Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But even density and public transit can't save the economy of a city. They're still building many suburbs outwards. We just need better public transit to GET to those suburbs. Density is not the ONLY way to go. And not always the best.
Of course it isn't going to guarantee economic stability. But it does vastly reduce a city's "operating costs". When you have a city that covers a vast amount of land but has a low population, you still have to pay for infrastructure for that entire area, but you have a smaller tax base to draw the money for that from.
You say it makes sense to build outwardly if we can build transit to get to those outward suburbs. That's a waste of money. If we keep extending transit outward, we'll only spend a huge amount of money on a relatively small amount of people. Much better is to give people and developers incentives to stay in the city and the inner ring.
Of course it isn't going to guarantee economic stability. But it does vastly reduce a city's "operating costs". When you have a city that covers a vast amount of land but has a low population, you still have to pay for infrastructure for that entire area, but you have a smaller tax base to draw the money for that from.
You say it makes sense to build outwardly if we can build transit to get to those outward suburbs. That's a waste of money. If we keep extending transit outward, we'll only spend a huge amount of money on a relatively small amount of people. Much better is to give people and developers incentives to stay in the city and the inner ring.
But no matter how you build the city, the city is still gonna spread out. The more people that move to a place the more it's gonna spread out. No matter how dense the city is. Look at LA, it is a spread out city, but they built there light-rail and it's going pretty well for them. No one can stop sprawl, or stop a city from spreading outwards. Where are they gonna draw the line two stop the spreading, and designate a metro area. There are parts of NYC metro that go to Scranton PA. NYC is a dense city, but it's suburbs still spread out pretty far. You just can't stop these things. You're gonna HAVE to build a rail line that goes to the far out suburbs eventually. The growing isn't gonna just STOP. 50 years ago, did people think they would've had to build a rail line in NYC that would go as far as it does today?
You are using numbers prior to the real estate bust of Florida. In the current economy Orlando will see a completely different growth pattern. People are moving where the jobs are, and Florida is not a leader in jobs or wages.
You are using numbers prior to the real estate bust of Florida. In the current economy Orlando will see a completely different growth pattern. People are moving where the jobs are, and Florida is not a leader in jobs or wages.
Orlando does not even have public transit from its airport to downtown.
Orlando has shuttles from the airport to car rental companies, and disney. It has a bus system if you want to get to the airport to downtown or anywhere else in orange/seminole county. They were trying to build a light rail system here but it got denied...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
