Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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Notice how there are 5 separate lots in the block nearest the camera. There are walls between them. This isn't the municipal government choosing to dedicate an entire block to surface parking. These are 5 separate lots, with 5 separate owners who all decided to use the plots for surface parking. The incentive system is broken.
These are taxpayers. Modern version of the taxpayer building is a surface parking lot. You'll see them everywhere, weirdly small awkwardly proportioned paid parking lots in cities. It happens everywhere. Same incentives same result.
Speculators are parasites. Buy an urban lot, wait a decade or two for the city to grow around it and then sell to get a paycheck from the growth of the city they actively hindered.
The scheme works by paying the minimum property tax, in a cost neutral way. Most cities charge property taxes based on the value of the land plus whatever's built on it. Demolishing the building reduces the tax bill. Then they rent the vacant lot to a parking company for the cost of the taxes. To the speculator, its a zero risk scheme, to hold a lot for free until its profitable to sell.
Land value only property taxes is the solution. It breaks the scheme and makes surface parking speculation unviable. When these lots have the same tax burden as the functioning buildings around them, wasting the space as a surface lot becomes unaffordable.
/c/Georgism