Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Downtown Memphis, as seen from a Bass Pro Shop. Photo: Charles Marohn
Downtown Memphis. Photo: Brad Tabke via Twitter
false

This image of downtown Memphis caught the eye of Charles Marohn at Strong Towns. A parking wasteland topped by a tangle of highway spaghetti, it was taken, perfectly enough, from the Bass Pro Shop that now occupies the top of the Memphis Pyramid.

So many cities have done the same as Memphis: take some of their most valuable land and make it worthless. Marohn writes:

On the left you have the city with all its people, businesses, hopes and dreams. On the right, you have the great natural resource of the Mississippi River and all its potential to enhance the prosperity of the community. In between, you have the wealth of the community -- yesterday's wealth, today's wealth and tomorrow's wealth -- dedicated to moving cars and storing cars, culminating in the hundreds of millions of dollars of subsidy for the pyramid-shaped retail outlet from which the photo is taken.

What you see in this photo is the most valuable land in the city. There is no clearer explanation for why our cities are going broke than to see how this valuable resource has been squandered. There is no return here. No wealth. Just massive, ongoing expense passed from generation to generation.

This also explains why a great city like Memphis would feel compelled to gamble with hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money instead of making small, incremental, low-risk investments in their core neighborhoods. They feel a desperate need to make up for the fact that their most valuable land produces nothing but expenses. That's an impossibly high burden they've placed on themselves.

If you want your city to be wealthy and prosperous, stop obsessing about cars and start obsessing about your people, your community's wealth and the taxpayer's return-on-investment.

Elsewhere on the Network today: GJEL Accident Attorneys reports that Oakland city officials have reprogrammed traffic lights at key intersections in such a way that many now take more than two minutes to cross on foot. Urban Milwaukee says historic tax credits are on the chopping block in Wisconsin and explains why that would be a very bad thing for cities. And ATL Urbanist imagines what it would be like if we designed our houses the way we design cities.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Tuesday’s Headlines Stand Up for Transit

Transit needs investment, not defunding, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib writes in The Hill.

April 29, 2025

First New Yorker To Get A Subsidized E-Bike: ‘It’s Perfect’

Meet the first person in the Empire state to get a subsidised e-bike!

April 28, 2025

Monday’s Headlines Defy Duffy

It was a bad week for the transportation secretary, between firing too many DOT employees and his lawyers accidentally undermining their own case in a congestion pricing lawsuit.

April 28, 2025

USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy Is Dead Wrong About Bike Lanes

The Secretary of Transportation says he hasn't seen enough data to believe in the benefits of bike lanes. So we put together an explainer help him out — mostly using information from his own department.

April 25, 2025

Friday Video: Check Out Lorde On a Bike!

The Kiwi singer is on the top of the charts — and in our bike-riding hearts.

April 25, 2025
See all posts