This article in the Atlantic is alarming, and likely very prophetic.
Search This Classical Life:
categories:
in the middle of:
read in 2016:
Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins
Sloan, Ajax Penumbra 1969
Mandel, Station Eleven
Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty
Shakespeare, As You Like It
Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saintsarchives:
My first comment is that Charlotte has had MAJOR issues with iffy iffy loans… I don’t necessarily think that all neighborhoods/cities will be that bad off. And there are always “sketchy” neighborhoods/parts of town around. I imagine they will end up as renter neighborhoods, though. And people who can afford to live somewhere better, will. If they don’t have location and decent construction or some charm, then they are likely “doomed” in that way.
Very interesting article. As we’ve been working on moving into the city for the past year, I’ve been thinking about where the poor are going to be pushed out to, since many of the neighborhoods in Indy are getting more expensive…gentrifying, I suppose is the right word. This is an interesting take on where many will go.
Elizabeth, you are right. The suburbia in places like Cary, Apex, Wakefield, etc. is pretty safe. I’m thinking more the sprawl that goes out forever, in Johnston and Franklin counties, etc. It’s alarming to think that many families consider their home their major investment, and it might not yield them anything, and need a lot of repairs because of the poor craftmanship.
We’re really seeing this in Atlanta…we live in an area without a real city center and even over the last 5 years things have gotten much worse with crime and gangs, etc…we’re hoping to move somewhere closer to a city center somewhere along the perimeter.
Actually, I noticed this trend as a teacher in a neighborhood that’s mostly urban…the immigrants came to the city, and along with the urban poor, rent closer in, and then move to the suburbs when they can afford to buy a house because it is cheaper out there or they start renting in the suburbs b/c it is cheaper, but gangs and crime eventually follow. Now the crime statistics say that downtown Atlanta is safer than suburban Gwinnett county. Crazy.
I realized the above was really pessimistic. I wanted to add that I applaud the move to more walkable neighborhoods, etc. and hope the prices come down so we can eventually live in one. :)
Also, I think the way of huge sprawling apartment complexes are also going the way of suburbs…they used to be the affordable, nice place for 20-somethings, now they are moving into lofts/towers/condos closer to a city center. But maybe I see that because I live in one.
OK, I admit I didn’t finish the article, but I didn’t see it as alarming … but maybe that’s because I have a house in the city, within walking distance from a park, theater, hospital, and most the city’s best restaurants. Since we’ve moved in, we’ve seen an apartment building filled with drug dealers torn down to make way for a luxury condo, an aging and ugly convalescent center go for the same purpose, and million dollar homes go up (slowly) on the site of a former high school. Gentrification of the city is definitely the trend at the moment … but I often wonder if it can continue in a recession. In addition to housing costs, there is another cost for families in the city (at least here), and that’s private school. The city may be becoming gentrified, but the city’s school system is not. (I acknowledge that home education is an option, but it’s not for everybody.)
when we were in San. Fran. this fall with all the mortgage people, they were saying this was happening in parts of Cali. already. They say we’re still going to see the worst of the foreclosures in the South and that we’ll see empty houses like that.
Can you imagine the houses in my parent’s neighborhood being sub-divided. (You know where my parents live.)
That’s just something I never saw happening.
My neighborhood was once a nice place. A ball park, swim club. Great neighborhood school. The city schools took over the school in the 1970s, and the easy availability of mortgages to anyone with a heartbeat has decimated the neighborhood.
As it is less than ten mins. from downtown, we hear it may be good to hold on to it.
But I’m not sure. The neighborhood is a bargain right now. Like Susie said, the public schools simply aren’t an option for most of us in the urban system.