5 ms·

I belong to a religion that's really strong in western U.S. and less prevelant as you go east. Congregations are assigned based on geography and sometimes langu

I belong to a religion that's really strong in western U.S. and less prevelant as you go east. Congregations are assigned based on geography and sometimes language. I prefer the congregations out east that cover half a city because you interact with more doverse people across a lot more socio-economic classes just due to the wider geographic area. I wish there were good incentives to build combined/intermingled housing to have more mixed neighborhoods.

hammock 3y ago
LDS?
irrational 3y ago
Recently I was in southern Mexico where I attended a Sunday meeting. Looking around the chapel I realized that 100% of the people (other than my gringo self) were Mexican. The place was completely packed, but there was essentially no racial or linguistic diversity. Perhaps there was class diversity, but that is harder to tell just by looking at people all wearing their sunday clothes. I wonder how unusual the diversity of the Eastern USA is compared to the rest of the world?
mikeyouse 3y ago
Much "affordable housing" is built in this way -- the market rate units in new buildings subsidize the below-market units so you do get a good mix of socioeconomic classes in each building. Moderately successful in my experience.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  I have no direct experience living in such a building but I would guess that it's a mix of lower and middle, but very few upper class folks. The people who can afford other options would generally avoid living in a building like that. When I was saving for my first house I rented an apartment that was a lot cheaper than I could afford. I was one of very few white people living there, possibly the only one. I got a lot of "dude, are you lost?" looks from the other residents, especially going to work wearing a suit every day, but very little other interaction or cultural mixing happened.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
cafard 3y ago
In general, Roman Catholic parishes tend to draw on neighborhoods. That can make for parishes pretty well uniform in income level, and other factors. It can also make for quite diverse parishes. (Though there may be multiple language communities.) It seems to be that the Washington, DC, parishes running from about noon to about two on a clock centered on the White House tend to be be fairly diverse.
xmprt 3y ago
> I wish there were good incentives to build combined/intermingled housing to have more mixed neighborhoods. I feel like there are natural incentives for building a diverse variety of housing in an area. You have to go out of your way to only build expensive single family homes in an area. Incentives for building mixed neighborhoods: You get a diverse population in an area which means support for all types of jobs within the city as opposed to requiring people to commute outside the city for work. Fewer homeless people because cost of living becomes more manageable. Shorter commute/travel times for people who have to go outside the city since most people are commuting within the city. Incentives for building homogenous neighborhoods: You and your children won't have to interact with people who can't afford to live there. Everyone gets to live in a single family house (whether they want to or not).
- tomatotomato37 3y ago
  I agree, from my experience it seems that areas with a more unplanned "chaotic" buildup also seems to have both more diversity in class/social/race and also much more community activity overall. I grew up in one of those homogeneous planned neighborhoods that are supposed to be nicer with their gatehouse and HoAs, but it's my current place with it's development clusterfuck that results in pristine McMansions sitting next to mobile homes with abandoned cars in the front that I feel the most at home.

hammock 3y ago

LDS?

irrational 3y ago

Recently I was in southern Mexico where I attended a Sunday meeting. Looking around the chapel I realized that 100% of the people (other than my gringo self) were Mexican. The place was completely packed, but there was essentially no racial or linguistic diversity. Perhaps there was class diversity, but that is harder to tell just by looking at people all wearing their sunday clothes. I wonder how unusual the diversity of the Eastern USA is compared to the rest of the world?

mikeyouse 3y ago

Much "affordable housing" is built in this way -- the market rate units in new buildings subsidize the below-market units so you do get a good mix of socioeconomic classes in each building. Moderately successful in my experience.

SoftTalker 3y ago
I have no direct experience living in such a building but I would guess that it's a mix of lower and middle, but very few upper class folks. The people who can afford other options would generally avoid living in a building like that. When I was saving for my first house I rented an apartment that was a lot cheaper than I could afford. I was one of very few white people living there, possibly the only one. I got a lot of "dude, are you lost?" looks from the other residents, especially going to work wearing a suit every day, but very little other interaction or cultural mixing happened.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

cafard 3y ago

In general, Roman Catholic parishes tend to draw on neighborhoods. That can make for parishes pretty well uniform in income level, and other factors. It can also make for quite diverse parishes. (Though there may be multiple language communities.) It seems to be that the Washington, DC, parishes running from about noon to about two on a clock centered on the White House tend to be be fairly diverse.

xmprt 3y ago

> I wish there were good incentives to build combined/intermingled housing to have more mixed neighborhoods. I feel like there are natural incentives for building a diverse variety of housing in an area. You have to go out of your way to only build expensive single family homes in an area. Incentives for building mixed neighborhoods: You get a diverse population in an area which means support for all types of jobs within the city as opposed to requiring people to commute outside the city for work. Fewer homeless people because cost of living becomes more manageable. Shorter commute/travel times for people who have to go outside the city since most people are commuting within the city. Incentives for building homogenous neighborhoods: You and your children won't have to interact with people who can't afford to live there. Everyone gets to live in a single family house (whether they want to or not).

tomatotomato37 3y ago
I agree, from my experience it seems that areas with a more unplanned "chaotic" buildup also seems to have both more diversity in class/social/race and also much more community activity overall. I grew up in one of those homogeneous planned neighborhoods that are supposed to be nicer with their gatehouse and HoAs, but it's my current place with it's development clusterfuck that results in pristine McMansions sitting next to mobile homes with abandoned cars in the front that I feel the most at home.