News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Why American cities are broke (2021) [video]. Parent comment

Re:Why American cities are broke (2021) [video] by danaris on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @09:57AM (#32496448)
But towns that manage their own utilities do exist. That suggests that suburbs are not fundamentally unsustainable, they just need to adjust their calculations and expectations.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why American cities are broke (2021) [video] by bombcar on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @10:03AM (#32496533)
Exactly. I'm in a smallish town that owns its own power and water utility and maintains its own roads, and isn't "wealthy" or "exceptionally taxed" compared to other areas.

I suspect there are bad suburbs somewhere, but here ain't it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why American cities are broke (2021) [video] by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @10:13AM (#32496665)
> I'm in a smallish town that owns its own power and water utility and maintains its own roads, and isn't "wealthy" or "exceptionally taxed" compared to other areas

Are you in a net contributor state as well? I live in a similar town, but it's in Wyoming, a state which benefits from federal transfers from urban centers.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why American cities are broke (2021) [video] by bombcar on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @10:26AM (#32496858)
Not sure, is there a list of "net contributor" states? And I suspect those look at federal budgets only, and ignore the other methods of "contributing".
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why American cities are broke (2021) [video] by JumpCrisscross on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @10:41AM (#32497069)
> is there a list of "net contributor" states?

Yup [1].

> ignore the other methods of "contributing"

Nobody is arguing we write off New Mexico, Mississippi or West Virginia. But their lifestyles are subsidized by Delaware (special case), Minnesota, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut and New York. (Scaling the net contribution to GDP removes much of the partisan slant introduced by urban centers having more people, and thus bigger numbers, as well as leaning blue.)

[1] https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2011/08/01/the-red-...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why American cities are broke (2021) [video] by heyda on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @03:27PM (#32500639)
That's not really how funding works though. Say a company bids to build or refurbish a new street, the money paid to the company comes from a variety of pools, local, state, federal and utilities, to get funding from the different organizations the contract usually have multiple requirements like 'must build pipes for sewage, power, internet, ect' and the funding percentages of the project will depend on whats being built and where. That said, the people living in those houses will likely also pay state/federal taxes and utilities so its more complex. You also can't expect local towns or cities to foot the complete for big projects like highway overpasses and bridges and stuff, so how much a city contributes to infrastructure and gets back is harder to say.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why American cities are broke (2021) [video] by SketchySeaBeast on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @10:06AM (#32496568)
Yeah, I would agree with that. It's not that towns shouldn't exist, they should, it's that the weird no-man's land suburbs probably shouldn't.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why American cities are broke (2021) [video] by danaris on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @06:06PM (#32502323)
But my point is: Why not?

I have yet to see anything that points to them being fundamentally worse than towns: if you just treat them as Towns Next To Cities, it seems like you solve the vast majority of the problems.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why American cities are broke (2021) [video] by SketchySeaBeast on Thursday August 18, 2022 @10:28AM (#32510140)
Because right now most don't and instead become cancerous growths on a city rather than their own financially independent communities. Where I live the suburbs aren't their own towns and that's where the problem is.
[ Parent | on HN ]