Mansion Blight: How the Most Expensive Homes Drain Community Wealth

Mansions on large lots, not rundown properties in low-socioeconomic-status neighborhoods, are the real blight on a community’s financial health.

In Buncombe County, NC, Billions of Dollars of Home Value Go Untaxed

As an ad hoc committee recently discovered, owners of higher-valued properties are more likely to receive a tax break…simply because of bad data.

Why You Should Care About Property Taxes as a Renter

If you don’t own a home, and don’t have plans to own one anytime soon, you might think property taxes don’t concern you. But, what if we told you that they definitely do?

Urban3 Decoder: Let's Peek Under the Hood of A Shiny Oklahoma City

Join the Urban3 team as they wade past Oklahoma City’s glittering amenities to take an up-close view of the real economic engine under the shiny enamel hood.

Economic Development, CNU, Urban3, Video, Top StoryJay StangeApril 15, 2022oklahoma, CNU, Urban3, tax base, Tax Base, resource, resource trap, Economy, economics

How Golf Courses Rob their Cities of Tax Revenue

City-owned golf courses are no better than big box stores when it comes to tax revenue.

Finance, Member Post, Top Story, Gardner, Top EvergreenSpencer GardnerJanuary 8, 2016Tax Base, tax revenue

Some Thoughts on Narrow Streets

The width of our streets can influence land use, safety, character, scale, and overall financial productivity. We shouldn't be fearful of building narrow when it makes sense.

Andrew PriceAndrew PriceMarch 18, 2015Street Design, streetscape, Land Use, productive place, Tax Base

Mapping the Dollars and Sense of Land Use Patterns

Joe Minicozzi, principal of the econometric consulting firm Urban3, challenges assumptions about land use and development. With tools like basic arithmetic, maps, and 3D visualization using ArcScene and CityEngine, he makes the case against suburban sprawl and reaffirms the value of mixed-use urban development.

Urban Design, WalkabilityCharles MarohnMarch 17, 2015Joe Minicozzi, productive place, Tax Base, Land Use, maps, mapping, Urban3

Learning Governance from Design Humility

This week we look at a few places, from Ferguson to CA schools to youth sports, where maximizing for one variable at a time leads to a "very suburban style of thinking, addressing each problem in a vacuum and ignoring the interrelationships that eventually govern the world."

News DigestSeth ZerenMarch 9, 2015Granola Shotgun, Planetizen, Tax Base

Do the Math

A special thanks to Urban 3 for the data on this one.

Leyrer, Strong Towns MemeMatthias LeyrerMarch 5, 2015Tax Code, Tax Base, Urban3, #OrderlyButDumb

The shopping mall death spiral

Cities that tethered their future to this experiment are going to struggle while those that still have a pulse in their core neighborhoods will have a chance at renewed prosperity.

Stroad Nation

We can’t over-simplify the dynamics of all that has happened in Ferguson, but it’s obvious that our platform for building places is creating dynamics primed for social upheaval. The auto-oriented development pattern is a huge financial experiment with massive social, cultural and political ramifications.

The Cost of Auto Orientation

We've reconfigured our public spaces to accommodate the automobile. Today we need the humility to acknowledge that our ancestors -- who built in the traditional style -- may have known what they were doing.

Kelo, Pfizer and Economic Development

Planning ProfessionCharles MarohnNovember 23, 2009Economic Development, Jobs, Tax Base, subsidies

The Small Town Ponzi Scheme

Politicians love to stand up and take credit for a big project in a community, but rarely do those projects include an evaluation of what caused it to be needed in the first place. And so the Ponzi scheme begins.

Engineering Profession, Growth Ponzi SchemeCharles MarohnFebruary 2, 2009Infrastructure, Tax Base, subsidies

Get Involved

Resources

About

Site