Not Just Bikes: How Bankrupt American Cities Stay Alive (New Video)

Not Just Bikes, a popular YouTube channel based in The Netherlands, is back with another Strong Towns-inspired video. (It’s the fourth in a series.) In the first three videos, Jason Slaughter, the creator behind Not Just Bikes, introduced the story of the financial instability of American and Canadian cities, showed how the suburban development pattern makes cities poorer, and explained why American cities function like a kind of “Growth Ponzi Scheme.”

In the latest video, Slaughter reveals what financially insolvent cities are using to prop themselves up: namely, an ever-growing mountain of debt.

Below you’ll find links to the first four videos in the series, as well as Strong Towns content that will help you go deeper.

NJB’s Strong Towns Series

1. Introduction to Strong Towns & Financially Insolvent American Cities

2. How Suburban Development Makes American Cities Poorer

3. How America Bankrupted its Cities - The Growth Ponzi Scheme

4. How Bankrupt American Cities Stay Alive - Debt

Go Deeper with Related Strong Towns Content

• “The Growth Ponzi Scheme: A Crash Course,” by John Pattison

• “If Strong Towns Is Right and Cities Are Insolvent, Why Do So Many Seem to Be Doing So Well?” by Charles Marohn

• “$3.2 Billion to Fix Tampa's Aging Pipes? From Where?” by Daniel Herriges

• “Transactions of Decline, Lowry Edition,” by Charles Marohn

• “The Land of the FREE,” by Charles Marohn

• “From Amsterdam, a New Video Series about Strong Towns,” by John Pattison

• ”Not Just Bikes: The Houses that Can't Be Built in America (New Video)”

Cover image via Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash.