It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The one created by Google is worth $2 billion, which is the amount of debt that Shelby County Government issued to fuel sprawl outside Memphis. That number does not include the increase in annual operating and maintenance costs associated with new infrastructure.
It’s a time lapse of sprawl in Memphis and Shelby County from 1984 to the present. Keep in mind that sprawl in this community began about six years earlier, but this is a stark reminder of misplaced government priorities that drove county government to the edge of bankruptcy.
https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse/
Thanks to Eric Matthews for sending in.
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I’m curious about the end game. I’m sure the West Tennessee Homebuilders Association would be quite happy to continue creating new suburban communities. Arlington and Hickory Withe are likely the next stops; then further into Fayette County. How far from the central city are people prepared to migrate? And how low of a population density can Shelby County reach before we declare our development pattern fiscally unsustainable. Here’s to more conservatives making the connection between urban form and fiscal sustainability and not seeing it as a liberal value to be avoided.