5 ms·

Do we get to decide?

• AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  Yes, but not as easily or as obviously as people would like. You've got a nice city. Tech starts moving in. Prices start rising. You have a few options: 1. Make the city an undesirable place for tech (via taxes, regulation, or whatever). This has the downside that it may cost the jobs of people who currently live there (and are some of the highest-paid people in the city). 2. Build a bunch more housing, so that lower-income people don't get priced out. This keeps the diversity of the city, but changes the physical characteristics. Some consider the physical characteristics to be part of the charm of the city. 3. Do neither of those things (note that both of them have their downside). This leads to new, high-paid jobs, no new housing, and lower incomes being priced out. As far as I can see, those are the only options. There is no option where everything just stays the way people like it.
  • crdoconnor 8y ago
    >Some consider the physical characteristics to be part of the charm of the city. Especially people fighting to keep the value of their home equity up.
    • FussyZeus 8y ago
      Point of order: the value of their property was already very high and going up when the changes (tech industry, finance, whatever) began happening, what they're fighting to keep going is the growth in that value.