> government is mostly made up of people who are upper middle class or higher Go to your city hall or their website and see if they have an organizational char

> government is mostly made up of people who are upper middle class or higher Go to your city hall or their website and see if they have an organizational chart. For some of us one thing will overwhelmingly stick out. For others it's just business as usual. > the municipality got rich on a boom of local industry 0-70yr ago and could afford to drive them out This did not happen. Local industry collapsed and ushered in slumlords. City living has only started trending up within the last 2 decades. Banks still rely on an outdated, and I would say racist, method of property valuation called "comps". The value of the property around you determines the value of the property you are buying. If you are trying to rehabilitate a distressed neighborhood you can't use that method. You'll end up with situations like this. Needing hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans meanwhile the buildings around you are valued at $0. Of course you don't have to take my word for it. HUD has a whole enforcement arm targeting racial discrimination in banking [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining#Court_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining#Court_system