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I_Enjoy_Beer t1_j1hv7b5 wrote

Several factors. Newer roads in the Short Pump area, designed and built in the last 20ish years, compared to city roads that were built a century or more ago. Henrico's overall infrastructure is newer, and without digging up budgets, I'd hazard a guess Henrico thus doesn't need to spend as much money in water/sewer/drainage maintenance and can focus more on road maintenance, whereas the city has to maintain a dense and aged infrastructure network.

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FromTheIsle t1_j1igpe4 wrote

Density makes it cheaper to maintain actually. Sprawling roads like the ones in Henrico normally mean less tax dollars per mile for funding. Richmond overall has far more services to maintain, is massively disorganized, and also struggles to maintain its tax base.

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turnipmeatloaf t1_j1iilc8 wrote

Richmond also has more concentrated poverty than the surrounding counties which isn’t really something easy or cheap to fix

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FromTheIsle t1_j1ij5jo wrote

Ya its just alot of issues that Henrico doesn't really have to even think of. Henrico and other surrounding counties also don't have to really think too much about how to draw in people because RVA does that for them. The counties score big time on just having to focus on basic services while Richmond is tasked with heading regional efforts to maintain tourism, population growth, transport, etc. Henrico, Chesterfield, Powhatan, and Hanover can all just aboard the revenue stream that is Richmond.

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JustDyslexic t1_j1j5pyn wrote

This is also why we are setting up regional tax for transportation. Tourism is also handled at the regional level

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UniversityAny755 t1_j1jy0ls wrote

A lot of the city is also made up of state government and VCU, which don't pay taxes and minimal service fees.

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bkemp1984Part2 t1_j1hy5am wrote

A lot of suburbs in the U.S. are going to be facing economic issues as sprawly infrastructure starts to get old, decline, and have less people per unit of area paying in. They'll never face the issues you mentioned with services systems being older than most people alive, but it's going to get interesting for them, especially as many run out of space to be able to keep the growth cycle going.

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KDRadio1 t1_j1ieina wrote

Very true. I moved here recently and came from a city with lots of huge suburbs. Even just replacing the sprinkler system in the 3 parks were blowing the budget apart. Let alone a bunch of other common area issues that are cropping up.

Many cities have fully banked on the associations to do maintenance and code enforcement so it’s not like they can just come in and fix things either. Should be interesting to watch at least.

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Prestigious_Laugh300 t1_j1okpa9 wrote

> compared to city roads that were built a century or more ago

It seems like they just pave asphault over the cobblestone, right?

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