Shift some revenues from wealthier to poorer communities through regional revenue sharing. Many American cities have fought sprawl by capturing their share of new growth. Another 20 cities, like Nashville, Jacksonville, Fla., and Indianapolis, in effect, annexed their counties. Such near-regional cities are all fiscally strong. Within their boundaries they shift taxes from wealthier neighborhoods to maintain decent services in poorer neighborhoods.
Poor minorities tend to be more spread out among city neighborhoods.
Controlling sprawl may work better than capturing sprawl. Portland, Ore., is the shining example. In its Year 2040 plan, Portland Metro projects 50 percent population growth, but only 8 percent growth in urbanized land. The Portland area has boomed in the 1990s, and its housing prices are escalating. By preventing developers from paving over farmland, Portland Metro has turned investment inward.