The design of our cities is placing a new economic stress on our communities. With neither centralized residential nor employment locations, effective public transit planning is difficult and getting around is increasingly expensive. Those hit hardest are low-income individuals and their families who now compose a large percentage of new suburban America. The physical space between jobs and workers, coupled with insufficient and costly transportation, reduces the chances for low-income individuals to get a job. Social problems spurred from unemployment could probably be reduced if our workers could simply afford to get to work.

In the last 20 years we have seen a total overhaul of employment location and opportunity in American cities. Shadowing residential development, office and retail spaces have wandered away from the pack and splayed across the landscape. This fraying of the former downtown hem is now being dubbed the “Edgeless City”; vast networks of carelessly built residential, commercial and office space. With destinations no longer clustered together, creating clear transit ways between hubs is impossible.

Does it make sense to penalize someone for constructing a quality building, which is beautiful, functional, and serves the community? If your answer is ‘No,’ and unless you live in a select few cities in the US, you and your municipal government have something to argue about.

The vast majority of municipalities in Canada and the US collect from a property taxation system that penalizes the construction of quality buildings, encourages land speculation, and ultimately makes moving to the suburbs an attractive proposition.