Comments by "alex smith" (@alexsmith-ob3lu) on "This House" channel.

American public policy of pushing wealthy people into the countryside and poor people into city centres was a public disaster for many reasons. Wealthy folks have the money to maintain high rises while poor people do not.
7
After ww2, America attempted to address “urban blight” by pushing poor people around and focusing solely on new construction rather than on maintenance/renovation. It still one thing to build giant apartment blocks and suburban homes; but America has a tendency to neglect the maintenance bill.
3
@b_uppy I’ve read the other comments. This more than just “local/state politics.” After ww2, our public policies pushed wealthy folks into the countryside and poor people into city centres. That was horrible public policy for many reasons and it was a national disaster. As our social support systems further fall apart, we see the traditional development pattern come back again. Rich people in city centres and poor people out in the countryside or crumbling suburbs.
2
@b_uppy The intent was not and never has been, poorly realized. It was all by design. It’s why in the 50s and 60s, you saw the term “experimental” being used for every freeway and suburban mass construction. All that was an experiment that failed on a massive proportion. Unlike 19th century America where a poor person could grow their own food in the countryside; most of our poor are trapped in crumbling suburbs that are a financial burden on everyone.
2
@ Point of the matter is, the suburban experiment was a failure but we still continued with the experiment even after it was proven to be a disaster. In the 1950s, we built suburbia using our savings and investments. When there wasn’t enough financial productivity to justify car dependent suburban sprawl in the 1970s. We started borrowing billions to pay for such a development pattern. The economic turndown of the 1970s was caused by local governments not being able to pay the maintenance bills for suburbia. So, starting in the 1980s, we started borrowing loans and not saving anymore to pay for such a lifestyle. That all ended in 2008 with the financial crash. Now it’s ordinary folks fending for themselves and big corporations/banks buying up properties in urban, suburban and rural places.
2