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Most suburbs do little more than suck money out of cites. They take money from city employers, use city infrastructure and give nothing back.
The money "from city employers" didn't belong to the city regardless of who is employed. Most employers aren't going to employ employees that aren't providing anything in return so "take" is perjorative to say the least. Employers aren't obligated to employ only "people living in the city". You might ask yourself either i) why the employer isn't employing people "from the city" (lazy?, incompetent?, unskilled?) or ii) why the employees prefer living outside "the city" (families, more bang for buck, etc.).
"Use city infrastructure" - like what? The city is getting something from the employer that it couldn't get with all the festivals (and excuses for funding them) that are falsely promoted as economic benefits. Other city businesses get people purchasing items there they wouldn't otherwise get. The city likely gets sales tax, income tax, payroll tax and any other number of taxes without actually providing services as if the employees lived there.
"Give nothing back" - exactly what do you think they "owe"? Did the city employ them? Nope. Did the city pay them? Nope. Does the city provide services to their homes? Nope. Were these people working for free? Nope.
Posters here continuously conflate the people with the entity and use undefined or very poorly defined terms such as "suburb" - which could be just a geographic territory or its own incorporated area. The people in the suburb (city or otherwise) are not taking anything from the people in "the city". The "suburb" isn't taking anything from "the city" (entity or people).
I would suggest another region that could accomplish something with a regionalist approach, and that would be the greater Cincinnati and Dayton areas in SW Ohio. It's in a spot where they could be the national hub of a high-speed rail network, tied in even with other cities in the general region like Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville etc. - places that grew up as river/rail transport hubs in the center of the country.
My question is, who's going to use something like that? What's the application? You can use rail from city to city, but then you often need a car to get to the rail station, and a car after you arrive at your destination.
Cities SHOULD annex the suburbs. Then they appear safer than they really are.
Case in point: San Diego. San Diego annexed all the rich suburbs: La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Rancho Bernardo, Black Mountain Ranch... most of North San Diego is just one gigantic suburb filled with guard-gated communities. All of a sudden, you have all these ultra-rich suburbs with phenomenally low crime rates, so even if you have a few ghetto inner-city hoods, so what? the rest of your city is crazy safe, so you appear relatively safe overall.
My question is, who's going to use something like that? What's the application? You can use rail from city to city, but then you often need a car to get to the rail station, and a car after you arrive at your destination.
Such a system would maximize the usefulness of city rail systems, some of which already exist. They would no longer exist in a vacuum, as it were.
Such a system would maximize the usefulness of city rail systems, some of which already exist. They would no longer exist in a vacuum, as it were.
Most large cities have some type of metro-area transportation system, e.g. RTD Denver, the Metra in Chicago; SEPTA in the Philadelphia area; the MTA in DC; the Port Authority Transportation system in Pittsburgh, MARTA in Atlanta, etc. None of these systems stop at city lines.
Most large cities have some type of metro-area transportation system, e.g. RTD Denver, the Metra in Chicago; SEPTA in the Philadelphia area; the MTA in DC; the Port Authority Transportation system in Pittsburgh, MARTA in Atlanta, etc. None of these systems stop at city lines.
I understand that, but they are still limited to their metro areas. They would be of maximum use if linked to inter-city rail. They would become the primary mode for visitors from out of town.
The systems that directly serve the airports, like MARTA and WMATA already serve in this capacity to this extent.
I'm thinking very broad picture here. I'm not concerned with meaningless city-limit boundaries.
The problem with combining into the cities is that the suburbanites will lose their political voice especially since many suburbs and neighboring rural areas are very different politically.
This is, of course, the purpose of these regionalization proposals -- give city governments access to the suburban tax base, which they'll then use in of the central parts of the city (where their voters are).
It drives me crazy that Charlotte is such a big (geographically) city and the school system (Charlotte-Mecklenburg) is even larger. At least once per year, my kids miss 3-4 days of school because it snows 50 miles north of me. Once an area is so large that common policies make no sense, they need to be divided.
Cities SHOULD annex the suburbs. Then they appear safer than they really are.
Case in point: San Diego. San Diego annexed all the rich suburbs: La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Rancho Bernardo, Black Mountain Ranch... most of North San Diego is just one gigantic suburb filled with guard-gated communities. All of a sudden, you have all these ultra-rich suburbs with phenomenally low crime rates, so even if you have a few ghetto inner-city hoods, so what? the rest of your city is crazy safe, so you appear relatively safe overall.
Does San Diego have any actual hoods? I don't think that an area is hood just because it's somewhat run down and has a large Hispanic population
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