In the U.S. population shifts in major cities happened rapidly after the desegregation. As an example of this the population of Pittsburgh was around 600,000 i

In the U.S. population shifts in major cities happened rapidly after the desegregation. As an example of this the population of Pittsburgh was around 600,000 in 1960 and is around 300,000 today. The people that left tended to have higher paying jobs due to the wage gap between whites and blacks at the time. Local taxes declined significantly and since the U.S. largely funds k-12 education from local taxes the schools were badly affected. Once the spiral starts it’s hard to reverse. Before desegregation ambulance, trash, and other city services used to be paid for using taxes. My unpopular view of all this is that whites largely decided that they didn’t want to pay for things that benefitted blacks and this very much adversely affected large cities. I don’t know to what extent this plays into what the Strong Towns article talked about but it seems reasonable to think it plays a part.