Quote:
Originally Posted by Plan9
Race and wealth are pretty much one and the same in the US (generally speaking, whitey has most of the money and doesn't want to live near The Other Colors, or so the text states). In order to combat this and the related suburban sprawl (whitey doesn't want to live next to darkie, so he moves to the 'burbs because he can afford the larger lot prices and wants to avoid paying taxes for services that help low SES families), the authors suggest an approach they refer to as "regionalism."
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Ah yes, "white flight." I can totally see how this happens without it being actually caused by racism. It's more or less simply a racial/class/wealth issue. Those who can buy will opt to move to the 'burbs because a) it's often cheaper (when buying as opposed to renting, i.e. compared to decent housing downtown), b) you get more bang for your buck if you do go more lavish, and c) you get away from the unsavoury elements of many downtown areas.
So the wealthy have the means to spread out to suburban areas, whereas the poor are stuck renting (for the most part) as much as they can afford, which isn't much comparatively. And what I think tends to happen is that tax dollars often favour these areas over run-down or poor areas because of the perceived "return on investment" and, likely, because of political pressure from those with influence. I don't know enough about this to say for sure, but I'd like to see information on that as well.