[opsnooperfax]

The US is not completely centrally planned by a politburo, and suburban sprawl is not a conspiracy of diabolical powers that be. Given the choice, many people with the means will pay a premium and spend hours every day commuting to not have to live in The city they work. Why? There are uncomfortable answers. You can’t make maximizing harm to a segment of the population a policy goal and expect them to stay.

[jmward01]

I am all for people being able to pay a premium to get the burbs. The problem is they don't actually pay the premium. Their service costs are often not covered by the taxes and direct fees assessed. Consider water and sewer. I pay the same amount for water and sewer as the sprawl house built out in R1 on the edge of town but my house is on major city services that cost a fraction to maintain, per house, as that house on the edge. I am subsidizing them. And I do it for their roads. And their parks. And every service they use because them and 5 other people suck 20x the resources but pay the same as me. And it makes me mad. So, yeah, pay your fair share to live in sprawl and I will be happy, force me to pay your taxes and imply I'm a communist and I get a little less polite.