking. I’ll explain more in my next post.
As always,
your questions or comments will be appreciated.
Please comment below or email me.
And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)
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