Stay Tuned for Similar Analyses for Salem

Terrific article at StrongTowns.org about an analysis a guy did for Denver, CO, showing that, surprise! The downtown neighborhoods pay the freight for the much wealthier suburbs.  Two graphs (one of tax revenue per square foot (by neighborhood) and one showing costs for infrastructure in those same neighborhoods) speak volumes.

Bottom line, our autosprawl development pattern -- the same one replicated all over America -- from Denver, CO to Dover, Del., from Anchorage AK to Miami FL -- isn't just hurting our health and the environment; it's also the reason that cities everywhere are broke. We've taken an inheritance of productive development and squandered it on low-productivity development modes that essentially punish the people who impose the least costs on the public fisc and make them subsidize those (usually much wealthier) people who impose the greatest costs.

Property tax paid per square foot by neighborhood.

Click to view larger. Neighborhoods above the break even line generate enough tax to pay for their true cost of infrastructure. Neighborhoods below the break even line create annual infrastructure liabilities for the City of Denver, despite their property taxes.