We miss the opportunity to make each public investment part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. A recent state office building was built on the far outskirts of Tallahassee, Florida's state capital, solely because land was cheaper. Agency officials were surprised to learn when the building was completed that the city bus system did not extend that far, and there were no plans to extend service in the future. Neighborhood and environmental activists are frustrated with their lack of effective input into public land-use decisions. Even locally beneficial projects are often stopped.
Public space is ignored or relegated to unusable leftover land.
It is cheaper and easier to build in stand-alone developments of a few hundred units of the same housing type. The disadvantage of building neighborhoods without centers was tragically apparent in South Dade County, Florida after Hurricane Andrew. Public works agencies are sometimes locked into piecemeal approaches to environmental problems. The public is then expected to build and maintain expensive pumping and piping systems to keep them dry. Public investment decisions continue to be made by individual agencies to address separate needs.