For centuries, cities used to be built incrementally. Improving and building on successful places, and changing or abandoning unsuccessful places. This changed in America in the 1940s, when whole neighbourhoods were built on the edge of town, to a completed state. After several generations, many of these places are financially insolvent, but are propping themselves up with an ever-growing mountain of debt. To donate to Strong Towns, visit: https://www.strongtowns.org/membership Watch the rest of the Strong Towns series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6OGLN69ehUTVa Patreon: https://patreon.com/notjustbikes Twitter: https://twitter.com/notjustbikes Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/notjustbikes One-time donations: https://bunq.me/notjustbikes NJB Live (my bicycle livestream channel): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9v57F4xz46KaDsvWfCv8yw --- Sources and Image Credits Thumnail photo: Suburban Sprawl, Vegas Style https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnkay/3732615241 This video is based on the work of Strong Towns, especially the "Growth Ponzi Scheme": https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/8/28/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-a-crash-course https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/6/13/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-part-1.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/6/14/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-part-2.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/6/15/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-part-3.html https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2011/6/16/the-growth-ponzi-scheme-part-4.html Aerial view of the Napa River where it divides Vallejo, California By Dicklyon - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69952050 Historical compilation of photos from Brainerd, MN Downtown Brainerd, then and now: http://www.crowwinghistory.org/brainerd_downtown_buildings.html Penny Postcards from Minnesota http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/crowwing/postcards/ppcs-crow.html $3.2 Billion to Fix Tampa's Aging Pipe