An Infrastructure Conundrum

Posted by Carol Coletta on December 27, 2008

Many of the communities with the biggest job losses are those whose populations are shrinking.  The worst possible investment would be in infrastructure that fuels sprawl... putting too few people on too much land.  In fact, what most of these communities need is a massive investment in people in the form of education and re-skilling.  Place investments should come in the form of helping these communities shrink gracefully and imaginatively so that their ongoing operational costs are reduced and people are not left in hollowed out communities.

Good advice for cities on how to shrink comes from Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative.