PBAF/URBDP 560

Recap and Today  Recap  Highway Acts  Sprawl  What is Sprawl?  Today  Metropolitan Fragmentation

Sprawl vs. Growth Los Angeles, CA

Natural Color Image of Sprawl

Bogotá, Colombia July 2009

New high-rise housing downtown. New apartment towers in the foreground with some slightly older on the right hand side. Bogota has an enormous shortage of housing units (a deficit of 600,000 units in a city of about 7 million people).

Downtown Spanish colonial church, sky scraper, and traffic.

Former “Pirate” Neighborhood Bogotá, Colombia July 2009 In Usme, at the south of the metro area. At the rear of the photo are places that were quarried for sand or building clay. And construction at the top of a hill is illegal.

More “pirate” development Usme. Note the housing going on the tops of these hills. This is outside Bogotá’s Urban Growth Boundary and sprawling into its main urban watershed.

For sale homes in Usme

More in the “Pirate” Neighborhood Also in Usme. Pirate does not mean shanty…

 Sprawl is about the rate of urban expansion occurring at a rate greater than population growth.  Without regard for regional environmental needs.

Number Local Governments 2007 Type of Local Government In WA In US County393,033 Municipal28119,492 School District 29613,051 Special District* 1,22937,381 Total1,84589,476 *Special Districts in WA include: 170 Natural Resources, 387 fire protection, 41 Housing and Community Development Source: 2007 Census of Governments Accessed 1/20/2009

Metropolitan Fragmentation & Fiscal Competition 19,400 cities; 89,000 local govs in federal system. Local diversity in policy, tax burden, services Changing revenue mix-- decreasing tax dependence Diversity leads to policy experimentation? Fragmentation-> Disparity? Inefficiency? Efficiency? Policy efforts to deal with efficiency and equity issues Political (& practical) feasibility questionable Local76%64%63% School District 83%*83%*81%* Counties77%60%60% Cities76%61%61% *97% of school tax revenue is local property tax Percent Local Taxes of General Revenues from Own Sources

What are the issues? Social choice making Production efficiency Income redistribution/Fiscal equity Representation/voice

Solutions: Efficiency or Equity in Fragmented Metro Region?  Market  Banfield/Tiebout, Public Choice  Privatization  Consolidation  Annexation, Elastic cities  Two-Tier  Regional Government  Regional Tax-base Sharing  State redistributive solutions  Intermunicipal cooperation

For discussion 1. What are some obstacles metropolitan regions may face in shifting to a Tax-Base Sharing system?  Why haven't more regions adopted models like the one in Minneapolis- St. Paul? 2. As per Conant & Myers' analysis, highly fragmented metropolitan governance can create more problems than solutions, but in a larger system the Games Model excludes smaller voices. 1. How might minority and/or poor communities ensure their needs are appropriately met? Or, how might these governments ensure all of their constituents are properly served? 3. The populations of first suburbs grew at more than twice the national average from 1950 through 1970, but have remained closer to national average in the decades since. Meanwhile, newer suburbs have grown at twice the rate of first suburbs since the 1980s. 1. How might changing growth rates (and demographics) influence cities' fiscal zoning and tax-base competition over time?