Strong Towns

8Making Strong Investments

Our cities need to be done with building horizontal infrastructure. We already have more public obligations than can be supported by the private wealth in our communities. There is no informed reason why we would add more promises we can’t keep. The challenge we now face is making productive use of that which we’ve already built. In the infinite game of building human habitat, that is a complex undertaking. In the realm of public investment, it requires an entirely different model.

Cities must run at a profit. They must create 20 to 40 dollars of private wealth for each dollar of public infrastructure liability. In North America, thousands of once-prosperous neighborhoods are now locked in a cycle of decline. In others, large flows of capital have overwhelmed existing development patterns, artificially inflating real estate prices and dislocating many. Our challenge now is to use the resources we have to more productive ends.

Doing this in complex human habitat, where the goal is not merely to become financially strong and resilient, but to do so while harmonizing an infinite number of competing objectives, presents a paradigm-busting challenge. The systems we’ve built to replicate the post-war development pattern are so effective, and so embedded in society, that is it difficult to conceive of an approach that places stability above growth.

Starting with our most financially productive neighborhoods, we must become far more sophisticated and purposeful ...