Kansas City Doesn’t Need New Roads — It Needs Sidewalks

The promise of new development can make a compelling case for new infrastructure investment. Each new house or apartment building is a new source of property tax. If the new development spurs population growth it could bring more sales tax revenue thanks to increased demand for goods and services. And more residents in KCMO means more e-tax revenue.

The economics of this is shaky. There is strong evidence that infrastructure spending as a development tool is poor economic policy, particularly when it comes to constructing overbuilt roads to lure low-density suburban development.

A better approach would be to focus on the more than 2400 miles of existing streets (6400 lane miles).

Perhaps the most telling is the estimated $1 billion in backlogged sidewalk needs. An exact figure is unclear because they city only has a ballpark idea of the total number of sidewalk miles it owns. The condition of those sidewalks is far murkier. Citizen satisfaction in sidewalks trails that of our peer cities by a significant margin because only about half of all streets even have them. And many of the sidewalks that do exist are in a constant state of disrepair.