Strong Towns:

Cities routinely respond to financial stress by pursuing growth even more aggressively. The logic is simple. More homes mean more taxpayers, while more commercial development expands the tax base. If the city is short of money, the obvious response is to grow faster.

Westlund recognizes the flaw in that logic. When each new increment of development creates more long-term expense than it produces in revenue, more growth doesn’t solve the financial problem. It makes the problem larger.