In previous decades (1950s-1970s), city planners in the US adopted the Robert Moses model of development--highways and cars meant that middle-class (white) work

In previous decades (1950s-1970s), city planners in the US adopted the Robert Moses model of development--highways and cars meant that middle-class (white) workers would be encouraged to live in the suburbs, the city center would be a warehouse for the poor (ethnic, minority), with some nice areas reserved as playground for the rich. Everyone who had any say in the matter--planners, bankers, developers, HUD, and so on--bought into this idea. Redlining and race-baiting were actively used to shape neighborhoods. In more recent decades, this has somewhat reversed. Declines in crime and pollution have made the city center more desirable, and people are looking for shorter commutes and convenience to services, and less car-dependence. Now we face the problems of gentrification, as the benefits of the resurgence of the city center has not been widely shared. Rural areas, and secondary cities once dependent on heavy industry, have seen their livelihoods decimated by automation, outsourcing, and other factors, with little to replace it, because all the new money is concentrated in a few coastal cities. The possibilities of remote work are not going to benefit them very much.