I'm not sure the "average worker" you're talking about is actually the average. And "woke left fear" is more like "economic certainty". I mean, did you read th

I'm not sure the "average worker" you're talking about is actually the average. And "woke left fear" is more like "economic certainty". I mean, did you read the article? If the workers can't afford to live there, there's no workers. Gentrification leads to failure unless you just happen to have a pocket of your city dedicated to housing all the poor people you need to run your 50 Starbucks. Fast transportation links are definitely useful. For example, in many densely populated cities, there are large, incredibly poor, crime-ridden neighborhoods on the outskirts of those cities, as that's where are the poor people were pushed by gentrification, redlining, etc. Even if there were jobs for them within a reasonable distance, public transportation would take them 3+ hours to get there, and not run late/early enough for many jobs. Faster and more transport links could help raise up huge swaths of oppressed people - though it has to be paired with increased access to education, food, small business loans, job programs, affordable childcare and healthcare, community outreach, etc. Increasing density would only exacerbate the problems of poor communities if it doesn't come with solutions to all those other problems I mention. Unless your intention is to create favelas.