Talk about gentrification.

[Brigid]

Just rode the bus on a downtown street that I hadn't been on since I moved back to Indianapolis. There's a building with million-dollar condos right across the street from a rescue mission. The mission has been there for years; I forget what the other building used to be (apartments, I think), but it sure wasn't million-dollar condos.

[closeupready]

1. Poverty is suburbanizing, much like happened in Paris over the last 30 years.

Coming soon to a city near you! :sarcasm:

[Warpy]

3. There are now more poor in the burbs than in the inner city

Poverty changed places some time in the last decade as office jobs followed manufacturing jobs overseas and people in bedroom communities suddenly found they had no place to go during the day.

I saw the whole thing starting to happen in Boston in the 80s when marginal workers were tossed out of marginal housing so that housing could be turned back into mansions for yuppies. Some of those workers made it to the burbs and a long commute to their low level, dead end urban jobs. Some of them ended up on the street.

The yuppies, of course, called themselves "urban pioneers" and didn't give a shit what had happened to the 20 or so people they'd kicked out of the mansion that now housed 2 yuppies, their one rugrat, and the au pair.

[SoCalDem]

6. It's a vicious cycle

cities become "decrepit"...people who can afford it move away..job seekers from countryside move into city.."investors" buy up decrepit housing & renovate to sell/rent to them until people who moved away have some money and miss "home"..

Poor folks who had to stay behind, get priced out of their rentals:(

[Earth_First]

2. City of Rochester bulldozed three riverside city blocks to make way for $250,000+ apartments

It's happening regularly nationwide.

[tech3149]

4. Glad you noticed

Decades ago they started gentrification in Harlem. Ever wonder why Clinton put his office there? They started the same thing in Newark NJ and with Booker as mayor it really got kicked into high gear.

[Brigid]

5. It's kind of hard to miss.

That million-dollar condo building is not the only one in downtown Indy now; there are two or three others. One was once one of those stuffy old men's clubs. Others, while not as costly as those, are still out of reach for most people, including myself. Happily, I found a place north of downtown with easy access to transportation. It's right on the flight path to the airport and has abalcony, so I have taken up plane-watching as a new hobby. :)

[WCGreen]

7. With Cleveland, they have been trying to reinvigorate the downtown

area for decades...

It's finally taking root because the industrial part of Cleveland has left almost completely.

There were so many empty buildings to work with.

Downtown has really turned itself around.

The reason I think Cleveland's reawakening will last is because Cleveland State built a huge resident living area, the downtown theaters were saved and renovated and there is the lake front.

Plus they are adding a Casino to the mix.

It's the ultimate good thing because hardly anyone is being displaced. All the stuff is redoing old office or hotels or warehouses that were laying empty.

Urban renewal can be a good thing