The type of infrastructure spending we don’t need

New Urbanist Joel Kotkin urges the Obama Administration to be careful and targeted with infrastructure investment plans.

And, he has an additional caveat:

(W)e should think beyond temporary stimulus and make-work jobs and about investments that will propel the economy well into this century.

After all, it's not that we stopped spending on infrastructure over the past decade. It's that mostly, we haven't spent on the right things.

He cites city, county and state incentive money for sports arenas (and the supportive infrastructure, like new roads, subway stops, etc.) as the most egregious offense.

They’re followed by convention centers and similar construction projects that, like sports stadiums, tend to primarily create service-sector, service-sector-wages, jobs after the construction is done.

He also warns about not investing in “green” infrastructure improvements just because they’re self-labeled as “green.”

Read the full column for more on what we should and shouldn’t build, in Kotkin’s opinion.

That said, he passed over an opportunity to call for improving the service-sector economy as part of the column.