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A simple way to lower everyone’s property tax - Video học tiếng Anh

A simple way to lower everyone’s property tax

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0:00Cities are doing something that's ugly,

0:01bad for the environment, and a huge

0:03waste of their money. It's called

0:05sprawl, and it's also the reason your

0:07rent or property taxes might be higher

0:09than they need to be. Sprawl is when

0:11cities get extremely spread out, leading

0:13to faraway subdivisions, big wide roads,

0:15and homes that are far away from jobs,

0:17shops, and transit. One recent report I

0:19looked at found that when cities add

0:21homes on the edge of town, it cost the

0:23city $21,000 more per home right off the

0:26bat just to build basic infrastructure

0:28like roads, water, sewers compared to

0:31building homes in existing neighborhoods

0:33closer to city centers. Those farway

0:36homes also cost cities about twice as

0:38much to maintain over time. The reason

0:39why is basically just simple geometry.

0:42When city neighborhoods are more

0:43compact, they have more people for every

0:45mile of road or every foot of piping. so

0:48they can serve more people with the same

0:49amount of stuff. But building homes at a

0:52town's fringe often means building all

0:53new roads and water lines. Compact

0:55neighborhoods also have the benefit of

0:57being able to raise more property tax

0:59revenue for every acre of land because

1:01they have more households concentrated

1:03in the same space. We used to build

1:04pretty much all city neighborhoods

1:06compactly. Think of any cute historic

1:08neighborhood built before World War II.

1:10But now it is really hard to build stuff

1:12that way in the US. In many cases, city

1:14zoning codes make it literally illegal.

1:16If you take a city like Memphis,

1:18Tennessee, for example, one official

1:20there told me that sprawl has been

1:22extremely financially unsustainable for

1:24the city because while the city's

1:27physical size has grown about 50% over

1:29the last 50 years, its population hasn't

1:32grown at all. So, there's been no major

1:34growth in the city's tax base, even as

1:36it needs to support a lot more

1:37infrastructure. And it's not just

1:39physical infrastructure, but also things

1:41like police, firefighting, and transit

1:43that have to serve a larger area as

1:45well. All of which is expensive. All of

1:47that being said, this is a really

1:49complicated issue. Building compactly is

1:51definitely not a cure all for your

1:53city's finances or for your rent or

1:55property tax bill. And dense cities

1:57obviously can still have a lot of

1:58financial problems. If you want to help

2:00do something about sprawl, make sure

2:02you're paying attention to what your

2:03city or town is doing on housing. Be in

2:05the room when housing policies are being

2:07debated and make your voice heard. I

2:09explored all of these nuances in my

2:11piece, which you can read on vox.com.