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Why did original middle class residents leave? Because American suburbs are built unsustainably. Because maintaining or replacing infrastructure built 30 years
by twobyfour 9y ago
Why did original middle class residents leave? Because American suburbs are built unsustainably. Because maintaining or replacing infrastructure built 30 years ago and designed to last 25 years costs more (prohibitively so) than new greenfield development. Because they're moving into the city to shorten their commutes rather than further out to lengthen them.
- blfr 9y agoWhy does it cost prohibitively more to raze a house and build a new one? Or repave a road over building a new one? At least some infrastructure is reusable and you get residences closer to the city therefore much more valuable than outer suburbs which are doing better. You beat the city by offering a real backyard. There, sold. Some people will still live farther out and others will remain in the city but you should have no trouble finding younger families happy to live there. This is not the issue.
- exelius 9y agoSewer and water are the big tent poles there because you really can’t put it off for too long (see Flint, MI). Which usually requires tearing up roads.
- twobyfour 9y agoIt's not uncommon for new development to be subsidized by regional or state (or in the case of building roads, federal) entities in a way that maintenance and replacement are not. Plus maintenance/replacement disrupts other infrastructure and activity in ways that greenfield development doesn't.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]