Cities have grand dreams of remaking themselves, but their vision of a gleaming urban future keeps evaporating because they are broke. Instead of getting their fiscal houses in order, America’s cities think they have found an easy way out: Make someone else pay. Specifically, you, and not through the regular-but-politically-toxic order of taxation.
For decades cities have used their permitting offices as a mint, withholding valuable permits until citizens agree to extortionate demands to address public problems that officials refuse to solve. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly compared it to extortion, but the lower courts have done little to stop it.
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