Debt is Not a Funding Source

If public officials are going to use debt to pay for things, they must be vigilant about their lack of real skin the game.

Marohn, Growth Ponzi SchemeCharles MarohnJune 25, 2018Nassim Taleb, debt, local government

To Fight our Cities' Financial Struggles, we have to go Beyond the Budget

Our biggest financial problems are not line items in a budget. They are far more systemic.

Growth Ponzi Scheme, Member Post, Top StoryPat TrahanJune 20, 2018suburban experiment

The Nonsensical Math Behind Municipal Budgets

If your city spends $30 million on new parks, then closes other parks due to a $30 million budget shortfall, something is very, very wrong.

Top Story, #DotheMath, Growth Ponzi SchemeRachel QuednauJune 19, 2018

Running Government Like a Business

Run your city with business principles, just don’t run it with business values.

Growth Ponzi Scheme, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnJune 18, 2018local government

The Growth Ponzi Scheme: Water Edition

Sending Great Lakes water to the American West is a desperate, expensive, band-aid solution to a much bigger problem.

Top Story, Growth Ponzi SchemeRachel QuednauJune 5, 2018water

The more we build, the poorer we get.

If you want your community to prosper, stop building new infrastructure.

#InfrastructureCrisis, Marohn, Growth Ponzi Scheme, Top StoryCharles MarohnMay 7, 2018page highlight

The Real Reason Your Local Mall is Failing

The closing of the mall’s anchor store exposes how fragile the community’s business model is, providing an opening to shift approach.

Marohn, Growth Ponzi SchemeCharles MarohnApril 23, 2018shopping malls, big box stores, page highlight, Value Per Acre

If you're not growing, you're dying

But the growing simply allows you to not be dying for a little bit longer...

Growth Ponzi Scheme, Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 17, 2018

Where did all the money go?

There is no way to sustain a city over time without building wealth within it. That is why a Strong Towns approach is critical.

Growth Ponzi Scheme, Marohn, #DotheMath, Top StoryCharles MarohnApril 16, 2018suburban experiment

How did we get here, anyway?

Why are our cities so spread out, struggling to pay their basic maintenance bills? A look at our history can tell us a lot.

Growth Ponzi Scheme, Akron, Top Story, SchweitzerMark SchweitzerApril 2, 2018suburbanization, suburban experiment

Shovel Ready

The rise of technology is slowly emptying out our malls and business parks. They could be put to better use... if we actually wanted to solve the problem.

Sanphillippo, Top Story, Growth Ponzi SchemeJohnny SanphillippoMarch 22, 2018suburbs, suburbanization

Today is Yesterday’s Tomorrow

Over the last 70 years, our cities and towns have spread out in a way that our forebears never dreamed of, and that future generations will never be able to pay for.

Growth Ponzi Scheme, AkronJason SegedyJanuary 17, 2018suburban experiment, suburbanization, page highlight

Romancing the Stone Age

America's pre-Depression development pattern relied on exploitation of workers, poor living conditions and exclusion of women and minorities. How is the Strong Towns approach, which advocates for traditional development patterns, different?