Having said this, communities throughout the nation really don't
want affordable housing and the suburbs that encourage office
and retail developments can get quite creative about it. George
is right that most suburbs don't want too many children and
don't even want to provide the ability for lower wage employees
to live in them.
You got that half-right. They don't want lower wage employees; the median
income in an average suburb here is double the median in the "city", and in
the best ones it's triple.
However, the reason they don't want lower wage earners, besides elitism, is
that income levels and crime rates are inversely related. Our inner-city
schools get 50% more tax revenue per kid, yet have all kinds of gang and
drug problems, low test scores, etc. The suburbs don't want those problems
spreading to their areas, so they put up zoning obstacles to prevent
low-income folks from moving out of the city. Now some are also passing
ordinances on maximum occupancy, citizenship checks, criminal background
checks, minimum deposits/down payments, etc. But, of course, they need
subsidized freeways so all those poor people can come out to clean their
toilets, mow their lawns, and raise their children...
S
--
Stephen Sprunk "Those people who think they know everything
CCIE #3723 are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
K5SSS --Isaac Asimov
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